As a ruthless self-improver, I’ve tried so many “life review” and “vision and alignment” sessions and tools. Many of them are good and beneficial, and worth attention no matter what date is showing on the calendar.
But I’ve read enough to know that happiness comes from gratitude, attention on the present moment, and connection to others, not from the attainment of a particular goal. It’s the journey, not the destination, and all that.
So for years my practice has been to think back on the year and note the moments, the relationships, and yes, the accomplishments that felt meaningful. I recently pulled up a box of old journals from the basement. In 2002, I reflected on the prior year and the moments that stood out included, “taking an MBA finance course and realizing I could do hard financial analysis (& digging it)” and “Popham Beach on a bright snow day” and “success with houseplants” — plus a number of relationships or experiences with friends.
And then I do a little thinking about the year to come. Having the warm gratitude for the past year, and the perspective of valuing relationships and small wins and moments of beauty makes it less likely that my aspirations for the coming year will be entirely hustle-and-grind achievements or self-critical flaw corrections. It feels more natural to me to think about the lovely moments I just celebrated, and the time and space to enable more of those. Of course there are always hustle-and-grind ideas in my head and the challenge of reining in my many flaws. But those are more of an ongoing practice, not a new year thing.
If you’d benefit from a guided reflection practice, I recently came across this 4 page template from facilitator Jan Keck on LinkedIn, and I think it’s a nice framework. Let me know if you try it.
