New Year New Me - Reflecting On The Past Year For New Years Resolutions

With the end of the year fast approaching this is often the time of year that people start to think about their goals and dreams for the coming year. New years resolutions date back almost 4,000 years ago to when the Babylonians used the new year to resolve debts and start each new year afresh. This has led more and more to the modern concept of new years resolutions.

Nowadays, we use resolutions to do or not do something in order to accomplish a personal goal or break a habit we wish to change. The end of the year often is a time to reflect on the past year and consider ways to improve oneself as a new year begins. An important part of this process is taking the time to truly reflect and understand your past year so that you can grow as a person in the upcoming year. To start we will look at reflecting on the past year so that in future articles we can consider New Year New Me challenges, resolutions, and goals!

Reflecting on the past year

There are many ways to reflect on the past year and each person needs to find the style that works best for them. We have compiled a couple of different ways to organize your time to reflect on the past year so you can use that reflection to create great new year resolutions.

Get comfortable - Head to your favorite comfy chair. Get your favorite reflection music cued up. Grab your beverage of choice, perhaps a tea or a glass of wine, to settle in for some focused reflection time.

Meditate - For many people starting with meditation can be a good way to clear one’s mind and get ready to truly focus. (Join a group meditation before your reflection Social Hour - Meditating Together or the Indian Social Hour on Meditating Together.)

Journal reflections - Some people like pen and paper for reflection. If you have a journal make sure your favorite pen is ready for some writing

Online note reflection to stay with you - Those more digitally inclined may want to reflect in Google Notes App or another note-taking app on your phone. The one advantage of this is that you can look at them throughout the year, and reflect even after your main reflection moment. (Learn some of these Google tools for notes and organization in Organize Yourself Using Google Calendar, Notes,Tasks.

Research reflection - For those that like to back everything up with facts a deep dive into the past year can combine with pulling up past documents. This may mean looking back on photos, messages, financial records, journaling, and other ideas to really effectively reflect on that. Then these can be organized into an excel form or other database like reflection. (If you need tips on Excel, join Excel Basics)

Interview friends and family - Personal reflection is important, but sometimes it helps as well to interview friends and family to help jog one’s memory about the past year. Asking some of these past questions or others’ perspectives on ourselves and be a great way to get a second perspective on our own self-reflection.

Draw or map it - Not everyone is a word person, some people prefer to draw out or map their reflection. This can be a great way to visualize your past year. (Introduction to Art Journaling can show you some tips and tricks in your artistic reflections.)

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What should you reflect on?

Reflection comes in a lot of forms and sometimes people can get bogged down with the negative, but reflection should be more holistic and focusing both on positive, negative, and areas for growth. Consider these concepts as you are doing your reflection:

Recognize your accomplishments for what you did well.
Reflect on the lessons you learned
Consider new knowledge and skills you acquired
Acknowledge your mistakes and missteps
Analyze how you could do better moving forward in areas you didn’t do as well
Reflect on what gave you joy and what you’re truly passionate about
Think about areas you would like to grow in

30 questions to help you reflect

Need some help to get started with some great reflection questions? Here are 30 questions to get the ball rolling on your reflection of 2020.

What was the most important goal that you achieved this year?
What was the most important goal you failed to achieve this year that you still want to achieve in the future?
What fitness goals did you accomplish this year?
What career goals did you accomplish this year?
What relationship goals did you accomplish this year?
What new skills did you acquire this year?
What are the mistakes you made this year and what did you learn from them?
What obstacles or challenges did you overcome this year?
What did you learn about yourself?
What did you learn about others?
What was the most fun you had all year?
What was your best memory this year?
What was your biggest regret or disappointment this year?
What is your favorite new purchase all year?
What purchase did you most regret all year?
What new positive habit did you adopt this year?
What negative habit did you drop this year?
What was one time you stood up for something you believed in this year?
If you could change one thing about this year what would it be?
What was the scariest thing you faced this year?
What was the coolest thing you did this year?
How did you grow emotionally this year?
How was your physical health this year?
How was your financial well-being this year?
How did you grow spiritually this year?
How did you contribute to your community this year?
What did you spend the most time doing this year?
What did you wish you had spent more time doing this year?
How did you get outside of your comfort zone this year?
What are you most grateful for this year?

As you consider your past year in the upcoming articles, we will be a reflection on resolutions. You can count on the GetSetUp community to help fulfill your ideas and encourage accountability!