I’ve been adding goals to my Life List for more than two decades. Those goals can sometimes be small changes with big impact, or goals which might require quite a lot of energy and time to accomplish. In addition to those goals, I find doing yearly focusing and goal-setting, as well as reflecting on the year gone by and the one to come, to be really important as well. I have been doing a regular year in review for many years, something I’ve been calling “Your Year.” 

I find January is the perfect introspective time to look back and forward and working on my Your Year brightens up the often gray days. There have been years where I haven’t gotten to the practice in the first month of the year, but I still do it. 

“Your Year” is one part looking back at the year which just passed, one part looking forward, choosing a focus word, and some goal setting for the upcoming year in four areas: health, relationships, wealth/financial, and career.

The reflective questions are a great way to reflect on the previous year and also include some hopes and thoughts about the upcoming year. Re-reading the reflective questions year after year are a fabulous way to see a snapshot of your life and what you were feeling. And it’s just for you. The reflection is also a great complement to the goal-setting exercise.

Feel free to do all or only a few parts of Your Year. I wanted to share it with you in case it’s something you’d like to add to your reflective and planning routines.

Here’s the Google Doc you can copy to your own account and modify (don’t try to edit it directly, just click File > Make a Copy or Download) or alternatively here’s the PDF version to print out and work on. I give additional instructions and thoughts in the document directly.

If you end up using this exercise, please let me know! I’d love to hear if it was useful, and if you feel up to sharing, what goal or focus word you’re most excited about for this new decade!

*Hat tip to Anuschka Rees for her reflective questions she posted years ago.