Four Essential Areas To Consider For A Meaningful Year-end Reflection

The end of the year comes with mixed emotions for many. We are excited about the promise of a brand new year but can’t help reflecting on how our current year has been. 

As you spend time reflecting and evaluating this year, a few criteria are essential to consider. This helps you be fair in reflecting on the year and the self. 

Most people evaluate their year based on what appears to be most important. It usually is in one or more aspects of their lives. For a true reflection, we must look at multiple areas that are the backbone of our overall well-being. 

The four essential areas are work, family, health, and community. These are not listed here in any particular order. As we reflect upon the year, let’s look into each area. 

Reflecting On Our Work

When we think about growth in our work, we think of pay raises, promotions, and anything else that makes us look good to others. However, when reflecting on work, we must look more deeply. None of the four areas is truly independent of the other. For reflecting on work, here are a few factors to consider:

1. Your work may have progressed differently than you liked this year. Maybe you had a child this year or decided to care for a family member, and you chose to take a back seat while you give all your focus to something else. This in no way reflects your capability. 
2. If you had to leave your job due to a lack of opportunities, a layoff, or a loss of promotion, it is certainly different from what you expected. It may seem like a setback, but it probably landed you in a role that serves you better overall. 
3. If your work has indeed seen the progress you have dreamed of, let’s ask ourselves if we are at peace. Has our progress come at the cost of our health or family? It is a time of reflection, after all. Let’s look at the changes needed to make the next year different. 
4. With the work you have been doing, are your mind and heart in harmony with each other? Is your work fulfilling and purposeful and serving you long term? This is the fundamental question when reflecting on our work. If not, what changes do we need to make us more at peace with ourselves?

Reflecting On Family

Family is something that’s always there, right? So why would you take the time to reflect on it? Our connections, even with family members, when not nurtured, weaken over time. 

Your family may or may not be your relatives. It’s your closest folks you rely on and devote time to you unconditionally. It’s what makes up our inner core. What affects them affects us. 

As we reflect on the year, let’s look at our relationship with our closest folks. What is your relationship with your children or spouse, and how has it changed from the beginning vs. now? Maybe it’s not all an upward trajectory. It could be one step forward and two steps back. We are the hardest with the ones we love.

Relationships with our family require constant reapplying and digging up to find compassion and understanding. So as you look forward to the coming year, think about the lessons you can learn from your relationships that you can apply towards next year.

Reflecting On Our Health

When I reflect on health, I think about mental and physical health. 

When thinking about mental health, think about your mental well-being and growth. Your experiences for this year are unique from any other year. Through reflection, you can develop your self-awareness and growth. Some questions you may want to ask yourself:

1. Have some experiences been stressful for you? What made them difficult? How did you cope with it? Think about strategies you used that you can tap into in the future. 
2. Are there things that brought you joy this year? What is it about them that made you happy? These circumstances are great opportunities to learn more about yourself. 
3. Think about the experiences that stretched you and helped you grow. Was it a book, a conversation, or a role? You can reflect to see if there are things you want to continue in the next year. 

Using our experiences to learn more about ourselves helps us make more informed choices and lead happier lives. 

Our physical well-being is as important as our mental well-being in our reflection of the year. 

One way to reflect on our progress is by looking at the sizes of our clothes. But it isn’t an accurate representation of our health. We can ask ourselves if we have loved our bodies this year. The first step to making any lasting change is to love our bodies. We can love them the way they are in their present state.

We can also pay attention to how our bodies are making us feel. The changes that we want to make can from inside out rather than outside in.

On my part, I could have done a lot more justice to my body this year than I did. So, it let me know in more than one way how it could impact my life if I ignored it. Let it be energy levels or immunity.

Reflecting On The Community

Even in this digital age, we need to connect with people in person. To do things together and fulfill our sense of belonging to a community. 

As we reflect on the year, we want to think about our connections with our communities. How integrated have we been? Are there things we can do to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones and establish new connections? 

Playing a role in the community is beyond maintaining our current connections. Can we do something to make someone feel welcome in a community? Can we be of some service to our broader communities, your running group, your neighborhood, etc.? We can use our reflection on communities from this year and apply it forward. 

When reflecting on your year, consider all four aspects of your life. One may have thrived while the other area suffered. That’s just how life is. Sometimes, we make intentional choices knowing the other area might suffer. Sometimes, our choices have unknown consequences. We can reflect, learn, grow and move forward. 

When thinking about the new year and planning for it, let’s take the wisdom from this year and try to incorporate it into our values so we can have a fulfilling new year.