Yearly Reflection: 3 Simple Steps To Reflect on The Past Year and Grow in 2023
The year-end period is always a whirlwind and 2022 feels no different. In fact, if anything, things seem even more fast-paced, considering it’s been the most relatively “normal” year since 2019.
Before you get whipped away, take time to carry out a review of 2022 so you can head into 2023 with the right priorities and goals.
Health is holistic in entrepreneurship
Many company reviews are centred around processes, profits and performance.
Yet, at Lift Women, we know that the performance and health of our businesses are not siloed; it is intricately connected to the health of other areas of our life such as our personal and social life, our physical well-being and our finances.
With this in mind, we have created a yearly reflection that includes a powerful 3 step framework. It is simple enough to be doable, yet deep and diverse enough to be effective. You will be prompted to reflect and review on aspects of your social, personal, work and financial life, before setting process goals and action steps today to set up for 2023.
It’s time to take out your notebook, analog or digital, and dive into the yearly reflection!
Step 1. Reflection
Across the 4 areas, there are several questions to help you ascertain how 2022 went.
Social
As Jim Rohn says, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.”
Who you are around impacts how you think, what you say, what you do and who you become, ultimately setting the course of your life.
With this in mind, who were the 5 people you spoke to most and spent the most time with? Describe how each person made you feel in one word.
Personal
Time is our most valuable asset. It is the one thing we can’t get back and we can’t make more of. Many of us are privy to time management when it comes to our professional life. Yet, we don’t review how we spend our personal time nearly as often.
When you weren’t working in 2022, list the 3 ways you spent most of your time.
You might intuitively know the answers or you might need to flip through your diary or scroll through your calendar to get an accurate gauge. It can also help to ask someone close to you to avoid any cognitive distortions.
Work
As the writer Annie Dillard said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” The average person will spend a third of their life at work and as a female business owner, you’ll know that we spend even more than this planning and thinking about work.
If we want to achieve the highest quality of life possible, we therefore need to make our work the most fulfilling and successful it can be.
As a Lift Women member, we have no doubt this is on your radar! By taking the time to reflect now, you will keep gaining momentum.
Write down 2 proudest achievements and 2 key areas of opportunities.
Your key areas of opportunities could be a soft skill like your presentation skills, something logistical such as your website or something operational such as team management.
Finances
Money isn’t everything but numbers don’t lie. Your financial numbers are a strong indicator of what is going well and what needs more attention.
Yearly reflection on these key data points and write down how much, Importantly, write down how you feel about that number as well because $10,000 means differently from one person to another.
1. How much did you save?
2. How much was your business’ gross revenue?
3. How much was your business’ net profit?
Step 2. Review
Let’s revisit our answers with a more critical eye so we can hold on to what worked and replace what didn’t with more productive goals and behaviours.
Social
With your list of 5 people, write down if you want to spend more, less or the same amount of time with each person in 2023.
Ask yourself why – for example, he’s your oldest friend and friendship is important to you or your parent is ageing and family is your #1 priority.
If less, write down who you would prefer to spend time with instead. Again, explain why.
Personal
Next to the 3 ways you spent your time in 2022, write down if you want to invest more, less or the same amount of time to that activity in 2023.
Explain why – for example, eating out is socially replenishing for you and it also helps business-wise because you’re a food photographer or reading is your me-time and you need it to balance out your people-facing job.
If less, strike that activity out and replace it with what you’d rather do instead. Don’t forget to explain why!
Work
For your proudest achievements, list the reasons why each is so significant for you. For example, was it because of the people involved, skills acquired or the money you made? Notice any common threads.
For your areas of opportunities, brainstorm one thing you can do per area that will have the greatest impact on your business.
For example:
– you could enrol in a public speaking course to improve your presentation skills
– you could hire a web designer to modernise your website
Finances
Money is often overwhelming for many and so to keep it simple, revisit your savings, gross revenue and net profit figures and write down one behaviour that will boost each of them.
For example:
– to boost savings, you could cut down on how much you spend on clothing
– to boost gross revenue, you could pick up 5 extra recurring clients
– to boost net profit, you could review business subscriptions and cancel those you need least.
Step 3. Process goal-setting
You’re now 2 levels deep into your yearly reflection. You have a detailed understanding of what went well and what you’d like to improve, with even some ideas on how to improve them.
In this last step, we’re going to set process goals. These are specific, smaller actions that will ladder up to big outcomes.
Social
Time gets away from us and what doesn’t get booked in gets overlooked. For the 5 people you want to spend time with in 2023, pencil in your calendar now when you’d like to see them and what you’d like to do.
For example:
– Every second Thursday night is a midweek date night with your partner
– Every last weekend of the quarter is a family getaway
Personal
As the Chinese proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” We’re not going to wait until 1 January 2023 – we’re going to start now. For the 3 activities you want to start or continue investing time in, make a commitment to it now for sometime over the next 2 to 4 weeks.
For example:
– You want to spend more time exercising > send an enquiry to the run club you’ve been eyeing.
– You want to spend more time eating out with loved ones > book in a dinner for next week and during the dinner, make a wish list together of must-try restaurants.
Work
When looking at your top 2 achievements, what’s one small action you can do today to create more work wins like those in 2023?
For example, your 2022 proudest work achievement was because you delivered a project for a dream client. Today, you make a list of 3-5 more dream clients and start drafting a pitch for each. For your key areas of opportunities, take the first step in turning your ideas into reality. To continue with the above examples, send an enquiry to the public speaking course and web designer, requesting times and prices.
Finances
Set up an automated action that will start in January 2023* to contribute to the financial behaviours you listed. For example, you spend $50 less on clothing per month so you set up an automated transfer to put that $50 into your savings. This is an ongoing transfer that starts on Wednesday 4 January 2023.
*why not start now, in line with the Chinese proverb? It’s silly season after all! A little fun is warranted.
That’s a simple Yearly Reflection done. We’d love to know how you found this year-end evaluation! Share an Instagram Story or post with one of your 2022 reflections of 2023 goals and tag @liftwomengroup or message us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn with your thoughts and feedback.
