This past December I noticed that all of my favorite podcasters were doing a year end review on their shows. A year end review is when you would take a moment to reflect on what went well and what didn’t over the past year. The pod casters would go over what they accomplished and where they failed so they could learn from it.
At first I really wasn’t into the episode because I didn’t feel like it was something I could benefit or learn from. But, by the end of that first episode I realized just how wrong I was. The whole concept of what they were doing was such a GREAT tool for improvement. Taking a minute to stop and reflect on the past year to get a better “birds eye view” of what ACTUALLY happened, rather than evaluating it while your in the middle of it.
I am not kidding when I say this, every single December I eat too much, I party a lot, and then January comes and I’m NOT happy and at that point I’m already starting to think about the year to come. Not once have I ever taken a minute to stop and evaluate the year that just happened. It sounds bizarre, but I truly never take time for reflection. I am always too focused on how to fix everything I just screwed up in December and am looking forward to next years goals.
Also, a year is a long ass time and I can confidently say I forget most of it. I can barely remember my social security number and that never changes, let alone my weekly and monthly accomplishments over a year. When an obstacle comes up I will figure out how to overcome it or just trudge my way through it. Whether I fail or succeed, in the end it is over and I move on. I don’t really dwell on things too much, that’s how I have learned to survive. I never take the time to stop and reflect on what just happened, unless there was a major blow up or something really bad happened.
But seriously, how often do we all do this? How often do we not take the time to stop and reflect on what just happened in our life and just keep soldiering on? Sometimes that is completely necessary, even vital, but I think once in a while it’s good to force yourself to stop and think about what REALLY just happened. Taking the time to pat ourselves on the back or figure out how we can do better is essential
As I mentioned before, a year is a really freaking long time and because I really do so easily forget everything I do, I thought it would make sense for me to try to do this quarterly. The reason I thought of this was because in February/March I started noticing how “off course” I was in some of my goals and how “on course” I was in other areas of my life, and I started to change my ways a bit. That’s when I started thinking that we should all being doing this quarterly review, so give ourselves credit where credit is due towards accomplishing our goals and then getting ourselves back on track in the area’s we were lacking.
