Show Notes – Ep 012: How to do a year-end review and end the year strong!

This week on the podcast I share a year-end review process that you can use to celebrate your accomplishments, learn from your mistakes, develop more self-trust, and set yourself up to make the new year your best year yet! I also share two other things that you can do to finish the year off strong!

This is the first episode in a series about how to set goals, resolutions, and intentions for the new year (and beyond) that you actually follow through with!

Below is a brief outline of the episode. Please tune in to the Happy Me Happy Earth podcast above or wherever you get your podcasts to listen to the full episode and hear examples from my life.

By incorporating year-end reviews into my life I’ve been able to grow tremendously over the past several years, so I’m excited to share this with you.

Why it is important to do a year-end review?

Completing a year-end review helps us finish the year off strong and develop a sense of closure so we can fully step into the next season of our life. It helps us to identify and stop repeating old patterns that aren’t in our best interest. Through this process, we can learn from our past and move forward instead of setting the same resolutions and intentions year after year and never actually making progress.

An annual review, when done right, can help you get into the growth mindset so that you can experience more success in your life and live more intentionally. And, it sets the groundwork for developing new years resolutions, goals, and/or intentions that you will actually stick to!

There is also an interesting phenomenon called the peak-end rule. Our memory of an experience, situation, or even an entire year, is largely based on how we feel at its peak and end. This means that by reflecting on your accomplishments and lessons learned from the past year you can potentially reframe your memory of the year in a more positive light. How cool is that?

How long should my year-end review take?

Year-end review questions:

In the podcast episode I dive into each of these questions and give examples, so please tune in if you want a little more support as you reflect on these questions.

1. 1. What goals/resolutions (if any) did you set last year?
   2. Did you stick to your resolution or intention? Did you reach your goal?
   3. What worked last year? Challenge yourself to think of 10 – 15 accomplishments and other things you can celebrate from the past year.
   4. What didn’t work? Why didn’t these things work? What thoughts or beliefs led you to this outcome?
   5. What lessons did you learn?

Be sure to write down your answers to these questions so that you can refer back to them as we take the lessons we’ve identified in our year-end review and apply them to our goal-setting and planning for the new year. I’ll be sharing how we can do that in a future episode.

Other Tips to Finish the Year Off Strong:

Finish a project

Pick a little project that you really wanted to complete this year and finish it! Don’t overwhelm yourself with something huge. Bringing a project to completion can help you finish the year off strong, get a sense of accomplishment, and begin developing the identity that you are someone who finishes tasks.

Take some time off

Last, but definitely not least, make sure that you give yourself some time to rest during this season.

Here in the northern hemisphere, the trees have paused their growth, some animals are hibernating, and others like the squirrels are spending most of their time curled up in their little nests resting until spring rolls around. We too are animals. We too are nature.

Let’s take a lesson from nature and use this time to rest and recharge ourselves.

For many women and other oppressed groups making time for rest is a radical act. Our patriarchal society and growth-obsessed economy have convinced many of us that if we’re not constantly working or serving others then we are not worthy and we’re not good people. Incorrect.

I’ll be diving into this much deeper in a future podcast episode but for now please remember this: Every time that you make time to rest and take care of yourself you are smashing some patriarchy! When you rest you take your power back.

Rest is one of THE most important things that you can do in order to set yourself up for an awesome 2023 and beyond.

Conclusion

This past year was the best year of my life so far. If you read my newsletter then you know it was not without its challenges, but when we live our lives with intention we can turn those challenges into to massive personal growth.

I truly believe that next year will be my best year yet, and I plan on bringing as many of you with me as I can!

And it all starts with what I shared with you today:

• • Complete a year-end review
  • Finishing a project
  • Take some time off and rest

Be sure to tune in to the rest of this podcast series to learn how to apply the lessons you’ve learned from your year-end review to your goal-setting process for next year.

Let’s connect!

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Feedback? Topic suggestions? Ah-ha moments? I’d love to hear from you!

Please email me at hello@theevapeterson.com

Thanks for listening and/or reading!

Featured image: Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Podcast music: “Bounce” by Coma-Media on Pixbay