One of my favourite things to do at the end of each year is my Annual Review.
Reflecting on the year gone by is such a worthwhile exercise.
Looking back allows you to see clearly what worked and what didn’t work in the year gone by but it also paves the way for clear, focused and intentional goal setting for the year ahead.
But first – WHY!
WHY is your Annual Review so important.
Simon Sinek is famous for his brilliant TED Talk ‘How great leaders inspire action with over 13 million views on YouTube.
In this video, Simon talks about the importance of knowing your WHY in terms of everything you do. When it comes to everything in your life, your WHY is your first step to success!
Here are 5 reasons WHY I think your Annual Review deserves to be your priority,
- Your Annual Review slows you down giving you time & space to think
Reflection of any kind allows us to stop moving forward, to be still in the present moment and to give the necessary time and space required to learn from the past.
Not to dwell on or judge the past, but to take the learnings from it to move forward with more knowledge, focus, intention & purpose.
When was the last time you took a few hours to look back and reflect on your life?
Do you give yourself the gift of time and space to learn from reflection?
2.Your Annual Review allows you to acknowledge and celebrate your successes
Do you celebrate your successes or do you move through life at the speed of light, not looking back to reflect on anything?
We make progress in our lives all day every day yet we are sometimes so busy and focused on getting things done that we don’t see all our wins & successes.
Carrying out your Annual Review gives you the time and space to acknowledge and celebrate the progress you have made in the year gone by.
This in turn will get you thinking about all of the amazing wins and successes you have every single day of which we all have so many.
3.Your Annual Review allows you to understand what contributes to your success so you can take action to create more
There are many reasons why we are successful at some things and not successful at others.
Have you ever sat down and reflected on your successes and really thought about how they happened.
Was it something you did alone or something you got support with?
Was it a bit of pot luck or did you plan meticulously for it?
When we understand what contributes to our success, we can build on this to bring more success into our lives.
Reflecting on your success supports you to create an action plan that will build on the success you already enjoy!
4.Your Annual Review allows you to acknowledge challenges that got in the way of your success
Things don’t always work out how we plan or how we want them to.
Even the best plans don’t work out, this is a normal part of life.
Acknowledging your challenges is the first step to overcoming them & ensuring you don’t come up against them again and if you do, you are better prepared.
Sometimes we don’t want to face our challenges however it is from our challenges that we can learn so much and grow and evolve as human beings!
5.Your Annual Review allows you to understand what contributed to these challenges and take action to turn challenges into successes
Challenges are a normal part of life and business, it is how we deal with them that determines our ability to overcome them.
Understanding what caused the challenges goes a long way to dealing with and overcoming them in a healthy way!
Challenges are your stepping stones to success and so learning from them makes stepping over those stones that bit easier!
Taking action from what you learn will turn challenges into opportunities!
I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the year gone by and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the year ahead.
Thanks for reading,
Siobhain
x x
If you want to carry out your own annual review, download your Annual Review Workbook below 😊