#53: Turning over a tough year

Some short thoughts on how to review and close out a tough year, and set ourselves up for a powerful, generative new year.

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Completion questions: remembering and reviewing

"Remember" questions

• What was your favorite music playlist?
• Who was your favorite artist?
• What was your favorite song?
• What was your favorite concert?
• What were your favorite photos?
• What were your favorite videos?
• What was your favorite movie?
• What were your favorite articles?
• What was your favorite travel?
• What were your favorite experiences?
• What was your favorite speaking, teaching, awards, or recognition?
• What were your favorite memories?
• What was your favorite restaurant?
• What was your favorite meal?
• What was your favorite first meeting?

Past year calendar review

This is an exercise I learned from Tim Ferriss, and it's great. If you do nothing else, I'd do this.

Simply put, you go through the entire past year on your calendar, and make a list of the people, activities, and commitments that triggered peak positive/negative emotions on a weekly or monthly basis. Then, find the 20% of each list that produced the most reliable or powerful peaks. Proactively schedule the positive ones now, and avoid/reduce the negative ones.

Areas of life review

Look holistically across your life. Don't solely focus on your career. I tend to go through the following eight areas of life:

• health & wellbeing
• creative expression & fun (hobby, travel, adventure, etc)
• wealth / finances
• relationships (family, friends, romance, other)
• personal systems (habits, routines, processes) & personal development
• career/mission/work
• emotions / spiritual
• mind

For each area, I ask the following five questions (I don't necessarily answer all of them every time though):

• what was accomplished?
• what wasn't accomplished?
• what worked?
• what didn't work?
• what was missing?

Lastly, I like to have a freeform section that is just "is there anything else I need to say about this to feel complete?" I'm often surprised at what comes out here, so don't underestimate this question.

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