How To Do A Year End Review, Set Goals + Plan for 2020

This is such an exciting time of year! I love the feeling of starting fresh and new beginnings. As we wrap up 2019 and move into a new decade, I wanted to share how I do my yearly life review. I think it’s so import to reflect on the past year and see how far we’ve come and where we want to go. This post has an accompanying YouTube video to help explain the concepts further.

A quick note that I mentioned in the video as well — you can start new whenever you want! Although it’s easy and convenient to use the new year as a marker, don’t feel bound by arbitrary timelines! If you find this post on a random Tuesday in July and decide that tomorrow will be your new beginning, that’s awesome! A few years ago, I decided that February is the new January because I wasn’t quite ready to start my new year in January. (Check out my sticker set for lots of great tools to help you plan and start fresh!)

So, check out the video and then come back to this post to complete the exercises, journal prompts and questions below.

Prepare

In the video, I mention 3 simple things you can do to prepare yourself and your space for this process. Preparation is key, because this is a process. It’s not a simple 15 minute exercise, this will take some time.

Create Timeline

Once you’ve printed what I showed in the video, then you need to create your timeline. Write all milestones — you decide what’s important. New job, new love or new house? A fantastic trip? Write down all the significant moments in your life, month by month.

Reflect & Analyze

Reflection is very important part of a cycle. First, we plan and then must take action. But the final step is reflection and reassessment. We review our actions and determine if we want to do anything differently.

Areas to consider:

  • Personal
  • Professional / Career
  • Spiritual
  • Relationships
  • Health
  • Home

Questions to consider:

  • What goals are you most proud of? Why?
  • What risks did you take? How did they pay off?
  • What roadblocks, limiting beliefs and obstacles did you overcome? How did you do it? What did you learn?
  • What new healthy habits did you start?
  • Think about growth. Can you see a visible pattern of growth over the year? What looks different from January to December?
  • What were your 2-3 biggest accomplishments? What do you think contributed?
  • What new skills did you gain?
  • Who did you meet? What new relationships did you develop
  • Which 2-3 people had the biggest impact on your life in the past year? What made them significant?
  • What are 2-3 overarching themes from the past year? What areas did you end up focusing on more than others?
  • What were the top lessons you learned?
  • What are 3-5 highlights of the year?
  • What are 3-5 words or phrases that describe your year?
  • How do you want to feel in the new year?
  • Where do you see your at this time next year?
  • What’s your ideal growth trajectory?
  • What are some risks you can take to be better and bolder this year?

Celebrate your accomplishments! Take some time during this period of reflection to celebrate your wins!

Planning for 2020

You have all this new data about the past year, now what? Use all this valuable information to make 2020 even bigger and better! Let’s plan for the new year!

Questions to consider:

  • What are your goals for this coming year in each of the areas you analyzed above?
  • Of those areas, what are 3 that you want to really focus on?
  • In what ways do you want next year to look different?
  • Use visualization and future-casting to write what 2020 looked like for you! Don’t censor and dream big! In this exercise, there is absolutely nothing standing in your way. No limits. Just think about exactly what you want and write it down!
  • What do you want to leave behind in 2019 and not take with you into the new year?
  • What habits will you stop? What habits do you want to begin?
  • How will you step out of your comfort zone and face your fears?
  • Which people in your life do you want to devote more attention to?

Tools To Help

Planner

Blank Monthly Calendar (Just Google)

Learn more about CEO Sunday

February Is The New January Sticker Set

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