Reflect and Reset for Better Strategic Planning
Reflect and Reset
Reflecting on your year gives perspective. You see your wins, growth and challenges in a broader context. You are reminded to celebrate your achievements and acknowledge your challenges. A focused intentional reflection helps you reset so you can take your next steps with confidence.
Regularly pausing to reflect helps us learn, grow, appreciate and move forward in a way that is meaningful. Reflection can take various forms, but implementing a reflective practice that works for you is a powerful way to recognise what you have done and where you have been. Whether it is in business or life, reflection helps us to make sense of things and notice patterns. It helps us to understand where we have come from so we can choose better where we want to go.
A simple daily journaling practice is a great way to build the habit of reflection and for a big picture view an annual reflective practice is powerful. Reflecting on your year helps you get perspective. You will see your wins, growth and challenges in a broader context. An intentional annual reflection can remind you to celebrate your achievements and acknowledge your challenges. You can choose what to keep and what to let go of. You get to choose what you want to focus on going forward.
If you are ready to reflect on the past twelve months and would like to experiment with a reflective exercise I will share one that I use as part of my 'Reflect & Reset' Day. This exercise is a helpful way to acknowledge, honour and learn from your experiences of the past year. You can view your experiences and actions in line with your values and overall vision. It is also an important step to take before setting goals for the following twelve months.
Although this exercise is usually used to reflect on your whole life and the events of the year overall, it may be applied more specifically to your business or career. This exercise includes an 'emotions graph' and explores feelings so give yourself the time and space you need to process your experiences.
You Will Need:
A pen and ruler
2x sheets of paper - 1x Letter or A4 size, and one larger if you have it (A3 or Tabloid works well)
Your digital or paper calendar for the past year
Your social media accounts/personal blog and/or dated photos
A quiet, comfortable space and your beverage of choice
A journal, friend or group with whom to reflect on your insights afterwards
Around 1x hour of your time
Exercise - Part 1:
Browse through your calendar or social media images and select one to two significant events from each month. Hold back from judging whether they were positive or negative. Simply try to choose those that stand out the most. Ideally pick one event per month, but I always find this difficult and sometimes pick up to three.
Now take the smaller letter/A4 sized paper and list the names of the months down the lefthand side. Add your selected events in chronological order next to their respective months.
Turn your second, larger sheet of paper to landscape orientation for the timeline. Draw a ruled line through the middle of the second page and divide it into 12 equal segments. Label each segment with the months. (See the timeline image below.)
The space above the timeline represents positive feelings, emotions and judgments. The space below is for events that you view or experienced as negative. Represent each event from your list with a dot. Place it either above or below the timeline in its chronological position. The closer to neutral you feel about it, the closer your dot should be to the timeline across the middle of the page. For the worst experience ever your dot would be close to the bottom on the page, and the absolute best experience of your life would be represented by a dot very near the top of your landscape page. Remember this is your experience of the event and the positioning of the dots represents your intensity of feelings.
Once you have a dot for each event on the page, join the dots together to form a zig-zag or wave. Here is a completed graph to help visualise it. I usually add a short name to each event on my graph. This is helpful for when I review it.
Sample year’s timeline with ‘emotions graph’
Exercise - Part 2:
Now, the reflection! When we do this exercise as part of the 'Reflect & Reset' workshop we spend time as a group discussing what we noticed or learned before considering what's next for us in life and work (aka vision and goals). You may find it helpful to share your insights with a friend, or to journal about what you discovered. The following questions may be used to guide the process.
What stood out or surprised you the most?
What are you most proud of?
Was there a particular area of your life or work that caused greater impact or took greater focus or attention through the year (eg. relationships, education/learning, business)? Was that level of impact or focus intentional and in line with your goals or values?
If you got this far - congratulations! I would love to hear how you benefitted from doing this exercise. Share your insights, surprises, or anything else through the contact page. Please also reach out via the contact page or schedule a brief consult call if you would like individual support or support for a group to complete this exercise.