At the end of each year, and on their birthdays, many people take time to reflect and look ahead. If you’re one of these people, or if you would like to start getting the benefits from a little self-reflection, I have some great questions for you.
These questions can be looked at once a year, once a month or whenever you’re looking for some direction in your life. I invite you to take a good hard look at your life more than once a year. You’ll get a lot more out of your life if you’re more conscious about what you’re creating.
These questions have been designed to help you to take time to complete the year and to formulate the new year from a clean slate. By working on the following questions, you will complete this year powerfully so you can have the room to build a new “me” for the new year.
Looking at this past year:
1. What do I want to be acknowledged for?
2. What did I accomplish?
3. What did I want to accomplish that I did not accomplish? (Do I still want to do this?)
4. What did I say I would do that I didn’t do? (Do I still want to do this?)
5. Who do I need to be in communication with?
6. What were my biggest disappointments?
7. What did I learn? – List 3 lessons which will make the most difference if you remember them this year?
(See them as guidelines for next year).
Changing patterns:
1. How do you limit yourself and how can you transform these actions to be powerful?
2. What do you say to yourself to explain your failures? (These false beliefs are your limiting paradigm).
3. List your limiting paradigm.
4. List your new paradigm which must be personal, positive, present tense, powerfully and simply stated, pointing to an exciting future.
5. Read your new paradigm out loud when you awake and before going to sleep each day. Teach your subconscious that this is your paradigm.
Looking ahead:
1. What are your personal values? What is most important to you in your life? What drives you?
2. What roles do you play in your life? Rate each role on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most important.
3. Where is your life out of balance? If you could put one problem behind you, once and for all, what would it be?
4. Which role is your major focus for next year? (In what role do you want a breakthrough performance? If you could put a check mark by one of these roles at the end of next year showing, showing that you felt good about how you are playing that role, which one would it be?)
5. What are your goals for each role?
The way that this works is that for at least a week or two you ask yourself the above questions. I write them down and do it in writing several different times. Then after doing that for all of the above questions, you answer one final question:
What do I want to accomplish and who do I want to be in the coming year?