December is here, and with that, it’s time for a bit of yearly introspection.
While I’m a big fan of living in the moment, I find it’s also very useful to take some time every now and then to pull back and look at the big picture of your life. And the end of the year is the perfect time to do just that.
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You can do this in a lot of different ways, but I’m going to share my favourite way below. Of course, if you already have another way of evaluating your life as a whole, feel free to continue using that. But if you don’t regularly (at least once a year) take a day (or even several days) off to evaluate your life, you might want to start this habit now.
This isn’t a thing to be hurried through, so set aside a day on the weekend, or even several days around the holidays, to really think through this in detail. Because a couple of hours spent figuring out what’s important in your life and where you want to focus your energy will have a much greater impact on your effectiveness next year than a few hours spent working.
Life isn’t about doing a lot of stuff, it’s about doing the right things that will make you happy and fulfilled. 
Alright, here’s how I suggest you do the End-of-Year Life Review. Feel free to bookmark this post and come back to it later when you have the spare time to go through this properly.
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1. List all the awesome things you’ve accomplished in the past year
I find that’s it’s extremely useful to first focus on all the awesome stuff you have already accomplished, rather than worry about all the things you have not achieved yet. It gives you a nice big bump of motivation, to see you how much can be done in a year.
As the saying goes, most people overestimate what they can do in a day, but underestimate what they can do in a year.
Yes, this might easily take you half an hour, an hour, or even longer. It will be well worth it
Only when you have finished basking in your own awesomeness and all the great stuff you have done in the past year, and are happy with how much time you spent thinking about that, you can move on to the next bit. Figuring out where you are in your life, where you would like to be, and how to bridge that gap.
2. Make a list of the main areas of your life
Next, I’d like you to make a list of the main areas of your life which you have been focusing your time and energy in the past year. This might include:
- career
- relationships
- fun/social
And anything else you can think of. I won’t give you too many examples, because I want you to think about this for yourself. For example, one of your main areas might end up “guitar playing”, if it’s really that important to you that it deserves its own category.
Note that if there’s an area of your life you haven’t been focusing on but would really like to, that belongs on the list as well.
Once you have this list, I’d like you to narrow it down to 4-8 of the really main areas. This will allow you to focus on each of them in turn, and figure out what you want to be doing in each.
Go ahead, write them down.
3. Rate each of those areas from 1-10 based on how satisfied you are with it
Next, I’d like you to give it some thought, and rate each of those areas on a scale from 1 to 10, ten being the highest, based on how satisfied you are with your current situation. Note, it’s not how good you are, or how successful, but how satisfied you are with the current situation.
For example, if you have almost no social life because you spend all your days working, but you’re okay with that for the next couple of months because it’s a very important stage of your business, then you might give yourself a 10 on your social life.
Take a few moments to do this now.
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Chances are, some of your areas did better than others. If you scored a 9 or a 10, you’re doing fine. An 8 is iffy, and anything from 7 below can definitely be improved.
Now, first have a look at all the areas where you scored 8 or above. You already seem to be pretty happy with how you’re doing there, so if you want, spend a bit of time making a grand plan of how you’re going to continue doing great in each of those areas. I trust that you’ll be fine doing this bit on your own
Then take a good long look at the areas you’re not very satisfied with, and pick which one you would like to begin improving first.
Take your time.
4. Apply The GROW Model to the areas of your life that scored 7 or below
The GROW Model is hands down the best way I’ve ever seen to structure your thinking to move smoothly from the big picture (What do you ultimately want? How does that compare to where you are now?), to coming up with lots of great creative ways to do that, to making a specific plan of action to turn those dreams into reality.
Start with the one area of your life where you would most like to change something. Go through the whole model with this area of your life in mind, no matter how long it takes, rather than jumping from one area to another, or trying to cover your whole life at once. Trust me, it will work better this way
And once you’ve done that… congratulations! You’re all set to have a clear plan of all the awesomeness you want to achieve in the upcoming year!
If you haven’t heard of the GROW Model yet, or are a bit fuzzy on the details, you can read about it here. Otherwise, go for it!
And that’s all. Enjoy!
