Year end and the beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock of your life, celebrate your accomplishments, and make plans for changes in the areas of your life where you’d like to feel more happy and fulfilled. An effective way to do this is a Personal Retreat; a rejuvenating morning or afternoon for life planning. A time for reflection to help you begin the year, clear, focused, and grounded.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to guide your retreat. If you’d like a more in-depth explanation, you can listen to an audio discussion on this topic between me and Janet Taylor of “Totally Organized” radio at http://bit.ly/uydRGZ.
.
Questions to reflect on and answer are:
1. What were your finest moments over the past year?
2. What were your biggest disappointments?
3. What did you learn and what would you like to do differently?
4. How are you getting in your own way? How are you limiting yourself? What do you say to yourself to explain these limitations? How can you be more empowered?
5. What are your personal values – and how well are you living your values?
6. How satisfied are you in the different areas/roles of your life? Career? Friends/family? Fun/recreation? Health? Finance? Personal growth? Physical environment? Romance/significant other? Or other areas?
7. Which area(s) of your life will be your major focus next year?
8. What are your top goals for the New Year?
9. How can you give yourself structure and support to ensure you achieve your goals?
Whether or not you answer every question in detail, allowing yourself time to reflect is a relaxing and rejuvenating process that will help you have a deeper sense of who you are and your purpose. From that place of clarity, you will find it much easier to guide your future into directions that will be uniquely rewarding for you.