Prompt 36: Review

Do you make time for reviewing?

Many people put aside time to plan, make goals and to come up with resolutions for the new year ahead - but as important as setting new goals is the practice of reviewing how things have gone in the past.

With the end of the year fast approaching this week, I thought it might be good to have a prompt on reviewing.

I'll keep the prompt simple because I know a lot of us are either in a crazy busy rush to the end of the year or winding down for our summer vacation - but let me offer you a few suggestions on how to review the year that you've just had.

You might like to pick one of these areas or take one per day to review over the week.

1. Work, Rest and Play

One way to review the year is to consider how you went in specific categories.

One option for categories is to take the Work, Rest and Play mantra that we recently covered and review your year on how you went with each.

• Work - whatever work means to you - how did you go?
• Rest - did you create space for rejuvenation and rest this year? This might also connect to things you did for your health and well-being.
• Play - what did you do for fun and play this year (remember some of the play categories we covered a couple of weeks back).

2. What Energised and Drained You?

Another approach to your review might be to look at your energy levels this year and to ask yourself the two questions that I've encouraged us to ask each day but on a bigger picture level:

• What gave you energy this year?
• What drained you of energy this year?

Another way to think about this might be to ponder:

• What gave you the most JOY this year?

Related Prompt: Where's the Joy and Opportunities

3. Relational Review

Another area to ponder might be how your relationships have been going this year.

• WHO gave you energy this year (and why)?
• WHO drained you of energy this year (and why)?
• Who were you drawn to this year?
• Which relationships did you nurture this year?
• Which relationships did you neglect?

Related prompt: Connect

4. Ups and Downs

• What went well for you in the year gone by? What went poorly?
• What achievements and successes did you have? What failures and mistakes did you make?
• What did you gain this year? What did you lose this year?

5. Learnings

What did you learn this year?

• what life lessons did you learn?
• what skills did you learn?
• what curiosities did you follow that led to learning?
• what discoveries did you make about yourself and life?

Related Prompts: Learn and Chase Curiosities

6. The Stories

What stories will you tell about this year?

Perhaps as part of your review, you will take a little time to write some of the stories about the ups and downs, the experiences you had, the adventures you went on, the things you tried, the times you were brave, and the lessons you learned.

Related Prompt: Remember, Brave, Try and Adventure

7. Gratitude

What are you most thankful for in the year that has just gone by?

Write a list of as many things you're grateful for as possible.

Related Prompt: Give Thanks

I hope this gives you a little food for thought in your review!