The hubbub of the Christmas season wound down and the confetti swept up as 2023 unfurled. A new year conjures thoughts of a clean slate and fresh start. We are in the tail end of January and some people have already quit the new year resolutions or goals set from January 1st.
For a long time I too partook in the annual ritual of new year’s goal setting and vision board making. It’s not that I abandoned goal setting all together, I just added an important step that the Army taught me….After Action Review (AAR). In the Army, an AAR was done after every exercise, training, etc. to collectively discuss what went well, what didn’t and what could be done better. I would continue to find this principle of review even after I got out of the Army.
As a nurse any quality improvement project usually had a similar review process. I won’t bore you with those particulars, but I will drill down on the importance of review, not just in your work place or school, but also in your personal life.
Before you dismiss the importance of review, think of a time when you took a test for a class. Think of the value of reviewing the graded test. You will see which questions you got wrong and what the correct answer is. Some of what you got wrong may surprise you. You will also see which questions you got right, even those that may have been a lucky guess. Reviewing how you did both good and bad allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your studying, your notes, your overall preparation for the exam. You may need to adjust how you take notes or re-evaluate how you study to yield a better score on the next exam.
This same principle of review can be applied to our personal lives. So many people jump into creating goals for the new year without taking stock of how things went the year before. Can you skip review and go straight to goals? Sure. But imagine what your goals could look like if you leveraged the insights from a personal annual review.
I just finished doing my review of 2022. It’s a process I started about 10 years ago and have adapted and refined along the way. The process includes setting aside time to review all of the documentation I have of 2022. For me this includes journal entries, weekly brain dumps, weekly wins, sermon notes, prayer requests, and pictures. As I review these things I fill out my 2022 quadrants that have the following headings: Wins/ Mountaintops, Disappointments/Valleys, Lessons Learned, and Opportunities For Improvement. You can download this form here. I made concise bullets in each quadrant. I will then even compare it to 2021’s Quadrant sheet and sometimes gander at older ones. Looking back helps me see progress, growth, themes, etc. Then, I embark on creating goals for the new year that are more informed. Again, I will look at goals from the year I reviewed to see how I faired. Did I accomplish any of them? Are some still in progress? Do I need to rewrite some goals? Do I need to abandon some goals?
My goals have definitely changed as I have grown in my walk with the Lord. They change and reflect current priorities in my life.
Are you interested in doing a personal annual review? I am noodling with the idea of doing a workshop. Details to be announced 😊