A couple of thoughts about goal-setting from a New Year’s gathering

On my social networks I often see posts featuring various versions of a year in review, especially around New Year.

I used to envy my friends who not only took time to reflect on their past experiences, but also clearly had some systems in place for capturing them throughout the year, enabling them to remember the meaningful events or achievements when the time comes for reflecting.

For me it always felt like something others do, and I don’t have time for. Still, every time I read such a post I felt a pang of envy. Because having an opportunity to seeing your life in retrospect gives the point of reference and provides with some foundation to build upon when thinking of where to go next. Yet, the prospect of sitting with myself reflecting on the whole year and figuring out directions for the next felt so overwhelming for me, I never did it.

Until last year. 

And the key factor that made all the difference for me was our friend’s visit for the New Year. Friends who already had a ritual of yearly reflecting and goal-setting, so they just invited us to join in.

And all of a sudden, analyzing the past turned into storytelling, with live reactions, empathy, curious questions that helped me view my experiences from a different prospective and thus, to alter the narrative for the year I’d lived. As for the future planning portion, our friends shared a framework they use, again asking great questions, brainstorming ideas and simply cheering us on. We switched roles and each and every one of us got the attention and brainpower of the others. 

Those evenings transformed the way my year unfolded. I felt motivated, inspired and hopeful. I learned about resources I can use to reach my goals. I’ve had a couple of full-blown epiphanies even. And the momentum was pretty long-lasting as well. So, when the time comes for this year’s reflection, I’ll be ready and will happily check some boxes I didn’t know were even possible.

Looking back to this profound experience, I realized that I would love for others to have a chance to enjoy something similar. 

How do you feel about reflecting and planning? Are you like me? Do you need others to bounce the ideas off of? Or do you feel like having a framework helps you to tackle complex tasks? I’d love to hear your perspective. 

And if you think you'd benefit from a group effort and some guidance, stay tuned - I'm working on something that will help to replicate my experience for you. 

PS: One of my year goals was rediscovering myself as a singer. I think, singing in a concert at a sold-out stadium counts as a check :)