Happy new year! Hope you and yours had a great holiday season.

The clean slate of a new year provides you with motivation to make resolutions for the year ahead. But before you start setting those new resolutions, there’s a lot to be gained by looking back first.

Putting your past year up for review is a simple yet worthwhile exercise to complete before setting new resolutions for the year ahead.

Here’s how the year in review process works:

1. Start with a blank sheet of paper or Google Doc, your phone, and your calendar. 

2. Think back about your past year and try to recall what you accomplished or experienced personally, professionally, and financially.

3. Write down as many things as you can remember.

When you get stuck, pull up your calendar and photos on your phone from last year to refresh your memory and write all those memories down too.

Once you’re done, take a look at your list as a whole. 

Notice how your feelings about the past year change as you acknowledge all that you’ve really accomplished.

It’s natural as a human being to discount or even forget about your past accomplishments, which is what makes this exercise so important and effective. 

Looking back before moving forward reminds you of how much you’ve already accomplished and how much you’re capable of doing.

Now return to your list and ask yourself these three questions as you review it further:

1. What did I do well?

This is the question that helps you avoid new shiny object syndrome. 

Putting your year up for review identifies the many things that you’re already doing well and reminds you that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You might just want to double down on what’s already working instead.

2. What was I missing or lacking?

When you look at your list and review your personal, professional, and financial priorities, what do you notice was lacking or missing last year? To be clear, this isn’t about judging your past actions. Rather, it’s an opportunity to be intentional about prioritizing these missing or lacking areas moving forward. Speaking of which…

3. What can I stop doing so I can focus more on what really matters?

Now that you’ve identified what you’re doing well and what’s missing or lacking, look through your list again to see what’s NOT serving you that you can stop doing. This is how you begin to free up space and time to do more of what matters and add in what might have been missing or lacking last year.

So before you make those new year’s resolutions, I strongly encourage you to take the time to put your past year up for review. And when you look back at this time next year at all that you’ve accomplished, I know you’ll be glad you did.