Article 205 - My end of the year reflections and goal-setting

Year 2021 Reflections

So, it is end of the year 2021. I am sure it is not going to be to anyone’s surprise when I say that this year was not an easy one. Of course, Covid-19 played and continues to play in that, but so is the daily challenges and problems that we all face. Many of us never admit that they are going through some tough times just because for whatever reason it is not the topic that many people want to talk about with others, and in some cases not even sharing their challenges with their own family members. Why? I do not know. I believe that it is important to be honest with ourselves and those whom we care about and trust and be able to have an open and honest conversation when appropriate. Not only does it help to free our mind and our head from constant worries and stress, but also it is a fantastic opportunity to obtain someone else’s thoughts, opinions, and recommendations pertaining to the situation that we may be in, and to find potential solution together versus trying to do it all on our own.

With all this being said, as year is ending, now is a wonderful opportunity to take some time to reflect on everything that has happened, everything we continue to deal with, both good and no so good. This is also a great time to analyze actions we took to address and overcome some challenges we faced during the year, in order to document and have a plan of action when similar situations or challenges come up in the future. Yes, I said when, because things will happen, even though we hope to never deal with tough situations again, so it is best to be prepared and have a plan of action versus pretending that we live in some fantasy world where everything is perfect and free of problems.

At the end of every year I sit down and review all of the goals that I have set at the end of the previous year ad check off those goals that I was able to complete during the year, transferring old goals that I did not accomplish into the new list of goals for the upcoming year and, of course, adding new goals that I hope to accomplish. I have been doing this for many years now, and I cannot tell you how great it feels when you can mark goals a complete, regardless of whether those goals were big or small. It is all about the progress, it is about us keep moving forward and celebrating small wins along the way. If we only focus on big goals that may take several years to complete, then we would have nothing to celebrate in between while we are working toward accomplishing those larger goals. Therefore, I recommend setting goals for 1, 3, and 5 years at the same time. This way when you sit down to review your goals at the end of the year, you can check off all the goals that you were able to accomplish during the year in question, and review and update your 3- and 5-year goals as well. All goals that you work on accomplishing during the year should bring you closer to accomplishing your long-term goals. It is also important to remember, when you review smaller, short-term goals, that you were unable to reach during the year, do not simply ignore such goals and immediately scratch them off your goals list and, instead, take some time to think and analyze why you were unable to reach them. Ask yourself what you can do better or differently in the next year to help you reach outstanding goals from the prior year(s). If you have goals that you no longer wish to pursue, then cross them out and move on.

Take some time to talk about and celebrate all your wins and accomplishments with someone whom you trust and whose opinions you value, this could be your spouse, other family member, or a close friend. Without celebration of our wins and accomplishments everything that we do or work towards becomes mundane, repetitive, not interesting, and as result we are more prone to abandoning our goals. This is why so many people give up on their New Year’s resolution goals just few short weeks into the new year. People typically set excessively big and ambitious goals and when nothing is happening or they do not see immediate progress or results, with nothing to celebrate, goals get abandoned and forgotten with nothing to show for at the end of the year except a sense of disappointment and complaining. Therefore, be sure to set realistic goals using 1-, 3-, and 5-year timeline, and celebrate your accomplishments regardless how big or small they are.

I wish you a strong health, success, and patience in the new year. Remember to stay positive and optimistic no matter how hard life may get from time to time. Just know that life is like a rollercoaster, there will always be difficulties, but as long as we believe that everything will work out, it always will, eventually.