Tips for Reflection and Goal Setting

Most people go their *entire* life without reflecting. And before they know it, years have gone by and it's too late to change. The most powerful reflection you can do to avoid this fate: The Monthly Review. Grab a pen, crack open a notebook, and answer these 5 questions: The goal of the monthly review: Block 60 minutes to slowly process the month. It's easy to get caught up in the day to day & lose sight of the bigger picture. And after trying 1000+ reflection questions, I chose each question for a specific reason. Let's start with the first: 1. What were my biggest wins & milestones? These are things that you will look back on with pride & fond memories at the end of the year. • Health wins • Business wins • New relationships • Goals accomplished • Fun memories & events Recapping wins & milestones kicks the review off on a positive note. So often, our focus is on the negative. But this questions helps us celebrate all the things going well! And it also creates a "ledger" of wins from the year. From there, you ask a more important question: --- 2. What were my biggest realizations? I used to call this my "biggest losses." But I reframed this—because something is either a win, or it teaches you about the world. And by constantly collecting these realizations, you are always learning. Most of my realizations are about my: • Health • Beliefs • Business • Lack of skills • Relationships By constantly iterating and distilling these lessons, you will level up month after month after month. From here, you go from looking backward to looking at the present: --- 3. What areas am I most satisfied? Least satisfied? Split the page in 2 columns and brain dump bullet points of everything that comes to mind. The goal here is to identify in the present moment what's working and what's not working. From there, you ask another question: --- 4. Based on these areas, what am I going to do more of? Less of? This is the 80/20 rule in action. 20% of your: • Habits • Beliefs • Friends • Actions Are leading to 80% of both your positive *and* negative results. Now you should have 2 lists: • Things to *double down* on that are bringing you the positive results • Things to *stop doing entirely* that are bringing you the negative results Put those lists somewhere you can see them every morning (for me, that's on my bathroom mirror). Now, it's time to think about the future: --- 5. What am I thinking about for the month ahead? This is a quick list of things you're: • Excited about • Thinking about • Uncertain about This turns into a letter to your future self you can read at the end of the month. --- And just like that, the review is complete! The beauty of this process is you can constantly capture these things throughout the month. • Wins & milestones • Realizations & decisions • Things going well & things to improve Then, at the end of the year, you collect these monthly reviews and distill the entire year.

December is my favorite month of the year. It’s packed with celebratory festivities, and rituals that represent the best things about life (e.g. rewatching classics like Harry Potter, Elf, Love Actually, Die Hard, etc. with a cup of hot cocoa in hand.) It’s also the month that leads to renewal, the January that represents a new start, do-over, and hope. Annual reflection and resolution planning is one of those rituals I look forward to the most in December. Here are the steps I’ve been following the past 4 Decembers: ⭐ Step 1: Reflection ⭐ 1) what are the highlights of the year, and why? 2) what are the lowlights of the year, and why? 3) what are your learnings from them? (how did they uplift you, drain you, or how could you have done differently?) ⭐ Step 2: Synthesis ⭐ 1) On a empty paper, draw a “spider chart” that comprises of 8-10 axises with 10 marks on each axis 2) Write down one thing that represent an aspect of your life at the end of each one of the axis. For example, I have “Mental Health”, “Environment”, “Personal Growth” on my chart. 3) For each of the axis that represent your life, score your level of satisfaction on the 10-mark line 4) Next to your score, write down 1-3 reasons that contribute to your score 5) Then write down another 1-3 things that you think can help move your score up 6) Pause and look at your chart, what stories or insights is it revealing? What feelings and thoughts are coming up for you? These are the signals for the next stage ⭐ Step 3: Intention Setting ⭐ 1) Reflecting on your feelings and thoughts from the previous stage, which ones of the axises/aspects would you like to focus on? 2) Are you ready to tackle all of these axis, or are yo ok with just focusing on a few things? 3) In each of your chosen aspect and the 2-6 things you had written down, circle the ones you’d like to focus on for 2024. Consider your resources, strengths, and values to help decide 4) Looking at the things you’ve written down, what is one word or the feeling that comes to mind? Write that down as your intention for 2024. ⭐ Step 4: Goal Setting ⭐ 1) On another paper, re-write the things you circled earlier as goals you’d like to achieve, following SMART format (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) 2) For every goal, write down one thing you can do every week that would contribute to achieving your goal. These are leading indicators that’ll lead to your accomplishment. 💡 Bonus step: put a recurring 30-min block on Fridays on your calendar as a reminder to schedule the actions and review your progress every week ................................................ 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 👭 What are your favorite rituals or reflection practices you do? p.s. looking at my spider charts the past 4 years, and I realized how "striving a balance" is important to me 😆

Stop trying to keep it all in your head. It doesn't work. Ever tried recalling your breakfast from six days ago?   Tricky, isn't it?   Now, picture being an entrepreneur tasked with recalling every minor detail from the past quarter. An almost impossible feat, right? That's why I can't stress enough the critical yet often overlooked power of regular business reviews. My Review Rythmn: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly. A lot, some say. But what is more costly is not working on the right things and being overwhelmed. I went from firefighter reactive mode to proactive, working "on" my business when I solidified the review habit. Doing it alone is hard, Squad is easier. Some of my members' Aha moments after monthly review: • A member found that constant interruptions were killing productivity. • Another realized they were at full capacity, a clear sign it was time to expand the team. •  Some had to swallow the bitter pill of having liabilities instead of assets in their team, emphasizing the importance of careful hiring and training.   •  One realized their promising marketing strategy was underperforming, leading to a strategy rethink. If they didn't do their review these issues would have kept on until it setback their business or sanity. 𝗧𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁, 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳: 1. What were my wins? 2. What lessons did I learn? 3. What should I stop doing? 4. What should I start doing? 5. What should I continue doing? 6. Did I achieve my monthly goal? Why or why not? 7. How much time am I spending working "In" versus "On" my business? Give February a thorough review. The insights you'll discover will  surprise you. DM me to join our next monthly review and goal-setting workshop this coming Wednesday, where I will show you the best format and how to be consistent with it.

Sunday reflection: Today's reflection is on.....reflection (and how I use this for planning). Sunday mornings are typically very quiet and relaxed in my home, so it's the time I've chosen to do my weekly reflection and planning. Lessons don't really come from the experience itself, but from reflection on the experience. So, as part of my weekly planning, I reflect on what went well the previous week and what could have gone better. Sometimes I journal my thoughts and sometimes I just re-read some of my past journal entries for reminders and inspiration that I can use in the present. I think critically on what I should do more of and what I should do less of or improve. From there, I set my top 1 or 2 (never more than 2, but most often only 1) priorities for the week that will give me leverage in accomplishing goals I've set for myself. I do this by thinking beyond just meeting a deadline or something like that, because that's what I'm supposed to be doing anyway. I use a whiteboard in my home office to write this priority down so it's visible, and checking it off each week is very satisfying. I've found that this weekly practice helps me continue to develop my critical thinking and strategic planning skills and really puts me in a good headspace going into the new week. It helps me to be more intentional and mindful rather than just mulling through it on autopilot. Do you have time set aside for reflection and planning? If you do, what are some of the benefits you've seen? If not, do you think it could be a valuable practice to start? #reflection #planning

A few years ago, I felt stuck. Despite working hard, progress felt sluggish. Then someone asked me: “When was the last time you reflected on what’s working and what’s not?” I froze. Reflection wasn’t part of my routine—I was too busy “doing.” That moment changed everything. I started carving out time each month to pause and reflect. The results? Clarity, growth, and a renewed sense of direction. Here’s the simple process I follow: 1. Celebrate wins. ↳Big or small, list what you’ve achieved. ↳Progress often hides in the little victories. 2. Identify challenges. ↳What didn’t go as planned? ↳Be honest but constructive. 3. Extract lessons. ↳Ask yourself: What worked? ↳What didn’t? ↳What can I improve? 4. Adjust your goals. ↳Refine your next steps based on your insights. Reflection isn’t about looking back with regret, It’s about learning to move forward smarter. It’s like cleaning the windshield before hitting the road again. PS. How often do you take time to reflect on your goals? #PersonalGrowth #Reflection #BusinessCoach