How to Do a Personal End-of-Year Review (2023)

Personal end-of-year reviews aren’t mandatory but highly recommended.

Adopting a yearly review habit will be a total game-changer if you consider yourself growth-centric. It can help ignite some fire and assist you in starting fresh next year. 

I recommend setting out three days for the process. If you feel luxurious and are undergoing a complete transformation, give yourself one to two weeks. The more head space you have, the more revelations you can have. 

So make yourself a nice beverage of choice, relax, ease in and enjoy the process.

Let’s get started, shall we?

What is a Personal End-of-Year Life Review?

A personal end-of-year review is similar to an annual performance review implemented at companies. 

Managers and leaders rate their employee’s performance, provide feedback, and sometimes give bonuses. It’s a little check-in to ensure everyone is on the same page and discuss areas that need improvement. 

Similarly, personal end-of-year reviews allow quiet introspection time so you can objectively analyze the past year and set next year’s goals to drive your life in the direction you want. 

You might organize your life differently depending on your circumstances, so feel free to use the process below as a template and modify it to your liking. 

Additionally, if you are undergoing a complete life transformation, I recommend working on one area of life at a time when thinking about your goals and manifestations. That way, the growth will be deep, sustained, and long-lasting. 

Related: 42 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery

Tips on How to Benefit From an End-of-Year Review Process

• Take your time – Let your day-to-day go, relax and be with the process. A calm mind will help you come up with creative solutions if you run into a problem. 
• Set the mood – Go to your favorite coffee shop or park to let your mind breathe. Or when you are at home, you can light candles or play instrumental music—anything you like.
• Be honest and transparent – You need complete honesty for growth. It may hurt a little, but with gentle honesty, next year can start off with a stable foundation.
• Don’t judge yourself or the process – Judging blocks growth. If you find yourself being hard on yourself, accept where you are. Seek to understand as opposed to being self-critical. Dig deeper for concrete solutions. As Marie Forleo said,” everything is figureoutable.”
• Use your five senses -When setting goals for next year, use the power of imagination to visualize how you would like next year to be. And from that place, begin to pen down your manifestations.
• Praise yourself for your wins – Find the balance between praising your victories and objectively finding solutions for your losses and struggles.

8 Different Areas of Life

I added some extra information on what I consider to be under each area of life. But again, feel free to organize it to your liking. 

• Career
• Finances
• Family
• Romance and Relationships
• Personal Friendships / Social Network
• Fun / Giving Back
• Lifestyle and Self
• Mind, Body, & Soul 

Job / Career / Business

Career development, strategy and planning, skillset development, creativity, leadership development, sales, intellectual growth, career growth, networking

Finances

Savings, investments, retirement planning, budget

Family

Quality time, healing, long-term vision, and legacy building

Romance 

Looking for dating opportunities, improving relationships, marriage counseling, relationship coaching, and quality time

Personal Friendships / Social network

Quality time, attending networking events and company happy hours

Fun / Giving Back

Hobbies, travel, bucket list, and leisure

Lifestyle and Self

Daily routine, habits, health and fitness, wellness, home, fashion style

Mind, Body, & Soul 

Personal growth, spiritual growth, intuitive abilities, mental health, emotional health, shadow work, and inner child healing

7 End-of-Year Reflection Questions

You can use the questions for every area of life or the life areas you heavily focused on this past year.

1. What areas of your life did you plan to focus on this past year?
2. What areas of life did you actually focus on?
3. From 1 to 10, rate each area on satisfaction and fulfillment. One being dissatisfied and ten being fulfilled.
4. What was your biggest accomplishment? What did you learn about yourself from this accomplishment?
5. What was your biggest challenge? What did you learn from the challenge or struggle?
6. How do you plan on improving this area of life next year?
7. What are your next steps for this area of life?

Related: 37 Journal Prompts for End-of-Year Reflection (2023)

Goal Setting for the New Year: 7 Steps

Choose 2 to 3 areas to work on at a time for long-term growth. For a deep transformation in one area, I would work on that area for the entire year. 

Also, sometimes different life domains are interrelated, so combining two to three areas would make sense. 

For instance, let’s say you are focused on your career next year. It would make sense to combine career and networking or career and finance. Another example would be lifestyle and romance/marriage. 

Step 1 – Choose a theme for next year. (i.e., friendship, expansion, independence, etc.)

Step 2 – What is your overall lifelong vision or personal mission? If you have never done so, scripting a one-page story of your vision of how you wish your life to feel and look can help you find more clarity.

Step 3 – What is your overall one long-term goal for the year? (i.e., make six figures, deepen spiritual practices, buy a home, find a relationship, etc.)

Step 4 – What areas do you want to focus on next year? What is a priority?

Step 5 – Write five to ten smaller manifestations for the following year. 

Step 6 – Write your why for each manifestation.

Step 7 – Use the power of your imagination to visualize how it would be if you were already living in the end with each goal. Also, do a visualization for your overall yearly goal.

Extra Tips on How to Organize Your New Year

• Yearly Life Binder – Making a yearly binder with tabs for each area of life is a great way to organize your life. I keep everything there, from goals, bucket lists, notes, financial documents, etc.
• Vision Board – Vision boards are a popular Law of Attraction technique to help you find visual imagery of your goals. It helps you activate your senses, provide motivation, and helps keep your manifestations at the forefront of your mind.
• Print Out Goals – Another great tip to keep your goals and manifestations in your mind is to print out your goals on a sheet of paper. You can opt to handwrite them as well. I like to have one framed for my desk and one in my yearly binder. 
• Make a Bucket List – Bucket lists are another great way to organize fun hobbies and secondary desires. I keep a bucket list in my life binder to help keep me organized.

Related: 4 Unique Goal-Setting Methods to Spice Up Your Life

Closing Thoughts on Personal End-of-Year Review

Setting goals and planning manifestations give us a focal point, so we don’t scatter our energy, but it will get messy along the way. So remember always to stay intuitive and flow. 

Now you know how to reflect on the past year and plan for the new year. Be sure to head over to personal end-of-year journal prompts for some self-reflection questions. 

I wish you many blessings, so much love, and joy in 2023!

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Happy manifesting and much gratitude. 

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