Lisa Collins

The Emotional Triggers of Color

23 questions to reflect on

This list will help you:

• Recap the year

• Take stock of where you are

• And refresh your perspective heading into 2025

It's the exact process I used to do my Yearly Review.

Let's dive in:

1. What were the big moments, memories, and milestones from this year?

Add some constraints and try to pick 3-5 per month.

Write this as if you were writing a summary of the year you could look back on in 20 years.

2. What were my biggest wins & accomplishments of the year?

No matter what happened this year, you have things to celebrate.

Start this reflection on a positive note by brainstorming everything you did that made you feel:

• Proud

• Happy

• Fulfilled

• Grateful

3. What things do I look back on most fondly, that brought me the most energy and joy?

• People

• Places

• Habits

• Tasks

• Experiences

How can I do more of these things in 2025?

4. What things do I look back on less fondly, draining my energy and weighing on me throughout the year?

• People

• Places

• Habits

• Tasks

• Experiences

How can I do fewer of these things in 2025?

5. How could I be a better:

• Son/daughter

• Employee

• Manager

• Partner

• Mentor

• Friend

6. What am I most grateful for in 2024?

Or, a better way to phrase this:

What do I have today that I would have begged to have had 5 years ago?

(Bonus points for keeping a list of things throughout the year you're grateful for & reviewing it at the end of the year.)

. What's on my "best of" list?

• Books

• Events

• Articles

• Podcasts

• Purchases

• New habits

Bonus points for writing these up and sharing them with your friends!

8. How did I grow as a person?

• New skills

• New habits

• New priorities

• New preferences

• New relationships

• New perspectives

• New environments

9. What were my biggest achievements in this area?

And what are the 20% of things that led to this achievement?

• People

• Beliefs

• Routines

• Priorities

• Environments

How can I double down on these in 2025?

10. Where did I make mistakes or fall short in this area?

And what are the 20% of things that contributed to me falling short?

• People

• Beliefs

• Routines

• Priorities

• Environments

How can I stop doing these things in 2025?

11. Which area of my life received the most attention?

And which area of my life received the least?

Is this the right allocation of my time, energy, and attention?

12. Based on these questions, what do I want to:

• Stop doing in 2025

• Start doing in 2025

• Continue doing in 2025

Get creative here, brain dumping as many answers as you can think of.

Then, prioritize them and focus on 1 at a time.

Alright, that's enough of looking backward.

Now for some more general reflection questions to get the creative juices flowing:

13. What's the single biggest bottleneck to my continued growth?

And why aren't I relentlessly focused on removing it?

14. If I had unlimited money, how would I invest today to increase my time, energy, or happiness?

• $10?

• $100?

• $500?

• $10,000?

15. If I repeated my weekly actions every week for 5 years, where would I end up?

Is this where I want to end up?

16. Love this one from James Clear:

Imagine your career is a game & ask questions like:

• What game am I playing?

• What are the rules of the game?

• How do players advance?

• How do players lose?

• Is this game still serving me?

17. What are some things I could start doing today that would guarantee an absolutely horrible year?

And how can I avoid doing those things?

18. Where am I taking myself too seriously?

And where am I making things harder than they need to be?

19. How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want?

(Credit to Jerry Colonna and Tim Ferriss on this one.)

20. With my finite resources:

• Time

• Energy

• Attention

• Capital

Am I "spending" them?

Or am I investing them?

21. What were the 5 most difficult conversations of the year?

And what are 5 difficult conversations I'm currently avoiding (with both myself and others)?

22. How could I achieve my 10-year goals in 1 year?

And similarly, how could I achieve 10x my 1-year goals this year?

23. What am I saying “no” to in the year ahead? And what will that free up time for me to say “yes” to?

Boom! That's it—plenty there to get your reflective juices flowing.

And if you found these helpful, here's the top tweet.

I'd appreciate it if you liked, retweeted, and replied with your favorite question!

https://theyearlyreview.com/

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