Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

Following on from my blog post on ‘The 5 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review’ below are 4 Steps to your 12 Week Review.

Before you start your 12 week review, here’s some worthwhile preparation.

• Grab a notebook and pen – you can document your review electronically also but science suggests what gets physically written down gets done!

Henriette Anne Klauser’s book ​‘Write it Down, Make it Happen’​ outlines the science behind the principle that writing your goals down gives them a higher chance of success.

​I use ​Moleskine journals ​for physically writing down goals and reflecting on them. Moleskine journals are beautiful, hard wearing and in my humble opinion the best journals in the world!

I also use regular notebooks found in any shop for documenting progress of goals. 

If someone were to ask me where to start with any change in their life I would say start by buying a notebook and a nice pen and writing down your goals – it’s so simple yet so effective! 

The ​Asana App​ is my go to app for documenting and monitoring goals online. Asana is super easy to use and is also an excellent project management tool. I have been using the free version of Asana for years and it suits just perfect.

I also use ​Google Suite​ (Docs, Sheets & Slides) for online documentation

• Categorise your life into areas – the categories of my life are Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Fun/Experiences, Environment & Contribution. You can use these or create categories of your own.

 

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks, here’s the 4 Steps to your 12 Week Review,

1. Step 1 is all about what went well over the past 12 weeks

i. What worked well for you in the past 12 weeks? 

What did you do that you enjoyed?

What worked out exactly how you wanted or better than you wanted? 

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day, sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a closer look to find them.

You may see that life goes your way more than you may realise.

Take your time with this, work through every area of your life, focus on the small stuff first – as it’s the small stuff that is really the big stuff!

Using a daily gratitude journal can really help answering this question. If you don’t have a daily gratitude journal maybe it’s something you could start for the next 12 weeks. 

Even just one gratitude a day over 12 weeks is about 90 things to be grateful for over 12 weeks, wouldn’t that be something really lovely to look back and reflect on?

 

ii. What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life?

How did you contribute to the things that worked well for you?

The only person who has control over your life is you and the only life you can control is your own. Keeping that in mind, all success in your life starts and ends with you.

No-one is going to improve your life for you, no-one is going to set and reach your goals for you, yes, it’s all on YOU!

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

Did you make sacrifices to improve your life?

Knowing how you contribute to your own success means you can build on this to bring so much more success into your life.

 

iii. What brought you joy and happiness in the past 12 weeks?

When were you at your happiest over the past 12 weeks?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you? 

Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to create more time to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

Who doesn’t want to be happier and more joyful?

Knowing who brings you happiness means you can create more time to spend with these very special people.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

 

iv. Are you happy with where you spent your time over the past 12 weeks?

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have.

This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go over the past 12 weeks?

Are you happy with where your time was spent over the past 12 weeks?

Are you fully enjoying every minute of your days, weeks, months?

That’s Step 1 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

 

2. Step 2 is all about what didn’t work well for you in the past 12 weeks

i. What didn’t go well over the past 12 weeks

What didn’t go your way in the past 12 weeks?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

What didn’t go to plan?

What is holding you back from living your best life?

Challenges and obstacles are a normal part of life.

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way. Acknowledgment and acceptance of this fact is the first step to turning challenges & obstacles into opportunities.

Acknowledging when things don’t work out takes bravery and courage and also an understanding that it is completely normal.

How can you acknowledge and accept what doesn’t work out for you and understand this is all part of your path?

 

ii. What obstacles got in your way?

Looking back at the past 12 weeks, were there obstacles that got in your way? Did you get in your own way?

Obstacles & challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

The question to ask here is what can you do to eliminate these obstacles & challenges and if you can’t eliminate them how can you think about them differently? 

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn obstacles & challenges into opportunities for success.

Dr Wayne Dyer’s book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ teaches us that all we have to do to change what is not going well in our lives is to think differently about it. A most profound book, I highly recommend it.

 

iii. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in the past 12 weeks?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand. No human life is devoid of unhappiness just like no human life is devoid of happiness. 

Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest over the past 12 weeks? Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

There is no such thing as the perfect life that is happy all the time, however there is a level of contentment and inner peace that can be reached by understanding what takes our happiness & joy away and working to avoid, eliminate or understand more about this.

What could you have done to understand and alleviate your unhappiness?

 

iii. Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 12 weeks?

Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 12 weeks?

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life – did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others? 

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

That’s Step 2 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

 

3. Step 3 is all about what you learned in the key areas of your life 

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward. 

Reflect on the questions below to understand what you learned over the past 12 weeks in all of the key areas of your life. 

Sense of Self –  What did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Have you dedicated time to personal development? What did you learn about your relationship with yourself, has your relationship with yourself improved?

Relationships – What did you learn about your relationship with others, has your relationship with others improved? Are there relationships you want but don’t have? Are there relationships you have but don’t want?

Health is Wealth – What did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve?

Work – What did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work? Has your work moved forward and improved?

Finance – What did you learn about personal finance? Did your personal finance improve?

Fun/Experiences – What did you learn about fun & experiences? How can you bring more fun into your life? What experiences have you enjoyed? What experiences have you not enjoyed?

Environment – What did you learn about your environment? Did your environment improve? For me environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – What did you learn about contribution?  Did you make the world a better place by giving your time, money or skills? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

That’s Step 3 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

 

4. Step 4 is about learning more about  personal goal setting & reviewing.

i. Do you set personal annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals?

Yes – great, are you reaching these goals daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually? 

No – why not? What is keeping you from setting & reaching your personal goals?

 

ii. Do you celebrate and learn from your successes?

Yes – great, keep celebrating every single success, no matter how small! Look out for the small successes, they really are the big things!

No – when are you going to start celebrating your successes, each and every one of them, each and every day?

 

iii. Do you reflect on and learn from your challenges?

Yes – great, keep reflecting and learning. Reflecting on what happens and what doesn’t happen is one of the most powerful ways we can learn.

No – when are you going to start reflecting and learning from your challenges, each and every one of them, each and every day?

 

iv.How do you like to learn about personal goal setting and reviewing?

It’s one thing setting goals, working towards them and reviewing progress. It’s another thing to continue to learn about what you want from your life and how to achieve that.

Do you like learning about yourself and your life? Learning is the key to success as you are the only person who can bring success into your life.

What is your preferred way of learning – through books, podcasts, courses, videos, mentors, coaches, your work, observing the world, observing others, observing yourself, through reflection? 

Whatever your preferred way of learning is, make sure it is part of your daily plans for the next 12 weeks.

That’s Step 4 of your Personal 12 Week Review done. 

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 12 weeks.

I write a weekly newsletter on all things positive change, if you want to join me download your free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below and you’re all signed up! 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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