Using these last few days to contemplate this years highs and lows can provide insight on how to prepare for the upcoming year. Looking at your successes and failures in depth from all angles allows you to discover what actions and strategies worked and what didn’t. If you can observe your choices and actions objectively and understand their role in
the overall outcome of your efforts you can identify areas that need change, and what strengths to play up in future endeavors.
There are many benefits to practicing contemplation and studies have proven that regular practice can change and improve brain function. Bringing awareness and focus to our actions and how they impact our lives and the lives of those around us can put our problems into perspective. This shift in perspective can change the inner dialogue or story that
we use to justify our actions.
Through consistent, non-judgmental assessment of our actions we can create change through alterations in our behaviors and choices resulting in sustainable self-improvement and growth.
Benefits of consistent contemplative practices include:
- Improved patience
- Wisdom and increased understanding
- Finding solutions vs reacting when faced with a challenge
- Honest Self-reflection
- Improved calmness or peace
- Improved sensitivity and realistic sense of ethics
- Clarity of Purpose
- Compassion for yourself and others
- Improved focus
- Awareness
- Skillful listening and improved communication
- Creativity
Contemplative practice can be different for everyone. Quiet meditation, yoga, journaling, and meditative walks are all effective ways to find deeper perspective and self-awareness.
Maybe you aren’t sure what questions to ask as you’re delving into past experiences. Having a prompt can be helpful to guide you through this process. Here are a few of the questions that I use in my personal practice. You can expand on these or throw out what doesn't serve you.
Questions to ask yourself as you look back on your year.
- What were your successes?
- What actions contributed to this success?
- What obstacles did you overcome and how?
- How did this success affect your life? Your self-esteem?
- How did the success affect the lives of others?
- What were your failures?
- What actions or lack of action led prevented success?
- How did this failure affect your life? Your self-esteem?
- Did this failure prevent you from attempting to achieve this goal again?
- Were you able to refocus and create a new game plan? Why or why not?
- What did you prioritize this year?
- Did these priorities help or hinder you achieving your goals?
- Did your priorities align with your values or the things that matter most to you?
- What priorities do you need to address or shift in the upcoming year?
- What are you taking into the New Year?
- Are there goals that you failed to achieve that you wish to accomplish next year?
- What strategies worked best for you?
- What actions or behaviors hindered your progress? Are you willing to focus on changing them?
- What are your biggest goals for the upcoming year?
- How will you accomplish them?
- How will you feel after you have accomplished them?
- What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve these goals?
It’s important to dig deep and explore as many aspects of your accomplishments and failures, past actions, priorities, goals, and game plan for the future as you possibly can. This process can be emotional and quite uncomfortable, but if you practice objective observation and give yourself space and compassion to discover the reasons behind your behaviors
and decisions it’s easier to move forward creating positive change.
