Annual Review 2018
Video #1: Our 2018 Travels in 2 minutes and 40 seconds
A year-end Annual Review has become an important ritual for us. Each December, we carve out time in our schedule to sit down at a favorite coffee shop, reflect on the past year, and set goals and intentions for the year to come.
It’s been revolutionary for us.
The Annual Review helps us recognize what in our personal life and our business is working well and what needs improvement. It ensures we’re taking steps toward fulfilling our dreams.
Before we share our reflections on 2018 and our vision for 2019, I’ll briefly outline what we do, in case it’s helpful to you.
Our Annual Review Process
Our personal annual review process has been adapted from resources by Chris Guillebeau, Live Your Legend, Year Compass, and more. Here’s the basic outline:
Step One: Carve out a chunk of time (at least 3 – 4 hours) and find a nice quiet place to reflect. We like visiting a favorite coffee shop and sometimes break the process into two or three sessions on back to back days.
Step Two: Looking Back (we do this part together):
– Review our calendar and photos to help compile a list of highlights from the previous year
– Review our goals from the previous year and evaluate what went well and what didn’t go well
Step Three: Reflection (individual journaling)
Journal reflections for questions in the Live Your Legend Goal Setting Workbook:
– What are you most proud of in the last year?
– If there were a newspaper headline describing this past year for you, what would it say?
– What unfinished business did you want to resolve before the year’s end?
– When were you most excited about life in the past year?
– What would you have done differently last year?
– What new dream for yourself did you achieve?
– Where did you let fear hold you back from a goal you had?
– What was boring to you this year that you hope to change for next year?
– What new and inspiring people did you meet in the last year?
– Who do you want to get closer to in the year to come?
This year, we also reflected on some of the prompts from the Year Compass, like:
– The biggest risk I took this year was…
– The biggest surprise of the year was…
– Describe the greatest and most memorable, joyful moments from last year.
– What are three of your greatest challenges from last year?
– Is there anything you must let go of before you can start your next year?
Step Four: Planning (individual journaling)
– List our “Areas of Attention,” the core areas of life where we want to get results (Health, Continued Learning, Marriage & Relationships, Spirituality, Service, Work, Travel, Saving & Giving).
– List habits we’d like to focus on in the New Year.
– Come up with quantifiable, measurable goals and outcomes we want for each Area of Attention. Also identify a strong, motivating reason “why” we want to achieve each one.
Step Five: Sharing (together)
– After some time thinking on all these things alone, we regroup to share our thoughts and help each other refine our ideas.
– Divide our individual goals into smaller steps we can take to work toward them, and identify people who can help us with specific aspects of them.
– Set timelines and deadlines for goals based around other things scheduled on our calendar
Wrapping up (together)
– Compile a list of goals we have in common or want to accomplish as a team
– Brainstorm a few ideas for our 3-5 year plan, or even idea for a 10 year plan
– Create a focus and a theme for the upcoming year
As you probably noticed, our annual review process has both solo components and parts we do as a couple. You could just as easily do the entire thing on your own. Or pair up with a colleague, group of friends, or accountability partner to help you talk through some of the steps.
2018 Review + What’s Next in 2019 Video
It’s been a while since we shared an in depth, behind-the-scenes look at our life and business like this. (The last review we published was back in 2015.)
I always love to read and listen to other peoples’ reviews and plans, so this year we’re boldly sharing like never before. We recorded a half hour webisode where we summarize the results of our 2018 review.
For anyone who prefers to listen rather than watch, here’s the audio-only version:
Annual Review mp3 audio download
Video #2: Annual Review Webisode
Video Guide (in case you want to skip ahead):
0:43 – What is an annual review and how do we do it?
3:06 – 2018 highlights
9:53 – What’s next in 2019
13:02 – Health goals
14:43 – Learning goals
17:05 – Relationship goals
18:35 – Spirituality & Service
19:30 – Travel goals
20:52 – Financial goals
21:19 – Work goals
23:32 – Miscellaneous goals
25:42 – Year themes
As we mention in the video, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Let us know what your plans are for 2019. If you have questions or suggestions, please share them in the comments below!
