Self-Reflection - Alyssa's Creative Lifestyle

Posted on December 5, 2022December 8, 2022 by Alyssa — 1 Comment

End of the Year Reflection | Getting Ready for the New Year

Another year is about to come to a close. But before we start celebrating, it’s a good idea to do a big end of the year reflection.

The end of the year can bring on different emotions and feelings. One part of our mind is taking over with memories, highlights, and experiences of the past year, while the other is gearing up for making this next year the best one yet.

Many people often focus on the second part and dive straight into making new year’s resolutions. Now I like planning new goals as much as anybody else, but we often forget about the most important step; self reflecting on the past year.

I believe that skipping this important step is the reason many forget about their new year’s resolutions by the end of January. Their new goals don’t end of being as exciting because they didn’t take the time to figure out what is the most important next step in their life.

You really can’t plan ahead without looking back. We may feel determined and optimistic when that calendar flips to January 1st, but our experiences, skills, and mindset don’t change overnight. That’s where reflection time comes in.

Before we can jump into planning mode, we must first take some time to reflect on the past year.

Grab a coffee (or tea), your journal, and a pen, and join me in reflecting on 2022!

Why You Should Do an End of the Year Reflection

Doing an end of the year reflection is a great mindfulness practice that helps you track your personal growth over the past year and get into a place of gratitude.

If we let it, time can pass us by super fast. That’s why it’s important to take time to reflect on our past accomplishments and learn from the ups and downs in life.

Self reflection can also help get you into a space of gratitude which helps provide insight as you move into the next chapter of your life.

How to do a New Years Reflection

There are many ways to do a New Year’s reflection, from in-depth free journaling to answering a variety of journal prompts. You could even talk with your family or friends and reflect together on the past year.

There is no right or wrong way, you just need to find the best method that works for you.

With that being said, my personal favorite way to reflect is to journal with no prompts. I just grab my pen and paper and let my mind wander over what I did the past 12 months.

I usually end up with five pages of memories, accomplishments, and lessons learned by the end of it. It’s also fun going back and rereading these pages at the end of each year.

You can also use self reflection journal prompts.

Use some journal prompts that help you specifically focus on accomplishments and disappointments, lessons learned, and things you would like to improve on for the next year. Below are 10 of my favorite end of the year reflection journal prompts.

End of the Year Reflection Journal Prompts

1. What challenges did I overcome this year? What did I learn from them?

2. What new skills did I learn? How do I want to continue to develop them into the new year?

3. What is your favorite memories from the past year? (if you want, take some time here to go through photos you took and print them out or scrapbook them)

4. What new habits did you start? Will you continue to work on them next year?

5. What are you most proud of about the past year?

6. What did you learn about yourself this year?

7. How did your relationships (friends, family, partners) grow this year?

8. What did you fail at this year? How did you pick yourself up after?

9. What would you have done differently? What can you learn from it?

10. What advice would you give to yourself one year ago?

Want to dig a bit deeper into different areas of your life? Try these reflection questions.

Deeper Reflection Questions

Big Accomplishments: Did you graduate college last year? Get a new job? Buy your first car or house? How did you feel when that happened and what obstacles did you have to overcome to get there?

Big Disappointments: What didn’t go your way last year? What were you hoping for that didn’t happen? What happened that you weren’t prepared for? How can you be grateful for these situations? What lessons did you learn?

Major Life Changes: Did you move to a new state or a new country last year? Did you get married? Did you start a new routine? What major life or lifestyle changes are you most proud of that you made this year?

Personal Achievements: What are you most proud of that you did for yourself last year? Are you better at managing your anger? Do you find yourself complaining less? Did you make an effort to spend more time with family and friends? Did you spend more time on a hobby you love?

Best Memories and Moments: What are the moments that were special to you that want to remember forever?

Areas You Want to Improve: What are things you know you can do better at this year? Do you need to manage your money better? Exercise more? Are you too critical of yourself?

Gratitude: What happened last year that you were thankful for? Write down 20 things you were grateful for from the past year.

End of Year Reflection Activities

Here are few more fun ways to review the past year.

1. Review photos you took this past year.

As you look at pictures you took this year, think about the moments that you captured and be grateful for them.

Think about how you felt and who you were with at the time. Maybe write a few notes in your journal. Or if you’re really ambious, make a small scrapbook of memories.

2. Review this past year’s goals.

What goals did you set out to achieve last year? Did you achieve them or completely forget about them?

Don’t beat yourself up about the goals you didn’t reach. Reasses what happened. Maybe the goals don’t align with who you are anymore.

Use what you learned from last year to set goals that align with your future dream life.

3. Reread your journal entries from this year.

If you kept a journal this year, (and if you didn’t I highly recommend you make a goal to start one this year) reread some, or all, of your journal entries. You’ll be surprised how much happened this year that’s worth remembering.

Maybe you’ll even discover something you forgot about that you want to bring back into the new year.

Related: How to Start a Journal

4. Write a gratitude list.

A great way to end any year is to remind yourself of the things you are grateful for. Even if you thought this past year kind sucked, this practice will help you be thankful for even the more difficult years.

Maybe you got to spend more time with your family, or you picked up a fun new hobby. Maybe you had more time to read again.

Take the wins from any part of your life and reflect on how grateful you are for them.

Ending the year with gratitude will help you start the new year with a better mindset.

5. Journal

Like I mentioned before, I love journaling about the past year. It’s a great way to reflect on the good and the bad times of the past year, review life lessons you learned, and what goals you achieved. Sit down for about 15-30 minutes and just write anything that comes to mind.

Wrapping Up Your End of the Year Reflection

As we come to a close on 2021, don’t forget to cherish the memories you made this year. Some years are harder than others, but it’s important to stay positive as we head into a new year.

A new year is a new start but only if you make it be. Learn from your past, remember what you accomplished, and look forward to the future!

Happy New Year Everyone! Make 2022 the best year yet!!

Get ready to crush your New Year’s Resolutions with the biggest planning party of the year. Check out the Love Your Goals Workshop ⬇️

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Posted on June 16, 2022December 8, 2022 by Alyssa — 1 Comment

Personal Mid Year Review | 5 Ways to Reflect on Your Year so Far

We are almost halfway through 2022. Can you believe it? At this point in the year, I love to do a Mid Year Review. It’s a good time for me to hit pause on my crazy life and go over what has happened in the past 6 months. I also take time to plan how I want the last 6 months of the year to go, too.

It’s time to go over the goals we set at the beginning of the year, celebrate how far we have come, and plan out the rest of the year.

Ready to do your mid-year review? Grab a pen and notebook, your favorite coffee or tea and let’s get started.

Why do a Mid Year Review?

The middle of the year is a great time to take a step back and review the goals you set six months ago. And then set yourself up for success for the rest of the year.

In the craziness that is life, it can be easy to forget about our goals. We get caught up in the daily tasks we need to get done that we forget to look at the big picture.

By hitting the pause button, and taking some time to reflect, we can focus on our longer-term goals.

Also, our goals may need to change. You are not the same person now as you were at the beginning of the year, so you need to make sure your goals still reflect where you want to go. Your goals are not static so you can change and adapt them as you need.

And a mid-year reflection and review will help you do just that.

Now that you know the importance of a mid-year review, I have some tips to help you during your reflection time.

5 Ways to Reflect During Your Personal Mid-Year Review

Rather than giving you a bunch of questions to ask yourself, I have 5 ways to reflect on your past 6 months. Grab a piece of paper and start your mid-year review with these 5 ways to reflect.

1. Celebrate all that you’ve learned and achieved so far this year

You should always start your self-reflection time with reviewing your accomplishments for the year so far.

A lot can happen over six months that has likely changed you as a person. Whether you finally built that emergency fund or you simply learned to make that perfect cup of coffee at home, you need to celebrate your wins first.

Grab a piece of paper and write down all of your accomplishments, no matter how big or small they are, include them all.

If you are struggling to remember, look back through your journals or events in your calendar to refresh your memory.

Related: How to Start a Journal

2. Be honest about what you want

Make sure you are being honest with yourself as you go through your self-reflection time. The person you were back in January is not the same person you see in the mirror today.

For example, the person you were just a few months ago didn’t have that list of achievements you just wrote down.

With all those achievements, you gained different experiences, and your outlook on life has changed. Because of that, you need to make sure you are rethinking the goals you set 6 months ago. Ask yourself these questions:

How do I feel differently than I did 6 months ago?
Are my goals helping me grow into the person I want to be by the end of the year?
Where do you envision yourself being at the end of the year?

By answering these questions, you can assess if you are headed in the right direction, or if you need to change your goals a little bit. Be sure to keep the goals that still work with your future vision for yourself and get rid of the ones that don’t.

3. Be critical of the year so far

Now that you have reflected on your accomplishments and know exactly where you want to be in 6 months, it’s time to assess what has worked so far this year and what hasn’t. Evaluate why you haven’t stuck with some goals and if they are still relevant to your vision. If so come up with a different strategy and plan of attack.

One of my favorite books, Atomic Habits by James Clear, discusses how it is not our goals that fail us, but the process we use to achieve them that fails. If you have a plan that caused friction in your life, you are less likely to actually work towards the goal.

For example, let’s say you had a goal to write a rough draft of a book by the end of the year. You planned to get up an hour earlier every morning to write, but you found that you are not awake enough to really focus on the tasks.

So instead you need to find a time when your brain is at optimal creativity and a time that fits your schedule. Like maybe writing during 30 minutes of your hour-long lunch break. Or if you’re a night owl, writing for an hour after dinner.

Taking time to reflect and analyze what isn’t helping you is an important part of the mid-year review. By reviewing and reflecting on your systems set in place, you can increase your chance of reaching your goals.

4. Embrace changes

I like to think of the middle of the year, like a mini new year. Not only are you reflecting on your past goals and making plans to achieve them, but you can also set new exciting goals.

You don’t need it to be January to set New Year’s Resolutions. Set new goals today that align with your new self.

Remember that just setting goals won’t get you anywhere. You also need to make a plan of attack for each goal.

Take it a step further and plan some monthly check-ins. I like to have a monthly reflection session with myself at the end of each month. That helps me make sure I’m still on track with my plans for my goals.

You should be constantly upgrading your goals to make sure they are aligned with who you are and your long-term plans.

5. End with positive affirmations

It’s always a good idea to end these reflection periods in a positive state of mind. The best way to do this is by utilizing positive affirmations.

Saying some of the following affirmations aloud and with confidence:

I will never give up on my goals and dreams.
I have nothing to fear, because I cannot fail. I can only learn, grow, and become better than I ever have before.
I am building my dream life and growing every day.

Then take it a step further and find, or write, an affirmation that reflects each of your goals. Recite them every morning to start your day with a clear end goal in mind.

For some more guidance on writing affirmations like that, check out The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod. In this book, he dives deep into his formula that combines Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort to reach your goals. This formula uses an affirmation that can be used for every goal in your life. I highly recommend you check it out.

Want to stay focused on your goals for the rest of the year? You’ll have to keep them top of mind every month. Do that with the monthly review and reflection workbook. Check it out ⬇️

Final Thoughts

I hope these 5 tips helped you reflect on the past 6 months and plan for the final 6 months of 2022. I would love to hear about your goals and cheer you on through until the finish line.

Let me know in the comments, what you got out of this mid-year review and what your goals are for the rest of the year.

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Refresh Your Goals with a Mid Year Review

Posted on June 15, 2022September 12, 2022 by Alyssa — 6 Comments

How To Do A Weekly Review | 10 Weekly Reflection Questions

Every week goes by so fast, that we often forget to even acknowledge how hard we worked this past week, or how much we accomplished. That’s why I love doing a quick weekly review at the end of every week. It’s a time for me to celebrate what I got done that week and even plan a few things for the next week.

I highly recommend getting into the habit of doing a weekly review.

I can guarantee that it will not only boost your productivity for the week ahead but also gives you a chance to pause, reflect, and celebrate all the progress you made over the past week.

Today I’m gonna walk you through a quick and easy weekly review so you can celebrate your accomplishments and acknowledge any valuable lessons you learned this past week and jump into next week full of excitement.

Now let’s get started.

Want a PDF download of this post? Click Here!

What is a Weekly Review?

A weekly review is a practice of looking back on the past week to see how everything went.

Each person will choose to reflect on their week differently. Some will want to record memories, others may want to relive their accomplishments and celebrate, or even take some time to answer some self-reflection questions to learn more about themselves.

The weekly review is a great time to record your performance and goals achieved specifically on your personal growth journey.

Then right after you review the previous week, you can use what you’ve learned to plan the next week.

Just remember, an accurate end of the week reflection means you need to be totally honest with yourself. That is the best way to learn more about yourself, after all.

Why Do A Weekly Review?

There are many perks to doing a weekly review and taking time to pause and reflect on how the past 7 days went.

My favorite benefit of doing this every week is that it makes every week feel like a new year, full of new possibilities and newfound motivation.

So in other words, you get 52 opportunities to start fresh and put the past week behind you.

It feels so good to give your mind and life a quick reset.

This new habit will also help you stay on track with your goals because it’ll give you the time to check in and see if you are still on track, or if any changes need to be made.

Sounds pretty awesome, right? Now let’s dive into how to do a weekly review.

How To Do A Weekly Review?

Now that you know what a weekly review is and why it’s important to do one, let me walk you through the process of actually doing one.

When to do a Weekly Review

First, you need to decide when you want to do your weekly review. Many people, myself included, do theirs at the end of the business day on Friday, as the last thing to do before logging off for the weekend. That way everything you did that week is still fresh in your mind.

Others do their weekly review on Sunday evenings as part of their Sunday routine.

Either way, set aside time to do it and make it a scheduled meeting with yourself on your calendar. That way you are less likely to miss it.

Aim to stay consistent and it’ll be easy to make it a habit every week.

I recommend setting aside an hour for the first review that you do. Over time, it won’t take you as long once you get into your own groove.

Now that you know when you are going to do your weekly review, grab a notebook and a pen, find a quiet place, and let’s get started.

Step 1: Journal

The first thing I do to start my weekly review is to just start journaling freely, with no prompts for about 10-15 minutes.

Write anything and everything that pops into your head about the past week.

Just brain dump anything that may be lurking in your brain and slowing you down.

Usually, by the end of the week, your mind is full of thoughts and next to-do list items. And you don’t want to go into next week with a full and overwhelmed brain.

Declutter your brain and end the week with a clear head.

Step 2: Ask Yourself Some Questions

I love using self-reflection questions to gain clarity about how the past week went and make a plan for making next week even better.

Here are 10 Weekly Reflection Questions:

1. What was my biggest accomplishment over the past week?

Taking time to reflect on your accomplishments is a great way to boost your self-confidence. It is also a great way to track your progress towards your goals.

2. What lessons did I learn from things that didn’t go quite right?

Anything that didn’t go as planned is a great opportunity to learn a valuable lesson.

3. What (quotes, affirmations, etc.) kept me inspired this week?

Maybe print them out and take them to the wall near your desk. Stay inspired into next week.

4. Did I complete any projects or tasks this week?

Be sure to acknowledge the work you did this week and celebrate.

5. Any pending tasks?

Make sure to note anything that didn’t get completed this week and make a plan to finish them early next week.

6. Did I stick to my plan and stay focused?

Note anything that distracted you this past week and figure out how to avoid those distractions next week.

7. What kind of progress did I make on my big monthly, quarterly, or yearly goals?

Remember that a weekly review is a great time to note your progress and make sure you are still on track.

8. What is the #1 thing I need to accomplish next week?

After you’ve gone through how last week went, decide on your number one priority for next week. Write it down and post it near your workstation so you are reminded of it on Monday morning.

9. What can I do right now to make next week less stressful?

Maybe you need to set some calendar reminders or organize your desktop folders. Write down a few quick things you can do in the last few minutes of the day to get yourself and your space ready for you to come back to Monday morning.

10. What am I most grateful for about this past week?

List at least 5 things that made you grateful or happy this past week.

Really make sure you take some time to answer these questions and reflect on your answers.

Your answers can act as a guide for when you go to plan your next week.

Step 3: Do a 5-10 minute clean up

It’s always a good idea to clean your workspace before leaving it for the weekend and having a happy, decluttered space to come back to Monday morning.

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and just do a quick reorganization and clean-up of your space.

You can also do this with other areas of your house. It’s always a good feeling to end the week with a clean home and office.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but every little bit helps.

Step 4: Review Your Calendar and Time Block Your Week

Check to make sure you know what appointments you have coming up next week and then go ahead and start time blocking your week.

You’ll save yourself a lot of time next week by planning ahead.

Final Thoughts

Implementing a weekly review will not only give you a chance to review and reflect on your past week, but it will also give you the motivation to keep moving forward into next week.

Remember, each new week is a new opportunity to start over.

Ready to make weekly self-reflection a habit? Grab the Weekly Reflection Workbook that will help you stay focused on your goals every week of the year. Check it out here.

Are you gonna start implementing a weekly review? Let me know in the comments below.

Posted on June 1, 2022September 12, 2022 by Alyssa — 4 Comments

How to Do a Monthly Reflection | 15 Questions to Ask Yourself

It’s almost the end of the month so it’s time for a monthly reflection. News flash, the beginning of a new year is not the only time you can set goals for yourself. In fact, you should be reviewing those big yearly goals every month.

By doing a monthly reflection each month, you can observe your personal growth and development on a smaller scale and adjust it to fit your lifestyle as you grow throughout the year.

I started doing a monthly reflection about 2 years ago and it has helped me tremendously to know myself better and make sure I’m always focusing on my goals.

Many people make goals or New Year’s resolutions in January, but by February they’ve lost motivation or completely forgotten what that goal was at all. By doing monthly reflections, you’ll have time to review those goals and plan for what your next steps are every month. Just imagine how many goals you could get done in a year if you stay focused every month.

Monthly reflections are not hard to do and don’t need to take a lot of time. I’m gonna walk you through what I do to review and reflect every month. Plus I have 15 monthly reflection questions for you at the end to help you dive deeper into your monthly check-in.

Want a PDF download of this post? Click Here!

Before we get started grab my monthly reflection workbook below and follow along with me.

What is a Monthly Reflection and Why Do One?

A monthly reflection is a time to review and reflect on your past month’s accomplishments, your goals, and where you are at with them. This is when you can take time to hit the pause button on life for a moment to decide how you want to keep moving forward.

Maybe you noticed you didn’t spend as much time on your goals as you would have liked. Or ate out too much and didn’t save as much money as you had hoped. Or you didn’t get to hang out with friends and family as much.

Each monthly reflection gives you a chance to start over, re-evaluate, and make a new plan.

You can set time to reflect every week, month, quarter, and year if you would like. But today we are just talking about a monthly reflection. This is the time for you to reflect on your routines, habits, and smaller goals.

Things To Reflect On Each Month

Monthly Wins

When sitting down to do a self-reflection, it is always a good idea to start with something positive about yourself. We often forget about our big accomplishments throughout the month cause we are always in a state of “go, go, go, go”. This reflection time is supposed to be a time to hit pause and acknowledge your hard work. Make sure to recognize your big and small wins.

On the flip side, if you didn’t have as many wins take that as a time to learn more about yourself and how you get things done.

Review Current Habits and Routines

Now it’s time to go into the details of your everyday habits and routines.

Did you make a plan to go to the gym 3 times a week and it didn’t end up working out at all? Are you finding yourself to be tired all the time cause you aren’t getting enough sleep?

Use this time to brain dump all the habits and routines in your life that may or may not be working for you. Then if something needs to change, make a plan.

Do you need to set out your gym bag the night before so you remember to go after work? Or do you need to buy a cute water bottle to encourage yourself to drink more throughout the day?

Make your habits and routines work for you.

How to Build New Habits with 8 Easy Steps

What is a Routines? Why are They Important?

Review Your Goals

It is a great idea to get in the habit of reviewing your goals every month. This will keep you on top of them and make you more likely to achieve them in a timely matter.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when reviewing your goals:

Did I achieve my goal?
Did my approach work? Why or why not?
Is it something I still want to pursue?
How can I improve on actually getting it done?

One Positive Lesson

It is also good to end this reflection time on a positive note. Go back over your notes for the month and pick out one lesson you want to take away and learn from it.

Ask yourself how the lesson made you grow as a person and how you are going to apply it to your life this next month.

Your #1 Priority

Now that the reflection is basically done, go over your notes and decide on your #1 focus for next month.

You want to try and have just one main thing to focus on each month. Whether that’d be a project you’re working on or a certain area of your personal growth to work on, pick just one thing to prioritize next month.

15 Monthly Reflection Questions

After you go through the 5 things to reflect on above, grab a piece of paper and answer the rest of these questions. Each one will help you dive deeper into your monthly check-in.

Answer each question like a journal prompt. Take some time to really think about each question.

What went well this month? What did I accomplish? How does it make me feel?
What didn’t go so well? How can I improve for next month?
What lessons did I learn this month? How did I grow as a person?
What challenges did I face this month? How did I deal with them?
What am I spending too little or too much time on?
What didn’t go as planned? And how can I improve on it?
Review any goals you set for this month. Did you reach them? Why or why not?
Was there anything holding me back from reaching my goals?
What goals do I have for next month?
List 5 things that made you feel most grateful this month.
What habits did I focus on this month and how did I do?
Which habits should I continue working on next month? Why?
Are there any bad habits I want to work on next month? Make an action plan.
What new habits do I want to try and implement next month? Why?
Overall, am I satisfied with how the month went? Why or why not?

Final Thoughts about Monthly Reflection

Try doing a monthly reflection every month for the next few months in a row and see how much more productive and motivated you are. By keeping up with it you have a higher chance of actually completing the goals or resolutions you set for yourself at the beginning of the year.

Wouldn’t it be cool to look back at 2022 next January and see that you actually completed all the goals you set out to do? Or even better, completed more goals than you thought you would?

It’s time to get ahead of your goals!

What goals do you have for the next month? Let me know in the comments below.

Ready to dive deep into self-reflection and get focused on your dreams this month? Check out the ⬇️

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Posted on March 30, 2022December 8, 2022 by Alyssa — 1 Comment

How to do a Quarterly Planning Session

Quarterly Planning is something I’ve been doing for over a year now and it has changed my life. I originally got the idea of quarterly planning from Brian P. Moran’s book The 12 Week Year.

Most people plan their entire year all at once, in January. By doing it this way, you aren’t taking the time to review how your goals are progressing over the year. Instead, many get discouraged or fall off the wagon by February or March and just say “oh, I’ll just wait until next year to try again”, even though that’s literally 9 or 10 months away.

By dividing your year into quarters, you are more likely to achieve your goals and stick to your plans. You can also experience that “New Year, New Me” feel every 3 months which really gets me motivated to keep going every quarter.

Now how do we plan for just 3 months? Let me show you.

What is Quarterly Planning?

First of all, let’s define quarters. Each year can be divided into 4 quarters. Making it easier to see the entire year on a smaller scale.

These quarter breaks are laid out like this:

Q1 – January 1st to March 31st
Q2 – April 1st to June 30th
Q3 – July 1st to September 30th
Q4 – October 1st to December 31st

Now that you know when each quarter starts and ends, we can discuss quarterly planning.

Basically, once every three months, you will set goals, document your progress, reflect on your lessons learned, and celebrate your accomplishments.

Each quarterly planning session should include time to reflect on the past 90 days and time to plan for the next 90 days.

Why Quarterly Planning is Important

By following a 90-day plan, you are more likely to stay motivated and on track because the goals are more manageable. With a quarterly plan, you can break down your big goals into smaller, short-term goals that will drive you towards your long-term goals. This keeps you motivated because you are seeing progress on your goals every quarter. This makes you less likely to procrastinate because the tasks are more manageable.

Quarterly Planning vs. Annual Planning

There are benefits to both quarterly and annual planning. And these strategies can be used to complement one another. Essentially, quarterly planning breaks down your big annual goals into easier and more manageable tasks.

Benefits of Quarterly Planning

Sense of urgency for tasks to be completed because they aren’t that far out
Focused time to hone in on specific tasks for each 90-day plan
An opportunity to reflect on your growth and make necessary adjustments throughout the year

Benefits of Annual Planning

Provides the foundation and direction for the goals that are set each quarter
Helps you decide what your overall mission is for the year

How to Effectively Plan Each Quarter

When you sit down to do your quarterly plan, there are 6 key things you should do:

1. Revisit Your Annual Plan Goals

This is where annual planning and quarterly planning go hand-in-hand. Review what goals you set at the beginning of the year and see if they are still relevant in your life.

2. Reflect on Your Annual Goals

For the goals that are still relevant to your life, review how close you are to achieving them. If the goals still seem very daunting, break them down into smaller, mini-goals that are more manageable.

3. Decide on your goals for the upcoming quarter

Once you have decided which goals you are continuing to work on this year and broken them down into mini-goals, decide which ones you will focus your attention on for the next 90-days.

4. Create action steps and benchmarks

Now that you have decided which mini-goals you are going to focus on for the next 90 days, you need to break them down into smaller actionable steps.

5. Set expectations and timelines

Set specific timelines for when you want (or need) to have the smaller steps completed during the quarter. This keeps you from procrastinating until the end of the quarter to start working on a task.

6. Plan out your rewards

My favorite part of quarterly planning is making up small treats to reward myself for when I complete a goal or task. This is just another way to keep you motivated.

Example of a Quarterly Planning Session

To help you understand each step, here’s an example:

Steps 1-3:

Let’s say that one of my annual goals for this year was to become an early riser who can get up at 5 am most mornings. During Q2 I decide that is still something I want to work towards so I am going to break it down into smaller mini-goals that will contribute to my goal.

Three mini-goals could be to make a morning routine that I look forward to, go to bed earlier, and work on getting up earlier every day.

Then I’m going to decide that this quarter I am going to just work on making a morning routine and going to bed earlier.

Step 4:

I will break this down even further into action steps.

Morning routine: research the benefits of getting up early, pick 3 things I want to do in the morning, decide what time I will get up every morning, set an alarm for that time, do morning routine for 5 days in a row, do morning routine for 15 days in a row, do morning routine for 30 days in a row
Going to bed earlier: decide what time I should go to bed every night, research evening/bedtime routines, pick 2 things to do before bed that will wind me down, go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual for 10 days in a row, for 20 days in a row, for 30 days in a row, pair this will my morning routine

These may seem like a lot of steps and tasks but notice how they are all small, easy actionable steps.

Step 5:

After that, I would plan some timelines and due dates for each small task to be completed during the quarter and put that into my calendar or my running task list.

Step 6:

And now I would decide on some rewards for when I complete my two mini-goals.

For example, maybe once I have completed all my smaller tasks for creating my morning routine, I would reward myself with buying a new personal development book that I would love to read.

Final Thoughts on Quarterly Planning

Quarterly planning is something that I definitely wish I would have implemented into my routine sooner. I have gotten so much done in this first quarter of 2022 because I planned smaller actionable steps that got me closer to my goals. And while my big 2022 goals aren’t even close to being completed, I know that I am just one step closer every quarter.

I hope this helped you understand what a quarterly planning session should look like and why they are so beneficial to your overall success and productivity.

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desk calendar for planning a super productive quarter

Posted on August 26, 2021February 14, 2022 by Alyssa — Leave a comment

The Importance of Self-Reflection for Your Personal Growth Journey

Every day we look at our own self-reflection in the mirror, but that is only our outer appearance. We know our outer self very well. What color our eyes are, the shape of our nose, how tall we are.

But how often do we take time to examine our inner-self?

I believe that the practice of self-reflection is a skill everyone should work on more.

In this blog post, we are going to take a look at what self reflection is, why it’s important, and how to make it a part of your daily routine.

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What is Self Reflection

Self-Reflection is a method used to get to know your inner-self better in a mindful and open-minded way. It is the key to better self-awareness as it allows you to look at your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions.

Through self reflection, you can learn more about yourself – who you are, why you do and think the way you do, your values, motivations, and attitudes toward your life and desires.

It is important to know these things about yourself so you can see where you are headed and adjust accordingly with the person you want to be.

Why is it Important: 5 Benefits to Self Reflection

As I mentioned, self reflection gives you the ability to focus on becoming the person you wish to be. That is why it’s important to include self reflection as a part of your personal growth journey. After all, how can you expect to become a better version of yourself if you don’t examine yourself regularly?

There are many benefits to practicing self reflection as a part of your personal growth journey.

Here are my top 5 benefits:

1. Improves Mindfulness

Self reflection can help you be more mindful throughout the day. It helps you to think deeper about situations and helps you understand why you react the way you do to different circumstances.

As you reflect more on yourself, you’ll start to better understand your values and what you want out of life. You’ll become more mindful of your choices because you know what you want the outcome to be.

2. Gives You a Better Perspective On Life

Self reflection is a way to analyze your thoughts and emotions. It can help you view situations with a more calming sense, and without the cloud of emotions.

This can be very effective when you are feeling overwhelmed about something. Try sitting with your emotions and reflect on why you feel the way you do. It can make that emotion feel much lighter and give you a sense of relief.

Reflection helps you determine what really matters, because we often think up things to be much bigger than they really are.

3. Helps With Decision-Making

As you use self reflection to get to know yourself better, you will begin to understand what really matters to you and what doesn’t. Then when you face a certain situation, you can make the decision on how to deal with it easier.

Did you know most of our daily decisions we make come from our unconscious mind? In fact, about 90% of our decisions are made unconsciously!! Isn’t that crazy?!

That’s why self reflecting often is so important. It helps you program your values and motivations into your subconscious mind so that you can make unconscious decisions that are still a line with your values.

4. Forces You To Slow Down

Most days, everyone, including me, are often moving at the speed of light.

We are busier and burnt out more than ever, and we often measure our worth by how much we get done in a day, or how quickly we can do a task.

Unfortunately, many people end up viewing being busy as a badge of honor.

Having a daily self reflection practice will instead help you to slow down and live in the present moment. This allows you to appreciate the little things you do get done each day, and will less likely lead you to burn out.

5. Gives You Time to Celebrate Yourself and Your Accomplishments

How often do you actually take the time to celebrate your accomplishments, big or small?

You always have something to celebrate.

Did you get out of bed before noon today? That’s an accomplishment!

Did you make a salad instead of grabbing a bag of chips? That’s also an accomplishment worth celebrating.

If you stop and reflect on the past day, week, or month, you’ll see you have a lot to celebrate.

Tip: during my morning routine time, I like to write down a minimum of 3 things that I accomplished the day before. This helps set me to celebrate myself first thing in the morning and gives me the motivation to keep working on me every day.

How to Practice Self Reflection

Before we dive into how to reflect, I want to share a quick tip:

Self Reflect Without Judgment

During your reflection time, make sure you aren’t judging yourself for decisions you made in the past. It already happened, it’s in the past, so don’t dwell on it.

Instead, focus on how you can improve going forward.

Self Reflection is about improving yourself, not bringing yourself down.

Use Journaling

There are many ways to practice self reflection, but I’ve found that the best way is to use writing as a way to process my thoughts and feelings. If you’ve been here before, you’ll know that I’m big into journaling. Ever since I’ve made journaling a daily practice of mine I’ve discovered a lot about my inner-self.

Journaling can help you learn more about your attitude patterns, your habits and notice regular themes that come up in your life.

Try using journaling as a way to practice self reflection. You could start by just free writing with whatever comes to mind or try some of these journal prompts:

Related: How to Start a Journal

Make Self Reflection Part of Your Daily Routine

Another way you can practice self-reflection is by doing a quick check-in at the end of every day.

You can review what you accomplished that day, what made you most grateful, and what you wish you had done differently.

Tip: Do your quick self reflection check-in right before you make your plans for the next day. Partnering the two tasks will give you motivation to plan to accomplish even more tomorrow. Plus you can take note of the lessons you learned that day and apply them to your plan for tomorrow.

5 Quick Self Reflection Questions

Here are a few self reflection questions to get you started:

What are my strengths? Make note of the things you do well, that make you proud of yourself.
What are my weaknesses? Not your personality traits or personal habits that you think make you less effective.
What are 5 things that make me happy? Write down things in your life, big or small, that fill you with joy every time.
What are 5 things that bring me down? Write down things in your life that stress you out, make you anxious, or make you less happy.
What did I do today/this week that I’m proud of? Celebrate your accomplishments, big or small.

Self Reflection on Your Personal Growth Journey

Self reflection is a very important practice you should do while you are focusing on your personal growth and development. A major part of your personal growth is being able to look at your own personal characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, and actions, and how they play a role in making up who you are.

Make a plan to include self reflection in your daily, weekly, and monthly routine. I recommend starting with a monthly reflection routine. It’s less overwhelming than finding time every day or every week.

Want to learn more about personal growth? Check out this ebook The Ultimate Personal Growth Guide. You’ll learn 10 different strategies for working on yourself and start taking steps towards becoming the best version of yourself!

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