What Is The Meaning Of The Word Reflect?
What Is The Meaning Of The Word Reflect?
Everybody would benefit from spending time alone, in silence, and reflecting on different areas of their life. It is one of the most useful and valuable ways to spend time that I found so that I can live my best life consciously by design.
I also always take time to reflect upon my last year as I sit down to plan my new year. One of the questions you may be asking is what exactly is the meaning of the word reflect?
It is to pause, focus, think deeply and bring awareness to particular areas of life so that you can gain insights and lessons that can be reused in the future.
So, at this point, you may be wondering: why is it important to reflect on last year in particular? Let’s discuss that next.
Why Is It Important To Reflect On Your Last Year?
It is important to reflect on the last year so that you can gain confidence by celebrating and honouring all of your accomplishments and also grow, gain insights, learn lessons, and receive feedback from all of your failures and mishaps before.
Reflection will help you decide what worked and could be repeated in the new year and what needs to be tweaked and improved for a better new year. It also gives you the confidence to plan and set goals for the new year.
Without reflection, you would repeat your mistakes and not move forward in life and your new year as a better version of yourself.
How To Reflect On The Past Year
As we established earlier, it is an extremely important and necessary exercise to do this exercise for yourself every year so that you do not repeat your mistakes and forget to do what worked well in the new year.
Start reflecting on things from last year to gain clarity and awareness by asking yourself the following questions.
What Are You grateful For?
Even though we have had a tough few years, we all have had some moments and things that we can be grateful for. What are those for you? Recall and write them all down so you can review them again and again.
Write down all the special experiences that you shared with your family, friends, customers, team members etc that you are also grateful for? Did you see amazing sunsets, sunrises, whimsical clouds?
What Are Some Highlights Of Your Last Year?
Write down some moments that you experienced that you are proud of. Did you create something new like a new program to transform people’s lives or did you start a valuable ritual with your family?
Remember all the highlights of your last year? What did you experience last year? Did you serve someone? Did you compliment people? Did you give to charity? Did you make someone smile? Did you make someone laugh?
Recalling these highlights will give you joy, raise your energy, and vibration and help you start your new year with a lot of confidence and with a focus on positivity.
What Lessons Did You Learn?
Write down all the challenges, failures you experienced, overcame and lessons that you learnt. We go through things in life so we can continue to grow, learn and be more compassionate, wiser and stronger.
It is important to acknowledge lessons learnt so that you do not experience them again.
Do You Regret Any Decisions And Mistakes You Made?
It is important to forgive yourself and let go of any regrets you feel in relation to all the mistakes and decisions you made that you are not proud in the past year. We all make mistakes however we are often very hard and unforgiving towards ourselves.
We forgive others for their mistakes however have very high standards for ourselves. Holding on to your regrets can lead to other health issues in your body. Learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself, let the regret go, and help someone else avoid this mistake if possible.
Do You Have Any Resentment Towards Others?
Did someone fail to meet your expectations and are you holding on to the resentments? Let go of these resentments before they turn into bigger health issues for you.
Always remember not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever. Forgive them and let them go from your life if possible or minimize your interaction with them.
Everything that happens in your life is in divine order. Holding on to these resentments will only harm you. There are no accidents. We live in a very intelligent universe.
What Beliefs Do You Need To Let Go Of?
Do you have any beliefs and thoughts that are keeping you small and not serving you to live your best life and fulfill your dreams? Practice self-reflection and figure out what they are and replace them with beliefs and thoughts that are aligned to your vision and purpose.
How To Plan For A Best And Successful New Year
Now that you have completed your reflection, let’s create a plan for your best and most successful new year. Clarify and decide what you want to focus on creating by asking the following questions.
What Is Your Word For The Year?
Ask yourself what area you want to focus upon and accomplish in the new year. What word would you give your year? For example, Is it the year of breakthrough, year of growth, year of health, year of joy, year of compassion, year of contribution, etc?
It is good to have goals for all areas of your life, however, which area do you want to focus upon the most? Which area do you feel requires your most immediate attention?
How Do You Want To Grow This Year?
What are your growth goals for this year? How are you planning to grow? The more you grow the more you can serve your purpose in a bigger and better way.
How many books are you going to read? Courses you will invest in? Communities you will join? Videos you will watch? Podcasts you will listen to? Equipment you will invest in for your health?
What Kind of Experiences Do You Want To Have?
What kind of experiences do you want to have with your family, friends, customers, the team in the new year?
How Do You Want To Contribute And Help Others?
What are some types of contributions you want to make this year? how do you want to serve other people? how do you want to help others?
is it through financial contribution? Is it with your time? Do you want to help someone and volunteer somewhere? Is it that you want to speak to someone in your family/extended family?
What goals Do You have?
Review your life vision, values, purpose and write down all your goals in the different areas of your life like family, friends, work, financial, health, physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional that you would like to accomplish.
What Actions Do You Plan To Take?
It is important to plan the exact steps and processes to accomplish your goals. Your outcome goals may not be in your complete control, however, your process goals are.
It’s always okay to plan the actions, but always remember to never get attached to those plans and goals. In the end, what matters is the fact that you have grown as a person because you had those goals. Your goals should stretch you and bring you out of your comfort zone.
In conclusion, you now know what it means to reflect. It is to pause, focus, think deeply and bring awareness to particular areas of life to gain insights and lessons that can be reused in the future.
I hope you recognize the importance of reflection so we do not repeat all the things we did not like about our life and past year. Join me and begin to incorporate this practice into your routine more frequently, especially at the beginning of a new year.
Plan and create your best year. Decide what you want in each area of your life, set goals, and start taking the actions required. Good Luck!
It would be helpful for you to read what are life goals article next for further insights and knowledge.
I hope you experience and feel lots of love, good health, happiness, and prosperity in the new year! Happy New Year!