Wrapping Up 2024: Reflect, Recharge, and Refocus

It doesn’t feel like that long ago I was sitting down to write the last Weekly Insights for 2023. Yet, here we are, again.

A friend once shared the perspective that the years go faster as you get older because of proportionality. When you’re five, a year is only 20% of your life. When you’re 50, a year is 2% of your life. Consequently, each year feels shorter in comparison.

However, each year is unique, no matter how short or long it feels.

2024 has been a year filled with a blend of challenges, surprises and successes. While it’s natural to focus on the external events that shaped our experiences, this time of year invites us to turn inward and ask more profound questions about how we lived, learned, and grew.

As this year nears its completion, it’s time to pause and look back so you can look forward. You want to wrap up 2024 intentionally to set yourself up for a fulfilling and impactful 2025.

Reflect: Honouring the Lessons of 2024
Reflection is more than a simple look back—it’s about extracting meaning and insights from your experiences. As I have said many times, reflection causes learning. This HBR article also highlights how reflection is about ‘meaning-making’, which is crucial for growth and development and boosts productivity.

If you want more on this, check out Donald Schön’s book The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. His book explores the power of reflection in learning and professional growth.

For your reflection, start by considering the following questions:

What are you most proud of? Identify accomplishments—big or small—that brought you joy, satisfaction, or growth. Maybe it was a professional milestone, a personal breakthrough, or a relationship you nurtured.
Where did you feel challenged? Challenges often hold the richest lessons. What did you learn about your resilience, adaptability, or resourcefulness? How might you apply those insights from now on?
What surprised you? Surprises often illuminate gaps in assumptions or highlight opportunities yet to be explored. Reflect on unexpected moments that shaped your year in meaningful ways.

At this point, consider where you have focused your energy throughout the year. One way to do this is to complete the Wheel of Life assessment. This assessment is a classic coaching tool that helps you assess various areas of your life across your career, relationships, health, and personal growth. It’s a great starting point for identifying areas to focus on in the coming year. If you want more details, this article may help.

Another approach is to consider the Ikigai Framework. You have likely heard of this before. It’s a Japanese concept that helps people find their purpose by exploring what they love, what they are good at, what the world needs, and what they can be paid for. This book, which one of my lovely coaching clients once gave me, is a good place to start.

Now, to prevent these ideas from just floating around in your head, write them down. Writing your reflections helps with your brain’s processing process. It also allows you the opportunity to revisit and build upon them as you prepare for the year ahead.

Read these:

Do We Always Need Purpose

The Purposeful Leader

Recharge: Prioritising Renewal
Modern life often keeps us in a perpetual state of doing, leaving little space for stillness and simply being.

As the year closes, you know it’s essential to prioritise rest and renewal, although, as you are juggling multiple priorities right now, that might feel elusive.

It’s helpful to think about the activities you can do to help build your Psychological Capital (PsyCap). PsyCap is a person’s positive psychological state and involves self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism:

Self-efficacy: Confidence in your ability to take on and execute tasks.
Hope: Perseverance toward goals and the ability to create pathways to achieve them.
Resilience: The capacity to recover and bounce back from adversity.
Optimism: Positive expectations about future outcomes.

If you want more, it’s worth reading Psychological Capital and Beyond by Professor Fred Luthans and colleagues.

You don’t need a long list of things to do. All that approach does is feel overwhelming. Be deliberately thoughtful and find a few simple practices that help you recharge.

Here are my top ideas:

Carve Out Quiet Time: Create space for solitude, whether through meditation, journaling, or a long walk in nature.
Connect Authentically: Spend quality time with loved ones, nurturing relationships that bring joy and meaning to your life and emotional nourishment.
Let Go of Clutter: Both physical and mental clutter drain your energy. Use this time to declutter your home, workspace, and even your digital life. Equally, let go of unhelpful thoughts, grudges, or habits that no longer serve you.
Move Your Body: Physical movement is one of the most effective ways to release stress and re-energise. Whether it’s yoga, dancing, or simply walking, find what brings you peace and joy.
Embark on a Practice of Daily Gratitude Reflection: Use a Gratitude Journal or gratitude practice to help you cultivate a daily habit of reflection and gratitude.

Refocus: Setting Your 2025 Intentions

As you look ahead, you want to be aspirational and realistic. The best progress is often incremental, so embrace the concept of ‘marginal gains’.

This concept was popularised by the work of Sir Dave Brailsford in 2003 when he was appointed as the Performance Director for British Cycling. Before then, British Cycling was underperforming, with very little success at the elite level for nearly 100 years.

His approach was based on the belief that achieving a 1% improvement in various aspects of performance would accumulate to a significant overall improvement. He did things like optimised the athletes’ diets, prioritised their sleep with mattress and pillow choices and developed lighter bikes.

The results were gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, Bradley Wiggins becoming the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France in 2012, and British dominance of global competitions.

As you look ahead to 2025, remember small and steady steps are all you need for progress.

A critical element of moving forward is challenging the perspectives that no longer serve you. Your assumptions and beliefs shape your choices and can also limit you. Take time to examine your perspectives on:

Yourself: What beliefs about your abilities or potential might hold you back? How can you reframe them?
Others: Are you open to understanding others’ viewpoints, even when they differ from your own? How can you open your heart and mind to different perspectives?
The Future: Do you see the future as full of possibility? Are you so focused on what’s wrong that you don’t know what’s good?

Also, instead of rigid resolutions (that everyone forgets), set intentions—clear, purposeful statements about how you want to show up in the coming year.

To guide your thinking, ask yourself:

What do you want to learn? Choose areas of personal or professional growth that excite you. Is there a skill you’ve meant to develop or a topic you’d like to explore?
What relationships do you want to nurture? Relationships are the cornerstone of a fulfilling life. Identify who you want to spend more time with and how to deepen those connections.
How can you create a positive impact? Reflect on how you can make a difference in your community, workplace, or family. What unique contributions can you offer?
What boundaries do you need to set? Protecting your time, energy, and focus requires boundaries. Be clear about what you will say ‘yes’ to and what you need to say ‘no’ to.

Life’s wonder lies in the grand and simple moments that shape who we are. It’s not about achieving perfection but about showing up fully, learning continuously, and living authentically. My wish for you is that you wrap up 2024 in a manner that brings you joy and welcome the new year with hope.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my weekly missives. I look forward to seeing where 2025 takes us—wishing you a season filled with joy, renewal, and connection.

Take care, have fun and stay well.

Republished with courtesy from michellegibbings.com