Reflect & Connect: How to Position Yourself for A Purposeful & Intentional Year
Where do you find yourself as we wrap up the year? The holiday season has always been a natural time for reflection. Offering a slowness and richness, we find ourselves not just reconnecting with our loved ones but with ourselves — our goals, dreams, and innermost desires that we’re longing to achieve.
What are those for you? Losing the weight? Starting the business? Enriching your relationship with God? Wherever you find yourself, this is an opportunity for reflection, connection, and resolve. At the start of every coaching session, I use an exercise with my clients called Reflect and Connect where I have my clients reflect on their progress from our previous session and connect with where they are and how they feel toward their goals.
Reflection offers lessons or insights from the past that help informs your present and future direction. Connection extends an invitation for you to be present in your current situation, and resolve gives you permission and passion to commit as you position and prepare yourself for what’s to come. This is how you position yourself for a year that’s filled with vision, purpose, and intention.
Reflect
Take some to reflect on the progress you made this year by conducting a year-end review. Think about the challenges you had, the lessons you learned, and the opportunities you have to grow. Here are some coaching questions you might want to consider:
What went well in the last year?
What were some of your major challenges?
What were some key lessons that you’ve learned this year?
What is one thing that you want to focus on moving into the year ahead?
What does a purpose-driven year look and feel like to you?
Answering these questions helps you to celebrate the progress you made while offering honest feedback on what needs to change moving into the year ahead.
Connect
Connect with where you are in the present. How are you feeling about yourself and your goals? If you have your goals nearby, read them aloud and ask yourself what are 1-2 feeling words or emotions that come to mind when you consider your goals. Your feelings will offer insight and inform you about the actions that led you to this place.
Resolve
Now that you’ve reflected on your past and connected with your present, it’s time to determine how you would like to move forward. What change are you resolved to make? What are you choosing to focus on in the year ahead that will have the most purpose and impact in your life? Resolve and come into agreement that this year will indeed be different. It may not be perfect, but it will be different. Determine what it is that you want to change in your life and make a commitment with yourself to do just that.
Regardless of where you find yourself this December, choose to prepare for the year ahead by reflecting, connecting, and resolving. Reflecting on your past, connecting with the present, and resolving that your best most purpose-filled days are yet to come.
For more on how to design your most purposeful year yet, download the free Design Your Year Lifestyle Guide.
