Closing off the 2020 Storybook and Starting 2021!

 

If we open the calendars and check the dates, we will notice that it is 5 days away from 2021. How do you feel about it? Maybe you will exclaim, "Omg time goes by so quickly this year"; maybe you will think of what else you can do for the remaining ten days; maybe you cannot wait to plan your 2021; or maybe you want to review your 2020 first and think about what you have achieved for this undeniably special year. 

Yes, 2020 is an unusual year with so many unexpected things happened. I believe most people have had their first-time experiences: in which we might lose something on our way but might also gain something simultaneously. No matter what you have encountered in this year, I think it is a time for us to review our 2020 so that we can have a better understanding of ourselves and where we want to move forward in the upcoming year. 

My 2020 is a year with ________.

When you see this subtitle, what would you want to fill in? It is a simple sentence but it takes time to complete. There could be so many things that happened in the last 365 days, how should we summarize all of them and let it becomes our leading lighthouse for next year? I read from Harriet Minter that in order to make a helpful review, it is important that we can identify both our strengths and weaknesses. In other words, we need to be able to see what we did not do well but also emphasize what we have achieved. I totally agree with Harriet. Everyone's life has both bright and shaded spaces, and it is important we can see both of them. If we can only identify the things we did not do well, then we will easily lose motivation for moving forward. Similarly, If we can only see what we have achieved, then we will not be able to improve and learn from our past experiences. 

Moreover, instead of just reviewing your goals for 2020, also review your 2020 experiences. We cannot plan everything beforehand, such as what experiences we will be involved. Let's take a few minutes to recall these memories. It could just be little things such as finding a new good song, or meet up with a new good friend. It could also about "I accidentally dropped my phone" or "I had an argument with my friend because of......". Reminiscing these can give us a sense that life is not rigid and fixed, instead, full of surprises. For me, I really love doing this kind of review, because it lets me feel grateful for encountering those lovely events, while also reminds myself to be aware of bad surprises.  

So, how should we start our 2020 review? Firstly think about what your main goals for 2020 are and how you have been working on it. For example, my main goal for 2020 is to improve my academic knowledge and I will give myself a half-tick to this goal. I have tried to review lecture contents and read major-related books to enhance my understanding, however, I did not complete all the review works due to my procrastination. For your brief review, you can make a short list, or even just think about it in your mind. We have designed a simple review worksheet which you might find helpful as well. Scroll to the bottom and you'll see it!

If every year is a new story book, what is the main theme of yours?

I love to refer a whole year experience as a storybook. It is a blank book at the beginning, and with time goes by, we draw and write to fill in the book. So if 2021 is a new blank book in front of you, what would you want to do first? Yes, we might want to give it a name and set up a theme. In this way, we will know what we want to write and how should we write. The book theme is the same as our life goals. Let’s close our eyes for a second and think  “what is the goal or theme for my 2021? What do I want to achieve the most?”. It could be any things that you want to focus on for 2021. There are no right or wrong, big or small goals, because every’s book should be unique and special, and belongs to you and only you.

On our catalogue page：what are your main goals?

Just like each book has its catalogue, we need to outline our main goals for our new year. If you don't already know, there are certain tips or strategies for setting up your goals which can keep you pursuing. Dweck, a psychology professor, said that most people are motivated by performance goals and mastery goals. 

“Performance goals” are those focus on how to perform better in front of other people. For example, someone might set up the performance goal as “to ace this test” or “to show good leadership skills”. Though we must have heard that we should focus on our inner self more, we can't deny that it is our human nature that we're concerned about other’s opinion. If these kinds of goals can motivate you to start your actions and perform better achievements, then why not? If you want to be perceived as smart, then you have to work hard to be smart. 

“Mastery goals” refers to the inner curiosity and desire to learn and master a skill. The old quote says that “curiosity is the best teacher”, and that is unfadingly true. The inner desire will keep you up while pursuing the goals even when you face difficulties on the way. With this, ask yourself two questions, “what skills do I want to improve on?” and “what are the new field that I want to try and learn?”. Think carefully of these two questions and put them in your goal list. Research has already found that people who work on mastery goals can generally have better satisfaction with their life. 

How would you write your book? What tools do you want to use?

There are different genres of books. Someone might prefer an illustration, while others may prefer writing a narrative. So for the book of our new year, in which ways and with what tools and instruments would you choose to write? In other words, how would you achieve your outlined goals?

There is a commonly used but very effective strategy for achieving goals which you might have heard about of - the “SMART goals”. The main five elements in this strategy are “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely”. Generally speaking, we have to keep our goals specific and achievable. Let’s have a look at the graph below and think about how to expand your main goals based on this graph?

We are about to write!

So when we have finished all the above work, now its time to start “writing”. You can fill in the book in your own way, but just remember to review your goals and check what you have put in regularly. Often remind yourself, you are the best author of your own storybook, so even though there will be a difficult time when you feel you have been trapped, just keep going. If the goals are in your eyes, you will never be out of the right track. Hope you will have a happy new year and is going to open a wonderful new book.

Yours,

The Lights Within

/2020 review sheet prepared by The Lights Within!/

Hope you will find them helpful!

Sources: 

Davis, J. M. A. (2017). A radical alternative to New Year's goal-setting. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/tracking-wonder/201711/radical-alternative-new-years-goal-setting

Meuscheke, J. (n.d.). Setting goals for the new year. Spend Life Wisely. Retrieved from http://www.spendlifewisely.com/pillars/personal-growth/setting-goals-for-the-new-year

Neto, E. G. (2017). Past year reviews: Create a better future by understanding the past. Eduardo Gomes Neto. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@egomesneto/the-unconventional-way-tim-ferriss-approaches-new-years-resolutions-b780ee7a7a4f