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a Woman is sitting on the pier. blue sky, blue water, reflection at the end of the year
13.12.2023
Magazine category

Invitation to mindfulness and reflection at the end of the year

At first glance, it seems like a contradiction in terms. The end of the year is a particularly busy time for many people. Current projects have to be completed and new ones planned. Additional tasks are on the agenda, such as Christmas cards and Christmas newsletters to ensure that all customers, employees and business partners are taken care of, and then there are the Christmas presents ...

Where is the opportunity for mindfulness and reflection in the midst of this turbulence? This is exactly where it is worth taking a closer look and making room for these important topics. Put your to-do list to one side for 5 minutes, light an incense candle, make yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take a deep breath.

Mindfulness, contemplation & reflection should not become a luxury good

The approaching end of the year is, in many ways, a final year. Many tasks and projects have set themselves a deadline of December 31, the year is over and the new year is already in the starting blocks, with all its challenges. This time of year is like a small break that invites you to take a deep breath after a long run.

For many different reasons, it is important and sensible to use this break to pause and look back carefully on personal and professional successes, challenges and learning moments. This is the only way to gain important insights into what has already gone well and where it is worth making adjustments and doing better next year.

That's why pausing at the end of the year is particularly important

  • Don't go into the holidays burnt out
    You may have already experienced it yourself: a vacation is coming up that you've been looking forward to for a long time after a busy period and then you fall ill on the very first day of your vacation. This is due to the stress beforehand, which weakens your immune system. Christmas time with the family is too important to spend it sick in bed.

  • Take the time for personal appreciation
    Unfortunately, we take far too little time in everyday life to give small tokens of appreciation to the most important people in our lives. This makes it all the more important to make up for it during the Advent and Christmas season with personal gifts or simply time spent together. Only then, when everything around you comes to rest, do you remember what is important in life.

  • Set new plans and goals for the future
    The end of the year, with all your completed and newly planned projects, offers you the best opportunity to set new goals and make plans for the future. Contemplation and mindfulness help you to make conscious decisions and focus on what is really important in the coming year.

  • Strengthening personal relationships
    Hosting a wine evening with friends or simply paying a visit to an elderly family member - unfortunately, moments with loved ones are far too rare in everyday life. Christmas is a valuable opportunity to consciously enjoy moments with loved ones and strengthen relationships by spending time together.

Finally, the Christmas season should always be an invitation to self-care. What is good for you, what are you looking forward to and what can help you to be less stressed next year?

Reflection for a clear objective in the new year

Over the past year, you have acted according to certain convictions, upheld values and set yourself short and long-term goals. But have you ever asked yourself whether this still works for you or whether there are other goals and values that are important to you now? Self-reflection is important so that you stay on a course that can fulfill you both personally and professionally in the long term. Reflection involves two aspects: looking back on the past and looking ahead to the next year. Targeted questions can help you to gain clarity.

Use these questions for your personal review of the year

By taking a targeted look at the past, you can build on and strengthen the positive findings in the coming year and avoid negative ones. The following questions can give you ideas for your personal review of the year.

  • What moments and events made the past year particularly positive?
  • What was the most outstanding experience for you last year?
  • Who contributed to making this experience a highlight?
  • What successes fill you with pride and joy?
  • Were there any experiences that touched you deeply, in whatever form?
  • What do you consider to be particularly valuable and important in life?
  • Have you taken enough time in the past year for what is important to you?
  • What went differently than expected, desired or imagined, and why?
  • Why didn't it go as planned?
  • Who has helped you the most in the past year? Who was your biggest support?
  • What new skills and insights have you gained in the past year?  
  • What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to do it again?
  • In which areas have you developed the most?
  • Which relationships have deepened and are there any relationships that you would like to strengthen?

Your personal forecast for the coming year

The second part of self-reflection is looking ahead to the next year. If you could paint yourself a world, what would it look like? And what could realistically be realized in the near future?

  • What is your most important personal goal for the coming year?
  • Where would you like to be professionally in a year's time?
  • What special experiences would you like to have in the near future?
  • Are there any places you really want to visit?
  • What have you been waiting a long time for and want to finally tackle in the new year?
  • What would you like to be able to do in a year's time that you can't do today?
  • Who or what would you like to devote more time to and for what reason?
  • What lessons have you learned from past mistakes that you don't want to happen again?
  • Are there things you would like to part with, either professionally or privately?
  • What would you like to do for your personal well-being?
  • What are your longing and concrete wishes for the coming year?

Learning from experience: Gibb's cycle of reflection

We learn throughout our lives from the experiences we have had. The British educationalist and Professor of Learning, Teaching and Quality Development at the University of Oxford Graham Gibbs has developed his own reflection model that you can use as a structured approach to end-of-year reflection.

This cycle consists of six phases that guide you to analyze your own experiences from the past year and to learn from them.

  1. Description (Description)
    The first phase involves describing the events or situations that you were able to experience in the past year. At this point, it is important to view these events neutrally and without judgment. It is only about facts and details.

  2. Feelings
    In this phase, you reflect on your own emotions and reactions to the events described. The aim is to consciously explore your own feelings.

  3. Evaluation
    At this point, you critically analyze the situation. You look at what went well and what didn't and also evaluate your own actions and those of the other people involved.

  4. Analysis (Analysis)
    In the next step, you take a close look at your experiences. You examine the reasons for certain actions or events and draw your own conclusions.
  • Conclusion
    You draw your conclusions based on the previous analysis. For example, you consider how you could act differently in certain situations or what specific insights can be derived for the future.

  • Action plan
    In the final phase of the reflection cycle, you consider what concrete steps you can take to better master similar situations in the future. The aim is to derive action steps from the reflection.

The Gibbs Reflection Cycle is a valuable tool to help you reflect on personal or professional experiences of the past year and take a step forward in your development.

Time management as a central building block for happiness, satisfaction and success

In all the previous considerations, one theme always crystallizes: time. We would like to spend more evenings with friends, see dear relatives more often or spend more quality time on the things that are important to us. But in the end, there is always not enough time. That's why it's worth putting your finger in the wound and asking yourself: where in life is time lost? You probably know the old saying:

              "We can't give life more hours, but we can give hours more life."

This wisdom can also be applied to work. With improved time management, you can make more time for the things that are most important to you, both personally and professionally. Last year, we already gave you some ideas for improved time management, which we would just like to present again briefly here.

The Pareto principle: the 80:20 rule for your time management

The Pareto principle states that around 20 % of the tasks at hand can already yield 80 % of the success, or in other words: if you concentrate on essential tasks and either delete unimportant tasks or distribute them well among the team, you can work effectively and save time. A good resolution for next year could therefore be to distinguish even more clearly between important and less important tasks.

Applying the art of delegation correctly

An important part of time management is not piling up tasks on your own desk, but assigning them to the right team members. In our article on the art of delegation, we give you valuable tips on how to choose the right tasks to delegate, find suitable employees and instruct them in the best possible way.

Meeting time wasters: how to get rid of superfluous appointments

You probably know those days when there is hardly any time between meetings to refill your coffee cup. Many meetings are unproductive, drag on unnecessarily or are simply superfluous. Take a look at our magazine article "Time-wasting meetings" for helpful tips on how you can remove inefficient appointments from your calendar in the coming year.  

Conclusion and food for thought for the year 2024

There are still a few days left until the end of the year, which you can fill with more mindfulness and take time to look back. To help you enter the next year with lots of positive energy, clear goals and more time for all the essentials, we would like to give you three tips to encourage you in these plans.

Maybe it doesn't always have to be perfect

Many people with management responsibility tend towards perfection. They tweak a result until it finally meets their own high standards. However, a lot of time is lost on this final polish. Perhaps it is enough to do one or two tasks "well" or "very well" and achieve the same goal.

Your expectations and your goals count

Very often, stress and overload arise because we try to please others first and foremost and lose sight of our own personal goals in the process. Why don't you turn off all the emails and WhatsApp messages in which other people have expectations of you? Which of these really match your personal goals?

Free yourself from old baggage

What often slows us down are old bills - personal conflicts with people, unfinished tasks that have always been put off until the next month or decisions that we always carry around in front of us. The time until the end of the year offers you the opportunity to tidy up, release the brakes and really get going.

Our coaching team will be happy to support and accompany you in all your projects. We wish you, your team and your family a stress-free, mindful time until the end of the year and a motivating and energetic start to the coming year.

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