In the absence of a few days until the end of the year, I like to do a little recap on each of the areas of my life throughout the year. For this I take paper and pencil and elaborate a list made up of the following 9 elements:
The list of items may vary from person to person. What's more, the order of the elements is not relevant. The important thing is to assign a score from 1 to 10 to each of them, 1 being not at all satisfied and 10 completely satisfied.
This is a very abstract score based on our own judgment, therefore, it is not necessary to explain in words what each of the remaining scores (2,3,4 etc.) corresponds to. Basically you have to keep in mind that 1 is the worst result (or most negative) and 10 is the best result (or most positive).
Once you have completed the list, you should stop at those areas to which you have given the lowest score and try to analyze the causes that have prevented you during the year from achieving a more positive score. This will make it easier for you to meet your goals in the future..
Let's say you get a 8 at work since throughout the year you have achieved a small promotion and have been given more responsibilities. Probably the fact of working more brings as a consequence that you cannot enjoy so much time with family and friends, therefore their respective scores will also drop.
You must try to find interrelationships and explanations to each of the scores and write them on another piece of paper. Once you have those explanations written down on paper in front of you, it will be much easier for you to strategize to increase your scores in the year ahead. The final step is to pick up a piece of paper again and write these strategies. This last sheet should become your "Roadmap" for the whole year.
Sheet 1: Make a list of the 9 items and set scores for each of them.
Sheet 2: Find interrelationships and explanations for the scores.
Sheet 3: Establish strategies to increase scores throughout the new year.
No matter how simple this technique is, it is very useful since in most cases our feelings towards a certain topic they are too abstract and confusing.
We know that something in our life needs to change but we do not know to what extent. However, when we try to capture those feelings on paper and quantify them numerically, automatically go from abstraction to become something more concrete. As a consequence we can establish sharper and more concrete strategies to meet your objectives for the year in those areas that require it.
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