Lynda Moore says before you look ahead to the New Year, some reflection can help you stay positive and get ready to build on the good bits from this year

I don’t know about you, but I’m running out of steam. I’m counting down the number of sleeps until we close for the Christmas break, then it’s just a few days before family arrive and it’s full on with the Christmas and New Year festivities. Maybe after that, I’ll get to have a sleep in and not feel as if I’m constantly running round in headless chook mode!

There is one thing that I will make time for during my break and that is my annual planning session. I like to do the first part, if I can, between Christmas and New Year. It’s the bit I like to do the most. If you’ve never done this exercise before, I highly recommend it before you set your New Year’s resolutions (that we all know don’t work), so just skip that bit, and plan on setting some real goals instead.

My annual planning process starts with reflection. Looking backwards before we start planning to move forwards.

What were some of the things you just didn’t see coming? For me, it was not on my radar at all this time last year, that I would be moving out of Auckland, I’d be flatting with my mum, while I build a lovely little home for myself!

Believe it or not, we are hopeless at predicting the future. Nobody forecasted the Great Depression back in the 1930’s.  In January 2020, The Economist predictions didn’t mention Covid. In 2022 there was no mention of Russia or Ukraine.

I know these are big world events, so just scale it back to your own world and go back and think about what you didn’t see coming. How did you cope with it? 

The other reason for reflecting and looking back, is that we are Programmed for Pessimism, it’s easier to remember traumatic events than the nice stuff, so when we do look back the icky stuff is what pops up first. I want you to look back through your photos, your calendar and list all the good stuff that happened, it could be events, money in the bank, people you met. What were the positives that happened during the year.

Then narrow it down to a few best moments in the year for you. Maybe it was becoming a parent for the first time. Or, getting a new job that increased your income. Or just getting to the end of the year in the same place as you started out. It will be different for everyone. 

Once you start digging into those moments you will see that your values and beliefs really helped you get there. These are the values and beliefs that you want to build upon as you head into the New Year.

Maybe you learnt some new skills, changed the way you behave, or your environment changed. All of these combined to get you to those moments. 

It's also okay to explore the negatives, but don’t get too bogged down in them. What didn’t work so well question is an important one. These are the events that we want to learn from so we don’t repeat the same patterns over again. 

Just like the best moment, our values and beliefs come into play here, but we might not have listened to them and that led us down a not-so-great pathway.

We might have lacked some skills, behaved in a way we aren’t so proud of, and we just weren’t in the right place to achieve what we wanted.

Once you have looked at the positive and the negative, then look at what you are grateful for, pull out all those little moments that may have seemed inconsequential at the time, but gave you the warm fuzzies.

Then finally get practical. What was the most important lessons that you learned during the year? What are areas of life that you would like to improve on?

Then look at your numbers. Do a deep dive into your bank accounts and have a good look at what came in and what went out. Just pick a couple of months and compare what changed. Is there anything going out that you no longer need? Is there anything you can review with a view to getting a better deal? What’s the gap now between what comes in and what goes out? What patterns are you seeing?

Once you have done your review, let it sit for a few days, let your mind get to work on it, and think about what you could do differently in the coming year. What was within your control and what was out of your control.

If you have been feeling pessimistic about the future, make a conscious decision to be optimistic about the future.

Then once everything has rolled around in your head for a while, sit down with pen and paper and start planning 2025.  We’ll get to that bit another day.

*Lynda Moore is a Money Mentalist coach and New Zealand’s only certified New Money Story® mentor. Lynda helps you understand why you do the things you do with your money, when we all know we should spend less than we earn. You can contact her here.