Mindfully Review Your Year

The end of 2023 is fast approaching and Christmas will be here before we know it.

This is the time of year when I see lots of riders looking for planners for next year, perhaps buying calendars and diaries too.

Before you start setting goals and making plans for 2024 it’s a very useful exercise to mindfully review the past twelve months checking back to the things that you planned at the beginning of the year with a review of what did and didn’t work out for you and asking yourself some “WHAT AND WHY” questions.

This is an exercise that I do annually with my Centre 10 colleagues, I’ve adapted it here for you and I will be doing for myself again very soon.

It’s useful to begin by sitting quietly for a short while, doing some mindful breathing to relax and prepare yourself for an honest look back at your year.

Next open up your 2023 diary or planner, have a look through it and split the year into thirds before asking yourself the following questions for each four month period.

QUESTIONS

A. What did you appreciate and value most?

B. What did you put in place to help you to work on your riding goals and what impact did those things have for you?

C. What didn’t go so well and why did that happen?

D. What lessons did you learn and how did you put those lessons into practice?

Repeat A-D for your next four months.

Some of you might like to do this exercise together with a friend, or a group of friends and then have an open, non-judgemental and supportive chat together. This can really amplify the power of the exercise by helping you to clarify the learnings and identify areas to work on for next year whilst celebrating your achievements over the past 12 months.

Once you have mindfully reviewed 2023 then your mind will be in a better place for setting goals for 2024.

I’d love to hear how you get on with this exercise and, of course, if you need any help with it then I am always here for you.