Reflecting on my 2022 Reflections

In many of the workshops I run, coaching conversations I have, or classes I teach, I often talk about the importance of self-reflection – a key skill and powerful technique that helps you think back to past experiences, while also helping plan for your own future development.

A year ago, on the afternoon of December 31st, 2021, I decided to run a little experiment.

At the end of every week during 2022, I would pause to reflect on ‘the week that was’ and document one key highlight. I would write it down on a post-it note and keep it somewhere safe so that at the end of 2022 I would have 52 reflections (52 personal highlights) to look back on.

At the time, nobody knew what 2022 would throw at us. But even before it began, I was determined to have at least 52 small wins.

That’s how the reflection jar was born.

I bought an empty jar knowing that each week I would seal a highlight inside it.

Here’s a picture of the reflection jar at the end of week one.

As it was for all of us, the year was quite a roller coaster. Some weeks threw a professional grenade my way while all was calm on the personal front. While there were weeks where I would experience a big career win, while being hit by a few icky challenges outside work.

I never said the weekly highlight had to be professional. So, if my work travels allowed me to catch up with friends in other cities or countries who I hadn’t seen for many years, then that would become the reflection of the week. Naturally, if after an exhausting week, I received an email from a participant thanking me for a workshop I had run, then the wording of their message of gratitude went into the jar.

At the end of every week, I would write down my highlight, date it, fold it up and place it in the jar.

To be honest it became a bit of a ritual.

Sure, there were a few sh*tty weeks, but I still made sure I looked for the silver lining to find my highlight. And fortunately, there were some weeks where it was hard to pick just one highlight since I may have been riding a winning wave.

Every week there would be one single addition to the reflection jar.

Now here’s what the jar looked like after 52 entries.

But what’s the point of have a jar full of reflections, if you then don’t look back and reflect on them all?

So last week, after sealing my final reflection for 2022 in the jar, I gave it a bit of a shake, before tipping out all the carefully folded post-it notes. (That’s the image I chose to feature at the top of this post).

I can now unashamedly say that if you want a bit of a personal boost before ushering in a new year, take a moment (OK – maybe it was a bit closer an hour!) to randomly select each of the reflections from the pile one by one and get transported back to the day it happened.

It’s quite amazing, actually. To re-live a whole year’s worth of highlights regardless of whether they be professional, personal, or a bit of a blend.

You might want to make it your own little project for 2023.

But even if you don’t want to commit to filling a reflection jar, at least commit to pausing regularly to reflect on your own personal highlights. After all, it’s these little wins, these momentary experiences that help you realise that ‘you’ve got this’ as you strap yourself in for the rollercoaster that is 2023.