20 Questions for Reflecting on Your 2011

Reblogged from (in)courage  
December 30, 2011

A whole year has passed since the last one. You’re a year older. Are you a year wiser?

 

Below are 20 questions I use each year as a springboard to reflect on the past 365 days. Use these Reflection Questions however you see fit over the next few days. Feel free to think over these throughout your day. But if you’d like to be a bit more intentional with them, every year I provide a free PDF download over on Simple Mom—head over there to download the document, fresh off the press.

Want to answer these questions solo? Grab a cup of coffee and a pen, and use the space provided on the first three pages of the free download.

Want to chat over the answers with your spouse or with friends? Use the last page of the PDF to cut each question into squares, and then toss them in a hat to draw, one at a time.

In early January, I’ll share another round of questions (and another PDF) on Simple Mom. This time, they’ll be to help plan your goals for 2012. What are your plans? Your hopes? What would you like to happen for you personally, for your children, for your family? I like what Dave Ramsey says—“A goal without a plan is just a dream.”

20 Questions for a New Year’s Reflection

 

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?
 
5. Pick three words to describe 2011.

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2011 (don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you).

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2011 (again, without asking).

8. What were the best books you read this year?

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?

15. What was the most enjoyable part of your work (both professionally and at home)?

16. What was the most challenging part of your work (both professionally and at home)?

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

19. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2011 for you.

Tsh Oxenreider is the author of Organized Simplicity, and writes about living simply at Simple Mom. She is currently "in between" countries with her husband, Kyle, and kids Tate, Reed, and Finn, having just moved back from the Middle East before heading off to their next adventure (her 6-year-old has been on 49 airplanes and counting). Her blog was nominated for Best New Blog of 2008, and has been mentioned on Apartment Therapy, HGTV, Better Homes and Gardens, Food Network, and more. In early 2010 she founded the network Simple Living Media, home to five blogs about simple living. Her passion is to encourage all walks of women to find peace wherever God has them and to cultivate joy about blooming where they're planted. She also loves coffee, and she hates wearing socks.