How to: My Year-End Retro Method

My first journal entry in 2022 reeked of fear. COVID case counts were high, my daughters hadn’t yet been vaccinated, and no announcement had been made regarding the return to school. That first entry set the tone for much of 2022. The call to manage my fears to navigate uncertainty.

A quarter of the way into the year I wrote: “When the pandemic started, my goal was to come out of it stronger. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

I then stopped journaling for months.

I resumed near the end of the year. My entries expressed exhaustion, a tapped-out bandwidth, but no feelings of fear. And I reaffirmed my belief I would come out of this pandemic stronger. It would seem at some point in the year, I learnt to better navigate uncertainty.

How do I know all of this? Every December, I carve out time to run a retro on my year, combining all aspects of my life. By retro, I mean a review of my year to gain insight I can apply moving into the new year.

Prior years, I’d carve out a couple of hours during the Winter break for an intense journaling session. I’d re-read my journal entries for that year. I’d try to draw some insight, make a few conclusions, and write a loose direction for the new year.

This year, I tried a few different things to see if a more structured approach would yield better insight.

Spoiler alert: it did.

Journey Mapping.

Mid-December, I had the absolute pleasure of joining Wilbrod House Consulting in delivering a journey map excise to a client group. After spending the day helping to facilitate the exercise, I was curious of the experience as a participant. Once home, I journey mapped my year.

Here is what I did:

1.??????With journals, work notebook and my calendar handy, I wrote on post-it notes every event, personal and professional, that occurred over the course of the year. I then categorized them by month.

2.??????I moved the post it notes above or below a timeline, based on whether they were high or low points.

3.??????I assigned feeling and meaning to each post-it.

4.??????I noted the events representing turning points.

With data laid out in front of me, I identified the patterns, defined common themes and drew insights.

I applied brutal honesty to my journey wall. In return, I gained more self-awareness than I could have outside of this exercise.

Journal Prompts

After sharing our mutual appreciation for planning exercises, a friend and colleague shared her year end journal prompts. Her list included several questions I never would have thought to ask myself. Examples include:

·??????What am I noticing or having a hunch about?

·??????What’s hindering me?

·??????What would my best year look like?

·??????What do I want to learn?

Bonus: Answering these questions post Journey Wall exercise was useful as my year was fresh in my mind.

So why do this? Why carve out time during an already busy month to look both backward and forward?

My Year End Retro helps me see things as they are and not as I assume them to be. Pre-retro, I would have said “Man, this year was HARD.” Post-retro, specifically post Journey Wall, I can see that while it started off difficult, there were key positive turning points. I can also see that what I considered to be “HARD” were events outside of my control. That tells me greater clarity on my sphere of influence VS control would serve me.

Years ago, I came across this quote:

By understanding what I experienced throughout the year and what it meant, I can understand who I became as a result. I can grow into my authentic self; which is the self I carry into my new year. I gain self-awareness.

My Year-End Retro is a ritual that helps to ground me, especially in times of uncertainty. Having added Journey Wall to my retro, it's vehicle to deeper self-awareness. Considering 2023 is not expected to be much easier, I'll need all the grounding and self-awareness I can get.

Do you review your year? I’d love to hear how you do it!?