12/17/2025
Do you take the time to reflect on your life?
Cherise, Why do you take the time to reflect on your year? What difference does that even make? These are a few of the questions that I have been asked.
The answer is simple: if you don't reflect on your achievements, failures, or areas of growth you risk becoming complacent and stagnant. Reflection creates space for growth and creativity.
As the year winds down, there’s often pressure to rush ahead to create new goals, new plans, new expectations. What if before you moved forward you paused?
For the five years, I’ve practiced intentional year-end reflection before setting goals for the new year. I take five to seven days to slow down, review my calendar and commitments, sit in quiet, and think deeply about the year I’ve lived not just the one I planned.
Reflection is not about judgment. It’s about honesty, grace, and wisdom. We must give ourselves the opportunity to engage in intentional focused thinking.
The word reflect comes from the Latin reflectere to bend back. Reflection allows us to bend back toward our experiences and ask: What did this season teach me? What deserves acknowledgment before I move on?
If you’re unsure, here are some year-end reflection tips:
1. Create intentional quiet: choose a time and space where you can think without distraction. This might be a quiet room, early morning, or even a short personal retreat. Silence helps truth rise to the surface.
2. Review your reality, not just your memory, look back at your calendar, planner, or journal. Our minds forget how much we actually carried and seeing it written reminds us of our resilience.
3. Reflect these areas:
Your health (physical, emotional, neurological)
Your finances(wills, trust, life insurance)
Your career
Your professional development
Your relationships
Your spiritual life
4. Ask reflective not critical questions instead of “Why didn’t I do more?” try:
What did this year require of me?
What did I learn about myself?
What helped me stay grounded?
What am I still becoming?
5. Name the wins and lessons