Now is the perfect time to pick up this planner from Amazon from award-winning author Pamela Carmichael.
Reflection Questions to Prepare for your New Living Success Year!
This is a very exciting time of the year for me! I love this time of celebration but also see it as a time for reflection, thanksgiving, and planning. During the year-end season and even before, I take time to look ahead to the New Year. I start this process by spending a few minutes reviewing the past months.
In my Make Your Year a Living Success Goals Workbook I have a section called, “What Made the Year Great (Or Not So Great)?” I use these questions as a time to celebrate the past, give thanks to God, say goodbye to the ugliness of the past and pave the way for a good future. The intention of this exercise is not the dwell on failures or shoulda coulda's but learn from the past and do things differently going forward.
Ask yourself the following questions to help you review the previous year:
1. What am I most happy about in the past year?
2. What kind of sweet surprises did I experience?
3. Three things that I am most grateful to God for doing in my life.
4. What new dream or goal did I achieve?
5. Looking back, what would I have done differently?
6. Where did I let fear hold me back from accomplishing a goal I had?
7. Are there any regrets or disappointments that I keep rehashing and need to let go of?
8. Is there any unfinished business that I need to resolve? When will I do it? (E.g. relationship resolution or forgiveness, apologies, goals not yet achieve, decluttering, financial reviews, etc.)
9. What new and inspiring people did I meet?
10. Who would I like to get closer to in the coming year? (Remember, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Choose wisely!)
Apart from answering myself these question, I write a letter to the Lord. Every December 31 morning (or a few days before the year-end), I would rise up earlier to spend time with the Lord and to do write this letter. Usually, I would focus on what I am thankful for. But often I would recall some of the events of the year and write how I saw the Lord working in these times for my benefit. Through this writing, there would be pauses to verbally express thanks, to wipe the tears from my eyes and to just bask in the presence of God.
Apart from the questions above, consider taking some time out to write a love letter to God to honour Him for all He is done in your life in the previous year. Through this, you will see how much you have grown over the past months and be motivated to keep moving forward towards your upcoming life plans.
As you write the answers to these questions and/or write a love letter to God, you’ll experience joy and gratitude even at the small stuff.
When you’re done, leave a comment below and share a little of what you’d love to accomplish in the New Year.
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I have been looking for a workbook like this since I saw the Dragontree Journal on Facebook. But as a Christian, the Dragontree Journal is too New Age-y for me. When Pam Carmichael asked me to review her workbook, I jumped at the chance to compare it to another new Christian journal I had just purchased.
The reflections are very personal and Christ-oriented, which is what I was looking for. It also has organizers, metacognitive visualizers to think, brainstorm, and be productive. I love that Carmichael reminds the user to leave room for God to intervene in your plans with his plan. Perfect! She also has Goal sheets that she reminds the
I'm very thrilled with this product, better than the one I had purchased.
~Diane E. Tatum, Amazon Reviewer
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PAMELA CARMICHAEL is a financial services professional with over 18 years experience. In her Christian walk, the burning question to God has always been: Why do Christians struggle with finances? With a desire to see Christians grow in the area of personal financial management, she wrote "Financial Empowerment: Realign Your Finances to God's Will". She hopes that you will grow and become financially empowered as you apply God's principles to your personal financial management strategies. You can visit her website at http://www.pamelavcarmichael.com/
