Rest, Recover, Reflect, Review
Personal Annual Reviews
Hello, everyone!
I hope you and your families enjoyed a warm, healthy, and restful holiday season. 2022 is officially underway and I sincerely hope it's your best year yet!
It's been a while since one of these newsletters appeared in your inbox. I doubt many (any) of you are upset for receiving one less email during the weekend, but I apologize for my recent inconsistencies.
The final weeks of 2021 have been particularly difficult. Confusion, frustration, and sadness lived rent-free in my thoughts. I'll be fine. I already feel significantly better after a timely pause with family, but I'm still working through my thoughts.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, I don't consider myself to be the type of person who enjoys sharing personal problems openly. You already have enough to deal with. It's not my place to add my burdens on top of yours.
I'm sharing my present reality because it forced me to spend some time with myself.
I'm only 28-years old, but I have been around long enough to recognize when pivotal decisions pop up. There have been several pivotal moments in my life - crossroads, as I like to think of them. While it's not difficult to identify which decisions are pivotal vs. inconsequential in the moment; it's impossible to know which decision will lead to a better outcome without the benefit of hindsight many years after the decision was made.
I've come to a crossroads moment in life and the more I wrestled with my decisions, the less clarity I felt I had. For several weeks I was entwined in this jumbled mess of indecision.
The problem with self-reflection, at least for me, is that I end up thinking harder about the same things I've already thought through. This inevitably leads to circular thinking, which compounds the confusion, which makes the process of solving problems increasingly difficult.
Recently, I found a resource that has helped me tremendously in this process - Anthony Gustin's Annual Review π
The question prompts helped me get out of my own way, which has led to more objective thinking in place of completely subjective thinking.
Annual Reviews are a new concept for me. I've followed Anthony's prompt word-for-word over the past several days and for the first time in several weeks, I feel a genuine sense of clarity.
Do you complete an annual review of yourself each year? If yes, I would love to hear about your process - any suggestion is a good suggestion.
feel free to email me anytime at Hey@Whit.Blog
Have a week,
Whit
Whit Rasmussen's Newsletter
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