I truly believe in the magic of planning and reflecting. During the school year, you get so busy with your deadlines and keeping up with coursework that it can be hard to reflect honestly on how you are feeling or what you are doing. That’s why I think that the best time to reflect is after the semester is over. Catch up on your sleep, and then get ready to reflect. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I enjoying what I am doing aside from the stress that comes with being a student?
- Can I see myself continuing on this path?
- What did I accomplish this year?
- What can I do better next year?
These are a few questions that can help lead your reflection to see if you are doing what’s best for you. However, while you can start with a reflection to figure out what your next steps are, it might be easier to reflect once you’ve set goals for yourself.
It is effective to write a list of the things you’ve accomplished this year, whether that is in extracurricular activities, volunteering, marks, work, whatever it may be. Then, next to that list, write another list that has everything you want to check off the following year. Be as ambitious as you want with this list. Then, you can reflect on the things that you’ve done: Were they all helpful? Did you push yourself too much? Could you have been kinder to yourself? Did you miss out on important opportunities due to lack of time management? Once you understand what things you could have dropped or done better, it will be easier to take a look at that ambitious list of yours, and start editing it. Rank your items from most important or most useful to least important, and based on that decide what things you will prioritize working towards, and what can be pushed aside for now, or done as a cherry on top of the other goals.
If you do not set goals and plans for yourself, you won’t know what you are working towards. So, set goals, and make sure to reflect. Do not let this become another New Year’s resolution, where you make a list of unrealistic goals and forget about them by the second week of January. Keep yourself in check, and have your lists handy.
However, do not get confused between setting goals and obsessing over the outcomes. Life has taught us that you can plan all you want, but things do not always go according to plan. In order to avoid disappointment, generalize your goals. For example, instead of saying “This year I will get a job at this specific company,” your goal can be to apply to a certain number of jobs, or to make professional connections, or even to end the year off with a part-time job. This way, by widening that goal, when you go back and reflect on your year, you won’t feel as though you have failed, but rather that you have accomplished one of your goals.