“More About You” Annual Review Workbook(2022–2023 Edition)
The Carina Nebula captured in infrared light by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Photo Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.
We live in a time of astounding opportunities and bewildering challenges that can knock us off our intended path in life. Learning to navigate in these times can be hard.
We can’t control the world we live in, but we can control our response to external events, what we choose to focus on, and how we use the time we have.
The Personal Annual Review Journey
The annual personal “year in review” exercise reconnects you with your values, highlights your recent successes, and sharpens your focus on your goals for the year ahead. The review process helps you put your past year in perspective and turn toward the year to come. It’s not magic—it won’t erase or even diminish the pains of the past year—but it will help you lay stepping stones toward a more productive and satisfying year to come.
As Glen Lubbert of Stamina Lab and I worked together on this third edition of our More About You workbook, we found ourselves returning yet again to the importance of three central elements of living a satisfying life: the ability to articulate your values, setting clear goals, and a commitment to conducting regular self reviews. When your life is aligned with your values, your goals are clear, and you regularly reflect on your progress, you have the information and tools you need to assess the opportunities that come your way—and deal with the inevitable challenges that we all face from time to time.
Our annual review workbook begins with an exploration of your values. We help you revisit your core values and beliefs, reconnect with your vision for your life, update your personal story, and describe your perfect day. We start with these things because we believe your core values illuminate every aspect of the review process, from what constitutes success to what makes your perfect day “perfect.”
The More About You annual review journey
Next, we move to your vision: your personal narrative, your aspirations, and the key areas of your life that are the focus of most of your time and energy. This exercise in personal storytelling helps you articulate your narrative for the year ahead and position yourself for growth.
The third section of the review focuses on capturing the most influential moments of the past year. Our review process primarily focuses on your successes. Yes, you can learn from your failures, but there’s a time and place for everything... We believe your annual review is a way to use your successes—the things you’ve accomplished and are most proud of—to help you build a year ahead that’s about more: more of the same positive energy, more growth, and more successes that align with your values and vision.
Once you’ve completed the first three sections of the workbook, you’ll be ready to look at the year ahead. The last section of the workbook focuses on capturing, clarifying, and achieving your goals. It begins with dreaming. Every goal is attached to a dream: without an associated dream, a goal has no emotional power. We then move to the goal stack and show you how your daily tasks, when properly clarified and aligned with your goals, drive you toward your long-term aspirations.
We close with the most important tool in your productivity system: reviews. Weekly and monthly reviews are essential to keeping you on track, especially during times of uncertainty.
Your Investment Is Up to You
How much time you invest in your annual review is up to you. You can complete our annual review and planning process in a few hours or take a few days to complete it. No matter how much time you choose to invest, reflecting on the things that went well for you in the past year and setting even a few modest goals for yourself for the year ahead will pay off.
While we’ve laid out a path for your annual review process, you don’t have to follow it! You don’t have to complete the sections in the workbook in order, or even complete all the sections. And, you don’t have to complete your annual review in one sitting.
In fact, it’s a good idea to give yourself a break as you move from section to section. Take a few minutes to read through the questions in the next section you’re going to focus on, then step away from your review for a few minutes, hours, or even days. When you return to your review, your mind (which is always working) will be primed to respond to the questions in the next section.
Get Your Free Copy of the Workbook
We’re sharing the workbook as a Microsoft Word document so you can type your responses directly into your copy of the workbook, and as a PDF designed to print so you can write your answers out in longhand if you prefer.
The best way to get the workbook is to have it delivered to your Inbox. Use this form to submit your email (if you didn’t do so last year). You’ll then receive a message with links to both versions of the workbook. You'll also receive updates of the workbook as well as information on related workshops and tools.
You can also download the workbook in both formats using the links below:
Download the latest Microsoft Word Version of the More About You workbook
Download the PDF version of the latest More About You workbook
Get Help with Your Annual Review and Goal Planning
Join me and Glen on Sunday, January 15 at 1:00 pm Eastern for our free 45-minute annual review and goal planning workshop. We'll walk you through our annual review workbook, share our tips on doing your annual review, and help you get started.
Whether you plan on spending a few hours or a few days on your annual review for 2023, we’ll show you how to use our workbook to get the most out of your investment. We’ll also answer any questions you have about the annual review and goal planning process.