How to use your past to move your goals forward

Use your past to move your goals forward. One of the most important aspects of setting goals for the future is looking at the past! We all know this, and we still find it so hard to do.

We often see our past as a mess of mistakes we need to fix and bad habits we need to drop. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your past is something you should be ashamed about or something that should contribute nothing positive to your future.

What is that saying? Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it?

How To Use Your Past To Move Yourself Forward

In order to continue to move forward towards your goals, and the life that you want, you need to look behind you to see what has worked well and what has not worked well in the past. 

In order to replicate the success you’ve had in your past, and ensure that those mistakes will not happen again, you need to take a look back.

At the end of every year, I like to do this for myself.

I sit down and go through all the lessons I’ve learned over the last twelve months, what went well, what could have gone better, and how I can do it differently in the future.

Why not have a go yourself right now? Here are some questions for you to answer when reviewing your past year:

What went well this year? What could have gone better this year? How will you approach next year’s goals or projects in order to ensure they go better?

The answers to those questions will give you a really good idea of the habits that have worked well for you in the past, and which ones need to be improved or dropped.

How does this relate to your goals for 2022?

Setting new goals for 2022? Take a look back at 2021 and see what has worked well so far. Look at the processes you have set in place, what habits you are doing regularly, and how you can replicate this for your goals for 2022.

If you set new goals and implement new processes and habits for 2022, what will you repeat from 2021 and what will you omit? This is key as to how you use your past to move your goals forward.

Starting New Goals For 2022

Starting from scratch with new goals this year? Take a look back at the last twelve months to identify any mistakes or regrets that you’ve made – what went wrong and what could have gone better?

What did that teach you about the behaviors and decisions that don’t work for you? Was there a common theme across these mistakes?

Once you’ve identified this, use it to inform your goals for the future. What lessons did you learn over the last twelve months in order to make sure those mistakes are never made again?

At the end of your review, you should have a pretty good idea of not only what went well this year, but also how you can do even better next time around.

You want to be able to identify where and why you were successful so that you can replicate it. And on the flip side, you need to be able to identify where you went astray in previous endeavors so that you can avoid being entrapped by those same obstacles. 

These 8 tips can help you evaluate your past goals and prepare for success with your new goals! 

✔️ Set aside time to reflect. 

You need quiet time to focus and reflect on your past year. Schedule this time with yourself. Choose a quiet place where you will be free from interruptions. 

✔️ Identify some goals you would like to achieve.

Write down your answers. Go big! What are your dreams? What would you like to see different in your life?

✔️ Identify positive behaviors and results.

What habits have worked well for you this year? What was successful? How can you replicate that next year?

✔️ Identify regretful or unproductive behaviors.

When did you struggle the most? What is something that you would like to work on changing in the next year?

✔️ Identify lessons learned.

What did you learn from your positive behaviors? What lessons can you take away from past mistakes, struggles, or regretful decisions in order to help inform your future goals and steps towards achieving those goals?

✔️ Take time to review, reflect, and then start planning for 2022.

Look at what worked well in 2021, identify anything that didn’t work so well or is slowing progress towards your goals, and answer the questions above.

✔️  Write it down. 

Write down your goals from last year. Even if you didn’t have specifically identified goals, think of the things that you wanted to achieve throughout the year and write those down. How did you make progress towards them? What barriers did you encounter? Write your successes and your setbacks. 

✔️ Plan. 

Now take a look at those successes and setbacks. How do they apply to your new (or ongoing) goals for 2022? What actions lent to your success and how can you apply those actions to your 2022 goals? What previous barriers may reoccur as an obstacle for these goals and how can you prepare to overcome them? 

Learning from the past is one of the greatest tools for pursuing the future that you want! Use these five tips to help you effectively review what worked, what didn’t work, and how you can make the most out of your goals for 2022.

What are some of the lessons you learned in 2021? What mistakes will you never make again in 2022? How are you going to use your past to move your goals forward? Leave your comments below!

Talk soon,

Andie 🙂