Bucking The End Of Year Trend — Reflecting, But Not Preparing. Yet.

By Dan Smith

Take a look around most freelance writing blogs at the minute and you’re likely to see the same type of discussions — how the last year has gone and setting goals and aspirations for the coming year.

Last year, I followed suit. We looked at how 2010 had been and discussed what goals we’d like to meet in the coming year, all before the Christmas season had started.

While I believe reflection on the past 12 months is still imperative before Christmas, as you can’t determine how successful the year has been and therefore you can’t plan your coming year without doing so, I realised something this year about planning and preparing for the coming 12 months.

Over Christmas, I spend a lot of time with friends and family. It’s the only time of the year where I truly move away from work for any length of time and for a week or so, I focus entirely on relaxing and having a great time.

When I set my goals last year for 2011, while many of them were still relevant after the Christmas break, I may not necessarily have chosen them first and foremost.

The reason behind this is leading up to Christmas, I’m almost solely focused on work. I want to get as much done as possible before I stop for Christmas, so it seems that I’m working — or at least thinking about work — for most of the time I’m awake.

Although this means that I’m able to reflect on the past year fantastically, it often means that any goals I set for the coming year are heavily business orientated.

Some of you may now be thinking “isn’t that the point?” and on one hand, yes, it is the point — you’re setting goals to achieve within business.

What I’ve realised this year, however, is that the goals set are almost always done so in a way that will help me professionally and not necessarily personally.

Perhaps I’ve had a bit of an epiphany, but these past few months I’ve realised just how important it is to think and plan when it comes to friends, family and myself as much as it is when it comes to business.

So this year, I’m going to try something different — and I’d like you to, as well.

I’m still going to reflect on the last 12 months and see if I achieved my goals (something I’ll do next week), but instead of setting goals immediately, I’m going to wait until early January.

I want to feel properly relaxed and in a different frame of mind than I do now, as by planning goals now, they’ll all be business orientated — leave this side of my work until after Christmas and I believe I should be able to define goals that although business related, will allow me to achieve a better work / life balance.

I love work and being able to write for a living is fantastic, but I do think I — and I’m sure many others — can become to obsessed with it and need to spend more time setting goals that will be of benefit personally, rather than just professionally.

Image: Vicci (Moon Stars and Paper)