Compare Your Current Year With Last Year

The annual review tends to go one of two ways: a victory lap or a kicking. This does neither. It compares where you are now with this time last year across the areas that matter, with a specific example each, naming what improved, what held, and what slid. You get a clear, fair read you can actually use.

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You want to do an honest annual review by comparing where you are now with where you were this time last year, in a way that is useful rather than either self-congratulatory or self-critical.
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<task>
**Compare this year with last year across five areas:**
1. What has materially improved: the areas where you are genuinely in a better position, with a specific example
2. What has stayed the same: the areas where you hoped to progress but have not, and what that tells you
3. What has changed that you did not choose: circumstances that shifted and how you responded
4. What you understand now that you did not then: the most significant thing you have learned about yourself or your situation
5. What you want to be true by this time next year: one thing, stated specifically
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- Five clearly labelled sections, each honest and specific
- A one-sentence intention for the year ahead
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