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How to Process Your Past Year: Here’s What Works for Me

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Let’s be honest – 2024 was a crazy year. I don’t want to repeat it, so I don’t want to miss anything it has to teach me. The problem is that so much happened. And that’s something we all face – too much unprocessed data in our lives. And so much of it now comes to us in digitized form – how d…
By sethbarnes
By sethbarnes
IMG 8638 1
Let’s be honest – 2024 was a crazy year. I don’t want to repeat it, so I don’t want to miss anything it has to teach me. The problem is that so much happened. And that’s something we all face – too much unprocessed data in our lives. And so much of it now comes to us in digitized form – how do we make sense of it?
I’m not talking about all the stuff that media threw at us. The election, Hamas, the Ukraine war, the assassinations – all important, but all outside our control. I’m talking about the things that we can either influence (where we’ve got relationships), or control.
Yes, in a topsy turvy world, it might feel like there are few things we can control. But we can control our thoughts and actions. We can make plans and set priorities and boundaries and goals.
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That’s why reflection is so important. We are not victims, but we can feel that way when we repeat the things we haven’t reflected on or understood. Maybe some of our actions produced consequences that hurt us.
This can look like unresolved emotional issues or past trauma. It can be a function of stress or anxiety that leads to coping mechanisms. Or it may be something as simple as a habit.
Reflection shows us what could we have done differently so we don’t have to be hurt next time.
With 2025 bearing down on us like a freight train, we have arrived at the space in the calendar where you can set aside time to sift through all that happened in your life that was within your control and see the linkages between actions and consequences.
To do this, it helps to have a hard-bound journal like the one in the picture above. Here’s my process.

The Process

I like to do a year-end review in the morning before anyone wakes up.

It helps to treat the review as a conversation with God. Pray, “Lord, please highlight anything in my past year that you’d like for me to learn from.”

Next, I go through my journal (reviewing your photos from the year may also be helpful). I take a yellow marker to highlight significant events and challenges.

For each major experience, I ask myself:

  • What did I learn from this?
  • How did this change me?
  • What would I do differently if faced with a similar situation?

This helps me identify patterns in my behavior and decision-making. I look at this for

  1. Myself
  2. My relationships
  3. My projects

I ask the following questions:

Review Self-Care

How am I doing spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially and financially?

Looking at the past year, how did I do at maintaining the rhythms and disciplines that keep me healthy? Where did I fall down? What adjustments do I need to make in the year to come?

Review Relationships

I list my closest relationships – family and friends. During the past year I wanted to lean into those relationships. I wanted to care for and pray for them. How did I do? How did I steward each relationship? Are there any changes I need to make?

Assessing Goals & Projects

I review the goals I set at the beginning of the year. For each goal, I consider:

  • Did I achieve it? If not, why?
  • Was this goal still relevant and important to me throughout the year?
  • What helped or hindered my progress?

As I reflect, I try to identify themes and patterns. This helps me see the bigger picture of my life’s journey. What needs to be celebrated? What do I want to do differently?

Looking Forward: 2025 Journal

Next, I begin looking forward. I buy a fresh journal for 2025 and begin by transfering the format from 2024 to it. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see my “table of contents” at the front of the journal. I have a few main categories :

  • Prayer requests and prayer journal
  • Journal
  • Notes, Ideas & Plans

Over the years, I have stuck with this format and have learned approximately how many pages to allocate to each subject. I number the pages so that I can find stuff. Yesterday, for example, I remembered a dream I had in Nov. 2023. Finding it was easy.

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Goals & Plans

Next it’s time to think about what the year ahead could look like.

With insights from the past year fresh in my mind, I start thinking about the year ahead. I ask myself:

  • What do I want to achieve?
  • What habits or behaviors do I want to change?
  • What new experiences do I want to have?

These questions form the foundation for setting my goals for the coming year.

Sharing and Connecting

We need the perspective of others. Going through your journal with a close friend or family member can be a great way to spend an evening.

If journeys take us into the liminal space where wonder can manifest, when accompanied by reflections, we can begin to map and make sense of our experience.
It takes reflection to pay attention to the nuance where those experiences that are new reside. I pray that as you review your past year and plan 2025 that you experience the breakthroughs that you will celebrate next year at this time.

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