Year–End Reflections: How Your Habits Shaped Your Success This Year

As we approach 2024, many of us are thinking about the 2023 goals we met, those we didn’t meet, and the factors that contributed to our success or failure.

In many instances, that success or failure comes down to our habits. Even the biggest and most complicated goals all come down to our daily habits and behaviors.

In this article, we’ll explore the impact of habits on daily life, techniques you can use to evaluate your current habits, and strategies you can use to improve and reshape them.

Understanding the Power of Habits

A habit is a pattern of unconscious behavior your subconscious mind adopts to free up your conscious mind to focus on other things. Your subconscious mind has determined this behavior benefits you in some way (as evidenced by the fact that you keep doing it).

Perhaps you’ve cultivated the healthy habit of going for a run each day after work. You have seamlessly integrated this habit into your schedule, so that it has become second nature. As soon as you close your laptop, you find yourself automatically reaching for your running shoes. at this moment, your subconscious mind prompts you to hit the pavement because it has learned to identify running as an effective tool for stress relief.

Conversely, you might have developed a bad habit of unwinding with a cocktail after work each day. Much like the habit of running, you have trained your subconscious to drink to temporarily escape from stress and you have embedded this potentially detrimental routine into your daily life.

These habits may appear inconsequential on their own, but they have a cumulative impact on your life. While these examples apply to your physical health, your habits in your professional and personal life can also influence how quickly you meet your career and relationship goals over time.

Analyzing Your Habits

As you reflect on your successes and failures from the past year, ask yourself what small, seemingly inconsequential habits contributed to your year’s successes, and which hindered your progress.

Having difficulty recognizing these habits on your own? Ask your colleagues, friends, and family for insight. Collecting others’ input is a critical part of self-assessment.

Once you’ve identified positive and negative habits, practice self-compassion. Take time to acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments and resist the urge to dwell on the negatives. Record and cherish those incremental choices you made and use these memories as the momentum you need in the new year, while viewing any defeats as opportunities for growth.

How to Set Yourself Up for Success

After identifying the habits that contributed to your 2023 achievements and setbacks, it’s time to chart a course for 2024. Establish new goals and discern which habits you need to cultivate or eliminate to attain those targets.

Unsure how to develop positive habits that will steer you toward your goals? Begin by pinpointing your motivators (the factors that you can use to train your subconscious mind to form a habit). Ask yourself what benefits you derive from this habit. Determine the reasons you haven’t embraced this habit previously and work to clear any hurdles to your success.

Additionally, consider utilizing habit-tracking tools and strategies to develop a system of accountability. The Arootah Habit Coach app, for instance, offers you a straightforward way to monitor your habit formation journey. If you’re still facing challenges with consistency and motivation, it might be beneficial to seek further accountability from a colleague, friend, or a coach.

The Bottom Line

Habits, no matter how small, play a key role in your personal and professional outcomes. Even seemingly inconsequential everyday behaviors can impact your life and career in myriad ways.

Utilize the final weeks of the year to reflect on whether your daily habits are propelling you forward or holding you back from achieving your most important goals. Through this reflective process, you’ll gain clarity on how you can transform your habits to clear your path toward success.

Need more help setting goals for 2024 and planning for those goals accordingly? Save the date for our annual Goal-Setting Workshop seminar on Jan. 4, 2024.