How to Conduct Your Own Personal Annual Review

If you work or have worked in a corporate environment, then you are familiar with the annual review process. Depending on your specific job and company, sometimes these annual reviews are helpful, and sometimes they are a big waste of time.

The key to having a successful annual review is that it be personal and relevant to you. It should give you feedback on what you’re doing right and what you need to improve upon. It should provide clear direction on what action steps you need to take to your reach your goals for the next year.

Why Conduct a Personal Annual Review?

While we’re used to annual reviews in our professional lives, most of us are not accustomed to doing this sort of audit with our personal lives. Yet, I find it to be one of the most useful tools in helping me create the happiest, healthiest life possible measured in my own terms of success.

It’s a simple and effective way to see if my actions aligned with my beliefs and desires.

One of my mentors, Chris Guillebeau, was the first person to turn me on to conducting a personal annual review, and he provides excellent resources for how he does his.

Unfortunately, last year I failed to do a review and plan for 2011. However, you can see an example of this with my 2009 annual review.

My Annual Review Criteria

While my annual review is similar to Chris’s, I break mine down more.

First, I divide my goals into eight categories:

• Professional Goals
• Relationship Goals
• Financial Goals
• Diet and Nutrition Goals
• Exercise and Fitness Goals
• Volunteer and Service Goals
• Spiritual Goals
• Home Goals

Then, I evaluate my goals in descending order of importance. So the most important goals for the year are at the top, the least crucial goals are at the bottom. Next, I ask myself the following questions with each goal:

• How did I do?
• What did I learn?
• How can I apply the findings to help me move forward or improve upon my future goals?

This year, I also tweaked my review method by adding some evaluation grades for the, “How did I do?” question:

• Fail
• Not Good Enough
• OK
• Kudos
• Nailed It

Here’s an example:

Professional Goals

Get a New Job – Nailed It

While I loved (and still do) WebMD, I reached a plateau. It became clear that it was time for me to move on. I learned that just because my skills were not appreciated and utilized at one company did not mean that they were not valuable skills. When I found a company that looked like a good fit, and I submitted my resume, they responded back enthusiastically. It was a refreshing reminder on several levels:

1. If you’re unhappy or feel stuck in your job, attempt to make it better. If that effort goes nowhere, create an exit strategy.
2. Always believe in yourself.
3. Seek job opportunities that reciprocate your excitement to work together.

(If you were wondering, I am now a copywriter for Ignite Health.)

Enroll in the Holistic Health Coaching program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition – Nailed It

I’m learning so much from school, and I’m glad I started when I did. Being enrolled in school is helping me move forward with other professional goals.

Again, these are just a couple of examples. Next post, I’ll share my full annual review for 2011.

Until then, I’d love to hear how you handled your own personal annual review. What did you discover?