What did you do last week? Did you accomplish what you set out to do for the week? Were they any mistakes you made or any successes you are proud of?

By asking yourself these questions you are reflecting on your past. Reflecting on your past can give you the opportunity to learn from your experiences, both positive and negative. This includes looking back on your successes as well as learning from your failures.

One way that I reflect on my life is to do a weekly review every Sunday evening. On Sunday I sit down with a notebook and pen, and I make a list of everything I accomplished during the week. I also write down any mistakes I made and anything I failed to do during the week.

Learning From My Mistakes

One key thing that I do in my weekly review is to be honest with myself. I write down anything that I failed to do during the week, including any mistakes I made.

Recognizing your mistakes allows you to confront them. It allows you to learn from them and can help you to avoid making those mistakes again in the future. Identifying your mistakes also gives you stories you can share with other people to teach them how to avoid making those mistakes yourself.

For example, a failure that I identified this week is that I appointed someone to a leadership role without asking her first. I assumed she would be willing to take on this role, and she did accept the role, but she was not happy with being assigned to the role without being asked first. This is a mistake that I am not proud of, but I have identified it and I included it in my weekly review. It is also a mistake I won’t make again. The next time I want to appoint someone to a leadership role I will ask her first. I can also use this as a story to teach other people what not to do when appointing people to leadership roles.

Another failure I noted in my last weekly review is that I gained weight during the week. I have been successfully losing weight for many months now and I could have just ignored this small failure in my weight loss journey, but instead of ignoring this setback I was honest with myself, and I faced my failure.

By facing this failure, I identified that I need to refocus my weight loss efforts. I need to be more careful with what I eat. It also means I need to continue my efforts to exercise.

Celebrating my Successes

Another important thing that I do in my weekly reviews is to write down my successes. This gives me a sense of accomplishment and helps me to create a track record of my successes that I can look to any time I need a boost to my self confidence.

Identifying successes can be as simple as recording that I completed all my action items from my daily action plan. By making a daily action plan I am making a commitment to myself and when I do the actions that I planned for I have achieved success in my life.

Success is more than just action plans. For example, in my last weekly review I noted how I achieved a milestone in my goal of going for a walk every day. I have now gone for a walk every day for more than 100 days. This means I am succeeding at this goal, and it is something I can celebrate.

Success can also include other people. For example, in my last weekly review I identified how I led a successful guidance committee meeting for my Toastmasters High Performance Leadership project. I also captured how I led a productive education and training committee meeting for my Toastmasters District. Both events from my past week are not my successes alone. They were team successes that I can celebrate and be thankful for.

Just like failures, successes in your life can be the sources for stories you share with other people. When you want to persuade someone, using a story showing yourself achieving success can help you to make a point. By writing down your successes every week you capture these stories and you can look back to them in the future.

Planning for the Week Ahead

Something else I do in my weekly review is to make note of any action items I did not complete during the week. I also review my calendar and my to-do list so I can create my daily action plans for the week ahead.

Reviewing my to-do list and calendar on Sunday evening helps me prepare for the week ahead. It also helps me to remember, and plan for, any commitments I have made to other people. More importantly, it reminds me of commitments I have made to myself.

During my weekly review I also review my goals and my personal success plan. My personal success plan is a document that outlines my most important goals and the strategies I am following to achieve those goals. Reviewing this every week keeps my most important goals top of mind.

Summary

In summary, a weekly review is a process to look back over your week to identify your successes and any failures that occurred during the week. More importantly, it is a time for you to reflect and learn. It is also a time to make plans for the coming week and to review your goals, calendar, and to-do list.

Writing down your successes every Sunday gives you a track record you can look to anytime you feel self doubt or when you feel discouraged. You can look back over past weeks and see everything you have accomplished. This can be motivating, especially when you need a boost to your self-confidence.

Writing down your mistakes and failures means you are being honest with yourself, and it gives you examples of what not to do in the future. You can learn from those mistakes and failures. They can also be the sources for stories you share to teach other people not to make those same mistakes themselves.

I encourage you to incorporate weekly reviews into your life. You will be creating a track record of your successes and a history of the mistakes you have made. Your successes will give you a sense of accomplishment. Your failures and mistakes will teach you what not to do in the future.

I do a weekly review every Sunday night. I challenge you to do the same.