Do you review or just look forward

I tend to do both. First examining what went wrong and what was learned. With that complete I look forward with a positive attitude always striving for the good! Yes it is partly religious but certainly my way of thinking. Happy New Year!

Greetings! For me I look at both but I concentrate more on looking forward. I review the past to learn from my mistakes so that it would not happen again and I look forward to change myself for the better.

I review the year simply because I want to see the mistakes I made and the consequences as well as what led up to them. If I came close to falling short of money at any time, I'll look at what led to that--perhaps a medical condition that I could have prevented or a personal relationship problem caused by my own failings that I can avoid in the future. That makes the new year a better one because I learn from my mistakes. Then I look at my accomplishments and what I had expected, why I fell short or exceeded. Then I can look at and plan the coming year to avoid pitfalls and make it a more rewarding one for both myself and my loved ones.

I like to review it at least a little bit. I also am pretty forgetful of the past. It's hard for me to remember what i've actually done, and highlights of the year. I feel like I only remember bits and pieces, which is sad, as I am only 20 years old. Oh well. LOL. I tend to look forward more than backwards, because the future seems more relevant than the past - and not only that, but of course we're in charge of our future.

I actually do a combination of the two. I will think about how things went in the past year to think about those things that our family needs to change going forward in our lives. However, I also look forward to the year that is ahead of me and think that it is going to be better than the year before it. I think that the reason that I do things like that is because of the upbringing that I had from my parents.

Honestly I do neither! The future is looking very glum and the past year wasn't anything worth remembering. Instead, I tend to be nostalgic, going back many years in time. I think about the new years celebrations from the time when we could afford to splash out on a few hours of happiness with our friends. Yes, it's a matter of age too! But definitely not religious and it's only culture if you follow the crowd. We did our own thing, which made us and our new years unique!

I don't ever really mean to reflect but there times when I do. I am one to focus on the future more than the past though.

I reviewed.. and looked for ways to better improve my new year.. but I think I wish I can just go forward and go more with the flow.

While I can't speak for everyone, I can say that personally, I do a combination of both. I have been spending time looking back at my life and thinking about the changes that I want to make in the coming year. My husband and I had a discussion about some of the things that we want to change in the coming year, the main thing that we have decided to work on, is smoking. I am a fairly heavy smoker, sometimes going through a pack a day, and while my husband doesn't smoke as much as me, he too believes that this is something very important that we both have to change. I personally have also thought about the effort I have made in school and have decided to work harder this year. I have only one more month to complete my last assignment and help my husband study for his big exam in less than 2 weeks. I know that if we want things to change this year, we both will have to work harder at it. Before when I was younger, I used to think that changing would be easy, that all I had to do was say that I would do something. However as I have grown older, I see that it takes a lot more than that. I too find that I remember less and less time as I was younger, instead I find myself looking to the future and what I can do to better my situation.

Hi Savypat. I do not look back and review what happened in the past but of course, I look forward to the future with new hope and new enthusiasm.. For me, looking back will never do me any good and will only makes me to dwell in the sadness and regrets knowing that I made something silly or stupid of which I can never undone. The only way for me to go is forward, starting and creating a new history, hoping it'll better than the last.:)

It is a good idea to review what has happened throughout the year. You can see your mistakes and try not to repeat them. Going forward is an ultimate goal. you have to take a little of the past and the future into consideration.

I don't spend too much reviewing what happened in the past year;I do the same as you,trying not to think about the recent past because I can't change it anyway,and in today's world we don't have too much time to reflect on the past,it is better to concentrate on the things that we could do in the future to improve our lives.So I definitely look ahead and try to make a better future for myself.

I suppose this kind of attitudes has little to do with religion, culture, or someting else. It is up to you totally. For me, I wiil review as well as look ahead. Because I can learn some experience from the past so that I can conquer difficulty easly when I meet the same problem in the days to come. Looking ahead is also important, only you have faith for the future can you achieve your goals. Does it make sense? I hope it does :)

I always look ahead. I choose to go forward. I treat each new year as a fresh start, a new chance. There's a brief moment when I look back at the year that was but just for the sake of memories. I don't regret much, because with the mistakes I've done, I learned a moral lesson. ANd there's actually no point, because things cannot be undone. Every new year, I tell myself, "this year is going to be better than last year". But even if it doesn't turn out to be better, it's important to keep the positivity. New years are new chances.

I look ahead. I don't want to do a post mortem on the past year. It does me no good, I think. Sure, it's wise to learn from my mistakes, and I'd like to think I do. But rehashing the past year would just give me the chance to feel sorry for myself. And I'd prefer to look to the future, and do it with hope.

Hi savypat, I too feel that it's a matter of age as I almost never think a lot about the recent past. I often think about when I was growing up and how different things were sixty years ago. I try to live in the present but I look ahead and continue to plan new things. Blessings.

Mostly I look forward. I don't think it's awful to look back for memories, but it's best not to dwell on what has been or could have been. This new year I was so focused on the future I did not even think to look back on the past, until a discussion here reminded me to. When I thought about my past year, it wasn't totally eventful, but a few good things did happen, and it was nice to remember those. It also reminded me of something I should do again this year.. a charity 5K. I did my first last year, and this year I want to do another for a different charity.

I do both. I review what I have done in a year, what was my achievements and what was my mistakes. Then I look forward to create a better achievement, to minimize the failure and reach a better life.

I try to recall the good memories but i'm not the person who would really look back in the past unless i am reminded or i am counting my blessings. I look forward to a brighter future but i just live at the present making it as fruitful as i can so i can reap the harvest in the future. We cannot change the past but we can do something good with our present life so our future will be so much brighter!

This is a great question. I think I am one that tends to do a little bit of both. I look forward, but I also look back. I am trying not to repeat the same mistakes and change things up from one year to another, so I have to review the past year periodically to make certain that I am taking steps towards change. Would you agree? I don't know if it is a matter of age, but a matter of choice! Happy New Year!