REFLECTION

BOOKLET
2023-2024

by Hugo Pereira
 My name is Hugo Pereira, I’m inspired to be a catalyst for
growth in all forms—including personal development.

Since a very young age I’ve found myself in awe with

humanity and the depths of how far we can learn about
ourselves daily and be a better version of ourselves.

To put this into practice, at least once a year I do a deep

introspection where I reflect and let memories and
thoughts fill my mind, trying to comprehend what the last
12 months meant and what I’ve learned, as well as dream
about the future.

This is how I started the Reflection Booklet.

Early in 2017, I published the exercises I did for myself

openly. Each year since then, the reception has consistently
been warm and positive. Thousands of people have
downloaded the Reflection Booklet, which fills me with
gratitude, knowing that this small measure can be of help
to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of themselves.

HEY
I sincerely hope this Reflection Booklet helps you reflect
back on 2023, bring it to a close, and start to get you

THERE!
warmed up for 2024.
 HOW IT WORKS
This year's Reflection Booklet has a standard flow and an optional add-on to dig deeper. You can
run the traditional exercises of debriefing and envisioning the future.

If you want specific this year to look into your professional path or parenting journey, there’re
specific exercises for those.

Debrief & Reflection

This is the basis and foundation for the Reflection Booklet. It’s the module and exercises that everyone should do in
order to get the best out of the other modules. It sets the base for deeper understanding of the year that just went by.

Envisioning the future

This module is also a standard process to prepare for the year ahead—it focuses on setting up your goals, ambitions,
and the right behaviours for a successful new year.

Add-on (optional)

Parenting: Career Introspection:

This module is focused on parenting, and This module is specifically focused on people that want
specific exercises to deepen the relationship to explore a career change and need some extra help
with your respective partner and children. to understand better if it’s time to move on from their
current job or change their career focus.
 Key principles

Dedicate time
The Reflection Booklet should be done during
specific, dedicated time set aside for it.

Decide your flow beforehand

The Reflection Booklet has a modular
approach as explained in the previous page.
As such, you have the chance to pick your
own path.

You can juggle between exercises

as you see fit; however, the main
recommendation is that you first go through
the Standard Reflection module, prior to
moving to any other one.

Be present
The exercises should be done when you can be
mindful and focused. Make sure you balance

LET’S GET between offline exercises (paper, post-it) as

well as using technology where you see most

PREPARED
fit or the exercises asks for
its use.
 Top tips to get the most out
of the Reflection Booklet

1 Read it all
Read the whole Reflection Booklet prior to getting
started, in order to get acquainted with the
exercises and questions as well as the potential
time you need to go through them.

2 Let it sit
Just because an exercise is done, doesn’t mean it’s
completed. Make sure you let it sit for a couple of
days and revisit it to see how it feels.

3 Pick your time period upfront

While the Reflection Booklet is geared towards
closing one year and building a vision for the next,
these exercises can be used at any time period
(e.g. the parenting or career shift modules). Just
because it doesn’t fit in a calendar year doesn’t

LET’S GET
mean you have to wait!

PREPARED
STANDARD
REFLECTION

Year: 2023
Exercises: 6
Exercise 1
Nowadays everything is online. A lot of what you
WHAT DOES MY DIGITAL experience is documented in a digital format—in several

ARCHIVE UNVEIL TO ME. forms and shapes.

◦ Take a step back and skim through your phone’s

photos. Save or favourite the moments or memories
you believe or feel are special.

Tip: Don’t have a lot of photos on your phone? Not a

problem. Search through your calendar, meditate over your
year, or do an envisioning exercise focused on the moments
that mattered the most.

Now that you’ve got through the photos and memories, it’s
time to deepen its meaning.

Write down the moments that had the biggest impact

on you and associate them with a photo, or special
physical element (eg ring).
Describe why they mattered, what they meant to you,
and how it affected your behavior.

You can write them down, print the pictures,

or draw six illustrations in squares—capture at least
3 impactful moments and select up to 6.

Stay with these moments for some time,

see what feelings evoked as you
revived each moment.
 The rose, the bud, and the thorn.

Used by many teams across the world when creating

retrospectives, the rose, bud, and thorn is a well-known
exercise that can be applied to our own reflection.

Now, that you have your digital archive explored, let’s dig
deeper and look at the year in the most simplistic form.

1 The rose
Write down the things in the past year that were a
highlight, success, any small win, or positive that happened.

2 The thorn
Write down the challenges you experienced, the low
moments, the most stressful, and what made them hard.

ROSE, THORN, 3 The bud

AND BUD
Write down the new ideas that have blossomed or
something you are looking forward to explore next year.

Exercise 2
 Gratitude is an essential
part of the debrief
process.
You have built a community of friends, colleagues, role
models, and/or family that have helped you learn more
about yourself.

Some of this community may have experienced meaningful

moments with you, or they may have been there for you
during your high and low periods.

Showcasing care for your community is a great

way to show gratitude from you.

Think people that empowered or challenged you,

that laughed or cried in your high and low
moments, that you taught or learned from.

◦ Let them know in any format (video, call,

WHO MADE message, gift, any medium) how much
they meant to you and how

IT WORTH IT?
they made it worth it.

Exercise 3
 Exercise 4

WHAT REFLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

SUMMARIZE MY YEAR?
You’ve looked through your photos, understand the meaning behind your most impactful
moments, dug deeper into your learnings—so let’s summarize it quickly.

FILL IN THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ABOUT THE PAST YEAR

The wisest decision I've made

The biggest lesson I've learned

The biggest risk I took (or avoided)

The biggest surprise of the year

The most significant thing I did for others

The most rewarding gift I’ve got

The most joy I've experienced

 Exercise 5

WHAT IS WORTH INVESTING ENERGY

AND WHAT DO I HAVE TO LET GO?
It’s the time to look back at the present and see what is worth continuing fighting for and putting your energy
into and what do you need to let go.

PUT ENERGY IN LET GO

Learning new languages
Keep investing time with family
Continuing competitive sports

Time on social media

Certain people or groups
Current evening routine
Specific addictions
 Another year passed.
Another you was forged.
The days are short, but the years are long.

◦ Let’s take a look at your current self and do a

journaling exercises answering the following questions:

1. What do I understand about myself better than a year ago?

2. What did you leave in people or for people last year?

3. What new values were formed or mattered most?

4. What simple things did you do daily that kept you healthy,
both mind and body?

5. What did you say ‘no’ to the most? What gave you joy
saying ‘yes’ to?

6 What moments in this last year were your skills best put
into practice? Where did your expertise and wisdom shine
the most? Where you were most proud of yourself?

YOUR Now. Pause.

WISEST SELF
In one sentence—write down, for yourself.

Who are you? Do this without mentioning your origin, where

you live, your job title, or the company you work. Focus on
Exercise 6
what do you stand for and what is you contribution to the
communities around you.
ENVISIONING
THE FUTURE

Year: 2024
Exercises: 5
 ◦ Write down or draw all the moments you wish to
experience for the upcoming period. Envision what type of
experiences and milestones you want to achieve in no
specific order.

Do not limit yourself, you can draw three moments,

six moments, ten moments—just make sure they are
calling out to you, and giving you energy!

MY PATH,
MY MOMENTS
Exercise 1
 Exercise 2

MY CLAIM,
MY EXPERTISE
The foundation for next year is nearly complete. Now, it’s important to keep evolving yourself and becoming a
bigger influencer in your (desired) areas of expertise. Think about the areas of expertise that you want to stand
out next year, and how you can showcase them more often.

EXPERTISE YOU WILL PUT IN PRACTICE EXPERTISE YOU WILL PUT IN PRACTICE NEW AREA OF EXPERTISE
AND/OR SHOWCASE TO THE WORLD AND/OR SHARE WITH THE CLOSEST YOU WILL FEEL YOU ARE GAINING
(via writing, occasional sharing or PEOPLE TO YOU
(work, personal, etc.) (and want to practice more often)
participating in forums...)
 A lot of who and what we are evolves as we grow older and
gain more insights, not just about ourselves, but also about
world around us.

Additionally, we live in a world full of noise, high

pressure, and sometimes we might forget the
principles that guide us.

The following exercise is to help build a set of affirmations

that remind us of what we intend to be or become.

REWARD REMIND

MY ROUTINE

HABITS
Exercise 3
 Power of 1

1 Write down one habit you want to evolve, change or

let go next year. Yes, jut one. Not two, three, four
habits—just one.

2 Now, write down the habit, as well as which routine do

you need to put in place to execute on this, how will
you remind yourself and how will you reward yourself
as the habit becomes the norm.

MY
HABITS
Exercise 3
 Exercise 4

MY COMMUNITY
To help you achieve your personal ambition and gain new experiences, learnings and expertise—think about the people that
you will need the most help from in order to realize your vision for the upcoming year. Divide your community into
categories to help you identify and understand the ways they support you. Also describe how you will connect with them
and how they can help you out throughout the year.

MY PROFESSIONAL MY ROLE MODELS MY FRIENDS MY FAMILY

COMUNITY
 Exercise 5

MY SUPERPOWERS
The hedgehog concept—applied to your personal life.
A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best.
It is an understanding of what you can be the best at. The distinction is absolutely crucial.

We live in an era where learning is accessible to

everyone. Where we can be inspired and inspire
others.

What are the activities that ignite your passion?

WHAT ARE YOU DEEPLY
PASSIONATE ABOUT Remember, you can’t manufacture passion for
WHAT WHERE THE
yourself. You need to be honest and identify
MAGIC HAPPENS perhaps what’s already happening today.

WHAT YOU CAN WHAT DRIVES YOUR

BE THE BEST IN THE ECONOMIC &
Every person would like to be the best at WORLD AT LIFESTYLE ENGINE Every person must understand how to
something, but few understand with total generate sustained cash flow and invest
clarity what they have the potential to be long-term. This is more than just earning a
best at. salary. This is about jotting down the
lifestyle you want to have and what it
It’s not about coming up to be the best, a takes to get there.
strategy to be the best, or an intention to
be the best. It’s about identifying Then, find out the diverse options to get
something that you can truly master or be there—finances are part of our daily lives
proud of the excellence you deliver in your whether we like it or not. Get a grasp of the
daily vocation and work. financial outlook for yourself.
PARENTING

Year: N/A
Exercises: 4
 Similar to the standard reflection exercise, go through your
family activities, moments, and photos of the past year.

◦ Pick 5 to 10 moments that represent something big

for you. Any moment, being it a really good or bad
memory, just favourite it or print it and keep it with
you for other exercises.

1. What is common in the family photos you’ve selected?

2. What values do they evoke?

3. How did the family evolved from the first picture

to now? What has changed, if anything?

FAMILY DIGITAL
ARCHIVE
Exercise 1
 Pick a family
photo.
Any photo of your choice.

◦ Sit with it for at least five minutes looking at it.

You can choose to do it in silence or with any music
of your choice.

It might get uncomfortable or unsettling, but stick

with five minutes. Put a timer on it.

At the end of the five minutes, jot down what came

to your mind:

1. What emotions arise?

2. What insights did I get?

3. What memories came in addition to the photo?

SITTING WITH
…

SILENCE Reflect on the major thought that stood out to you

and dig deeper into why was that.

Exercise 2
 Exercise 3

TEACHABLE MOMENTS
You probably have had many teachable moments with you children.
Sometimes they taught you something, sometimes you felt like teaching them something.
Let’s look at both:

TAUGHT TEACHING

◦ What were the main challenges you faced this year ◦ What top five values do I feel most compelled to teach my
raising your children? Why was that? What did they bring children? Where do they come from?
about you?
◦ What life skills would I like my children to develop this year?
◦ What were some of the shortcuts and self sabotages
you’ve unconsciously brought up with your children (eg ◦ Do I parent more from consistent logical consequences and
screen time because you couldn’t handle a meltdown)? communication or emotional reaction?

◦ What were some moments that brought joy to you ◦ What are the most significant things in each of my kids’
on how you handle a specific situation? hearts?

◦ What were some moments that your children mirrored ◦ Am I setting aside time for myself and taking adequate rest?
some of your shortcomings? What did they teach you Am I carving out quiet play for my children so that my
that you want to do better next time? children see peace in my home?

◦ How authentically do I speak with my kids? Am I building a

bridge of trust and security through my honesty and
openness with them?
 Raising a child is
not a solo job.
You depend on other people to help on such an emotional
and rollercoaster journey.
Especially with your partner.

◦ Let’s look into your relationship and see how

we can deepen it:

1. How well do my partner (or co-parent) and I

work as a parenting team?

2. In which ways do we find time to have quality partner

time together? What activities do we do? What habits
are in place?

3. How do I support my partner for him/her have their own

time to reflect and have their own space when needed?

4. How are we doing when it comes to building a deep

CO-PARENTING
connection with our children?

A SPECIAL There are situations, unfortunately, where a partner is not

RELATIONSHIP
present or not longer with you. In such cases, you can do the
exercise with your closest community in mind. (think
grandparents, closest friends, nearby family, school, etc)

Exercise 4
CAREER
SHIFT

Year: N/A
Exercises: 6
 It’s time to reach
out to others.
Before diving deep into a career shift, let’s immediately
build our peer network. Let’s create accountability for
ourselves.

This can be a great exercise for yourself

as you consider a career change or evolution.

1 Pick five to ten people that you want to reach out

to. They can be all personal friends, family, mix of
personal and professional

2 Send them a message or email explaining you’re doing a

retrospective and ask them to reply to the following
questions:

What do you appreciate about me?

YOUR
What would you like to see more or less of from me?

What do you trust in me? What do you not trust?

360 VIEW What would you say I need to fully express

my best self?
Exercise 1
What do you see myself doing at my best?
 Exercise 2

BUSINESS MODEL YOU

Prior to understand what change you want to explore, let’s dig deeper into your professional you. Develop
your own business model to better understand the value you offer to your community and peers.

KEY PARTNERS KEY ACTIVITIES VALUE PROVIDED PEOPLE CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

Who is in your trusted What do you do? How you help others? RELATIONSHIPS Who do you help?
network? What do you excel at? How do you provide How do you interact Who are your
Who helps you? value? with your peers? “customers”?
With your customers?

KEY RESOURCES CHANNELS

What do you have? How do people know
What do you need? you?
How you deliver
expertise to them?

COST STRUCTURE REVENUE AND BENEFITS

What do you give away? What drives your economic engine?
What has the biggest cost in your life? What benefits do you get?
 See which environments
and career moments
you were at your happiest
and why.
◦ Draw a timeline of your career and put highlights on the
ups-and-dows. See what environments drove you to
your best self and what environments dragged
you down.

This is to help see your peak to peak moment and how

your career trajectory has been and what insights come
out of it.

YOUR
PROFESSIONAL
TIMELINE
Exercise 3
 Exercise 4

YOUR JOB SCORECARD

Let’s look at your current moment now. Let’s a rational score based on a model.
On a scale from 1 – 10 how would you rate the following categories:

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE CURRENT

CATEGORY DESCRIPTION
FOR YOU? (1-10) CATEGORY IN YOUR MOMENT IN LIFE?

How well connected are you to your current

Purpose
company, team, job purpose?

Joy How much pleasure does you job give you?

How does your current job bring the best

Strengths
out of you?

How well respected are you in regards to

Respect your own personal values and professional
output?

How much influence do you have over how

Influence
decisions are made?

How well or fairly are you paid for what you

Fair pay
deliver?

How confident are you that you can grow on

Growth path your role or other ones in your current
company or team?

How balanced is your mental and physical

Healthy environment
thanks to the current job your have?
 Exercise 4

YOUR JOB SCORECARD

After scoring, do a heatmap for what it looks like to you and what insights came to mind:

10
JOY STRENGHTS

HEALTH
5

5 10

This helps you better understand the dimensions in front of you. In this case, you’ve the respect, a growth path, and the job
brings the best strengths out of it. But you value joy, fair pay and health the most and not getting enough at this place. Is it
worth the trade off to find something new that might give you that, but you migt lose the growth path you’ve now. Just see
the potential trade-offs or if you can do somtething with your current job to make it better (change habits for healthy work
life balance or ask for more pay, etc)
 You’re ready now
for the goal model.

◦ Just write down what comes to mind

when putting all together:

G GOAL
What's your goal?

R REALITY
What is your current situation?

O OPTIONS
What are your options moving forward?

GROW
MODEL W
WILL
What will you do now?

Exercise 5
 Exercise 6

VISUALIZE SUCCESS
This only works when you’re clearer on your next move.

1 Get into a comfortable place where you will not be interrupted, so you can relax and complete this
exercise without interruption.

2 Start to imagine yourself in your new career, having achieved success. Take time to create a picture in
your mind where you are doing your new job. Imagine where you are, what you are doing, who you
are with, what you are seeing, feeling, hearing. Take time to make it a vivid image with lots of detail.

3 Now that you have a great picture, imagine what personal rewards you are getting in your vision now
that you have changed careers? Notice how you are feeling. Make the image brighter. Make the
rewards big enough to overcome your fears and see the things you are worried about becoming
smaller, washing away down a drain or even being thrown away in the waste bin.

4 Repeat Step 3 several times to make the image strong and detailed enough so your fears have all
gone. Don’t worry if your fear represents, just keep going back to the picture where you have
conquered your fear. Make the rewards bigger and brighter as you add more detail to your image.

5 When you are satisfied you have conquered your fears, don’t let go of the image, hold on to it.
Bring up the image each day until you
have successfully made your career
transition and whenever your fears
try to creep back in.
Take time to re-discover the detailed image you have
created to remind yourself of the big rewards that are
waiting for you when you make your career transition.

Stick with your new image and way of thinking.

It requires time and effort to absorb new thoughts and
behaviours and repetition is essential for new habits to
become automatic.
 I hope this Reflection Booklet truly helps you out.
I offer this content free to everyone as I believe in

THANK
the power of sharing and caring.

The only kind request I have is to share with me

privately how the Reflection Booklet has helped

YOU.
you or could be further improved—this is the best
part of doing this.

If you wish to share with other people or

For the body to be healthy you need to move. recommend the Reflection Booklet publicly,
For the mind to be healthy you need to still. you can tag me and add the hashtag
#ReflectionBooklet—up to you.

scalingwithhugo.com Many thanks and best wishes for your reflections,

ritmoo.io Hugo