I’m sure that you’ve seen all the memes about celebrating 2022 and hoping for it to be a better year – let’s face it, the bar seems pretty low so let’s keep our fingers crossed for a peaceful 2022. I know that I could use a year with less stress, challenges, and tragedy. But before we move on to a New Year, I want to leave you with how you can reflect on the past year.
We often want to move on and forward from things that have been challenging as a way to have a ‘new start’ – there’s something about a fresh year that reminds me of fresh crisp white sheets. I want you to have a great fresh start and I want you to really dig into all the growth you’ve had in 2021.
Recapping the year is a tradition of mine – one tradition that I’ve been doing for over two decades. What’s most valuable in this exercise is being able to see the full picture of what has happened, how you reacted, how you’ve grown, the lessons learned, and what you choose to take with you into the New Year. It’s a powerful exercise that will help you connect with the badass that you truly are!
Here are some ways you can reflect on the past year:
Reflect on each month
Grab a journal or a notebook and go through each month of 2021 – write out what happened, what you did, how you were challenged, and what you did. The purpose is to take note of all the events that happened and how you dealt with them. Write all the nitty-gritty things and all the ugly as well – the goal isn’t to ‘find the positives’ but to document the true experiences you had and how you dealt with them without passing judgment on them. Our brain will naturally want to label things as either good or bad, so you have to be really purposeful in not falling into that trap – you need to write out all the things without judgment.
What does it say about you?
When you look at the entire year of events, challenges, joyful moments, and growth – what does it say about you? What characteristics did you show? What did it require of you to show up this way? Take a step back and look at the big picture of 2021 and spend some time teasing out how you showed up and the growth it required. We often go from one challenge to the next without taking stock of how we showed up and what it says about us. The truth is that each challenge will force growth – it’s in pulling this out that we can connect to how well you managed despite all the challenges of the year. It also allows you to see that you had moments of joy, fun, and connection in the midst of those challenges.
What do you want to take with you into 2022?
What stands out to you as something you want to bring with you? Typically, we want to start ‘fresh’ and throw out the past year, but there’s a lot of good stuff in there that you can bring with you. Maybe you want to take courage with you or tenacity or grit. You don’t have to start from scratch each year – you can take all the things you want and need to into 2022 that will support your goals. We learn so much when we’re in seasons of challenges – there’s gold in there, we discover strengths that we didn’t know existed until a challenge brings them up. We can’t start ‘fresh’ each year – we can have new goals and visions and we can take all the learning with us.
Have fun with this exercise! How else can you reflect on the past year? I love recapping the year and seeing all the things I’ve done, the challenges I’ve faced, and what I’ve learned along the way. I’m excited for you to try this method and see how much you’ve accomplished and overcome this past year. You deserve to connect to the badass you truly are!
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