The Holidays will soon be over here... I know you must be busy finishing up everything so you can relax for a couple of days before welcoming the New Year and setting your resolutions and visions.
I hope your year has been as successful and full of joy as you intended it to be. And I hope you are feeling proud of yourself (this was one of my “feeling” intentions for 2018) and those conscious accomplishments you made real this year.
Even if you feel that this year really sucked and you would just rather move forward without thinking about any of the mistakes or failures (that we all have had), hiding your head in the sand doesn’t help.
In fact, it does the opposite and only makes you carry those issues forward and replay them over and over again.
Nothing new can be built on regrets or resentment. You need to take the lessons and clean your mental and emotional closets to create space for the new.
So before you rush yourself to the new year… take some the time yet to stop and reflect on 2018.
Closing the book of life yearly is mentally, spiritually and emotionally as important as finalizing your bookkeeping and doing your taxes. Yes, we need to face the ugly truth and that’s helping you to let go of it.
Making these end of year reflections is needed for reasons:
You will clearly see how you have actually done and what you have accomplished (self-empowerment & praise!).
You become free from self-blame and resentment (forgiveness).
You know what is working or not working for you (wisdom).
You can learn from your obstacles (growth).
After you have done this exercise, you can let yourself off the hook - the table is clean and you have clarity and your head is full of wonderful insights. You’ll feel free to plan your life forward.
Here’s how to reflect on your past year:
Make a nice cup of something and get a piece of paper or your journal.
If you have one, get out your list of desires and goals or your calendar of the year.
Start from January and go through your life month by month and list all the accomplishments and good things that happened during your year.
Think of the reasons why it worked out so wonderfully for you.
Don’t hold yourself back from paying attention to “small” things - they are just as important.
Next make a list of things that didn’t work out: goals you didn’t achieve, mistakes or failures that happened.
Ask yourself what could you have done differently?
Write down the reasons why you think it didn’t work out. This is not to blame yourself, others or the circumstances. Reflect objectively.
What can you learn from it?
Go through your reflections to see what’s working for you, what makes you happy and what you want to continue doing next year - but also what do you need to let go of and clear from your plate.
It’s really empowering to clean the clutter and boldly remove some of the old things hanging on our to do lists that will never ever happen.
By doing this kind of exercise yearly you will stop repeating the same cycles and can change things confidently.
But also, we are often so hard on ourselves and too busy to praise ourselves enough... so celebrate your accomplishments!
Then it’s time to set those powerful intentions, goals and desires for the next year.
If it’s not part of your yearly routine yet I highly recommend making a list of intentions and desires for 2019. It’s a simple list of everything you want to have, be and create during the next year and this - the power of intention - is proven to work really well.
This is my personal way to start the New Year and it’s amazing to go back to those old desires at the end of year and witness how amazingly things have flowed forward, how much I have done and achieved - and simply seeing clearly what do I need to let go.
If you have a question or another practice or exercise you like to use, please share in the comments below.
Much love and Happy Holidays,
Jenni
