How to use the last week of the year to reflect, reprioritize and dream!
The last week of December is one of my favorites. It tends to be a somewhat quiet week (except for New Year’s Eve) and it lends itself to introspection and dreaming of the future.
As one year comes to an end and another begins, we all start to look to the future and we can’t wait to flip the calendar to January again. But, before you do that don’t miss the opportunity to reflect on this year. As tough as it was, here you are. You survived. Perhaps you come out of it with some serious bumps and bruises, but here you stand, nonetheless. So often we focus on what has happened to us rather then how we came through it and what we learned. What a loss it would be if we didn’t grow from our trials and recognize all the wonderful strengths, we have developed that help us get through. So, take this week as an opportunity to reflect, celebrate, dream, and plan.
Here are some ways to get the most out of the last week of the year:
Sit down with a journal, paper and pen, or your laptop, whatever works for you. Think about this year, about all the emotions it has evoked in you. List the things you went through, the good, and the bad and how you handled it. How do you feel about this year? What are the strengths you see in yourself making an appearance again and again? How can you continue to develop those strengths in the coming year? An example for me is that to my great relief, during stressful times I don’t resort to emotional eating as often as I used to as a coping mechanism and rather lean on the healthy habits, I have established over the last 9 years. I plan to continue to use those in the coming year and even tweak them to be more effective.
This is the hard one. Think about how you struggled and when those struggles had more to do with your behavior or reaction rather then what was happening around you. Consider areas where you feel like you could improve your coping mechanisms, how you handle situations, and places where you were downright wrong. I’ll be honest, an area I struggle with is when I get overwhelmed with life (a frequent occurrence this year) I shut down and this makes being a mom, wife and business owner difficult. It also causes me to have to dig myself out of a hole I didn’t need to put myself in, in the first place. For the coming year I need to come up with a strategy to address that.
Sit back and read what you wrote. Take it in, be proud of all you have survived and take note of the things that you have come up with to help you be the best version of yourself.
Now this is the fun part. What do you want out of life, what are your dreams? Time is not promised, a theme all of us have been reminded of repeatedly this year and now is the time to make it happen. Do you want to run for the first time in your life? Create a plan with specifics like dates, times, and distances. Do you want to learn a language? Figure out what program you want to use and create a lesson plan again with specifics. Do you want to work on being a healthier version of you? Then identify what that means (getting stronger, more mobile, losing weight, gaining muscle, lowering your cholesterol) because health means something different for everyone and once you have determined what that means its time to plan. You must be specific! What are the small steps and habits you need to develop that will lead you to your goal?
This is a great time to do a vision board. Let me make myself clear here, and mind you this is my opinion, a vision board is a visual representation of your goals and dreams. It is not a magic board that makes everything on it happen. Just because you have put an idea out there does not mean it will just come to you. You manifest the goals and dreams that you work towards. But it is a wonderful reminder when hung in a prominent place, of what you are working towards.
Use this final week of the year to better yourself by taking the steps mentioned above to create a clear picture of where you have been, where you are now, and what you want to be working towards. Don’t miss out on what can be a transformative week in a year that really transformed us all. May you be able to see the beauty of all that this year has brought. The painful dark moments not only make us stronger and wiser, but more grateful for our lives, our families, and our friends and the bright moments bring us joy and keep us hopeful for the future. My hope for you my friends is that you celebrate your awesomeness and recognize that you have what you need to conquer this life and that your possibilities are only limited by you. May the next year be one of your best years yet!