The Reflection Before the Reinvention
As a Manifesting Generator 5/1 with futuristic in my top 5 Clifton Strengths, I LOOOOOVE this time of year. I love it because I get to plan for the…FUTURE! But in the past few years I’ve noticed that part of my future planning was lacking something VERY important: my past.
As a result, every year I would find myself repeating old patterns, getting frustrated at old behaviors, and saying “yes” to the same things I swore I was going to say “no” to. As someone who is constantly moving forward, I can forget what I’m leaving behind (you know, like $60,000 worth of giveaways to people because I “felt bad” each time and forgot that I had already given stuff away). With running a business, this is not only unsustainable, but also creates a poor future - not just for work, but also for personal. I have a lot of “wishes” and “I can’t wait to”s, but I realized I kept putting them off because I wasn’t learning from the year to save, to plan, or to create space for those things. As such, in the past few years, I’ve started shifting my end of year rituals to include a few days of REFLECTION to help me see what I want to carry forward and what I want to leave behind. And today, I want to show you that process!!
Gather your yearly items
Maybe it was a Notion goal list, your Google calendar, a journal full of chaotic scribbles, a vision board or a big ass sign with your “word of the year” on it. Whatever items can fill in the data for what happened this year is what you are going to want to gather. Once you’ve compiled them, then it’s time to jot down everything you remember/did during the year in a notebook or big piece of posterboard. Go crazy with this. I started first with my KNOWNS (calendar) then filled in the blanks for things that I remembered that didn’t make it onto the calendar. After that, I made another page for all of the feelings I had WANTED to achieve for the year based off of my journal, Notion goals, vision board and big ass sign.
2. Set a timer for 20 minutes and free write all the words that come into your head about this past year.
This one is probably the most fun for me. I grab a big sharpie and my big poster paper and I went nuts - even having Kitten help me out a little bit. Just when I thought I couldn’t come up with anything else, new words would flood into my mind. I think doing my Glimmers for the past year helped to make most of these words positive, but there were also some less than positive words that came through. If you like a little more structure, you can break up your 20 minutes - write down 10 minutes of the not so great words that come to mind about 2025 (purge it from your system!!) and then follow up with 10 minutes of the most joyful words that come to mind for 2025.
3. Pan for Gold
You know you aren’t going into an activity without any questions! The 3rd task is do an audit through inquiry. Ask yourself reflective questions about the past year to help uncover the lessons, the magic, the mundane, the teachings, the moments, etc. If you need help coming up with Qs, feel free to grab a copy of my A Year in Review booklet featuring over 60 questions to help you reflect! When we get curious we unlock SO much good stuff! (If you are part of The Good Girl Reform School you get this for freeeee!)
4. Write to Past You
A lot of my coaching work is spent helping folks connect to their inner child and other various past versions of themselves, but rarely do I have folks connect to the version of themselves from the year prior and I’m not sure why, because that version of us deserves just as much love, understanding and compassion as previous years. I found that by writing a letter and saying how proud I was of myself and marvel at how I moved through squidgy situations, it really helped to bring compassion to the forefront and remind myself I’m still - and always - growing.
5. Gratitude
Listen, you don’t get far in the psychology realm without discussing gratitude because it makes a HUGE difference on our lives, our point of view, and our self esteem. In this case, we want to practice gratitude for the folks that guided us, supported us, or even taught us lessons this year. I took the approach of sending voice notes to let the individuals who’ve really impacted my life in a big way know just much they mean to me and I wrote letters to those who were my best teachers (even if I didn’t want them to be haha!), I just didn’t send them. As someone who usually moves forward fast, I tend to forget the folks that help me get to where I’m going and that no longer sits right with me. They deserve to know how special they are! So, make a list of the folks who helped you through this year OR taught you a lesson and give them a call, send a voicenote, or write a letter (that you will never send!)
Personally, I like to ritualize all of these experiences. Carving out spaces and places to do my writing and connecting, surrounding myself with beautiful imagery, low lights, and candles that smell divine. I encourage you to do the same. Put it on the calendar so you make sure to actually do these things and I promise, your next year will move towards your goals a lot faster with joy and gratitude being your fuel and removing the roadblocks/mindset that held you up this year!
If you enjoyed this blog post, let me know in the comments what you are going to try! And also, get excited, because my Reinvention Rituals will be coming out in December and I cannot wait to share them with you!
