You Don't Have to Start Over Next Year
The Practice of Yearly Reflection and Intention Setting
I look forward to this time of year every year – the tail end of a twelve month journey, the potential that a new calendar year brings, the sweetness of slowing down and spending time with those you love. In the time between mid November and early January, I spend most of my spare moments daydreaming about what the next year could be. Where do I want to focus my energy? What feels exciting to learn? What could potentially unfold over the past twelve months?
Rather than seeing it as a daunting challenge to accomplish, I see it as a mystery waiting to be solved. There are an infinite amount of doors to open – and only I get to choose where to start. I can stay put at a door I have kept open from the season before, or I can decide to do a full pivot. I can keep a few open at a time, or shut them all to give myself time to rest, recharge, and reflect before opening anything new up. The calendar year ending (or beginning) does not indicate anything other than a passing of time – just as every morning brings an opportunity to start anew, this is simply a time to make a choice. Will today be a day that you make a change or continue moving as you have been?
After years of living my life on autopilot, living the life I thought I was supposed to be living, it has been revolutionary to remember that I always have a choice. I love the changing of years, and of seasons, because it reminds me of the limitless potential of my life. Whenever I feel stuck or stagnant, I remind myself that every breath is the opportunity for a new beginning.
This perspective is why I love the practice of yearly reflection and intention setting. If you’ve been around for a while, you know every year I share an intention setting guide to inspire your introspective process through this transition of the calendar year. I share my practice of reflection, setting intentions, and visioning for the year ahead. While I love making this guide every year, this year I want to give you the tools to create your own. I want to share more about the practice of end of year reflection and intention setting in order to inspire you to create a practice that works for you.
I recognize not everyone loves the ~new year, new me~ or rhetoric but I want to share a perspective of intention setting that is not about changing yourself but rather taking the time to look at your life, see what’s working and what’s not, and feeling empowered to make the shifts needed in order to adjust towards a more aligned way of being. Sometimes that means completely overhauling everything you have been doing, and sometimes that means a gentle continuation of what you have already been doing.
For me, this practice is less about setting unrealistic goals and expectations for the year ahead, and placing my worth on whether or not I achieve them, and more about slowing down and taking the time to learn from your past experiences in order to inform how you want to show up in the year ahead. It is a time to pause, allow the experience of a year to settle, and catch your breath before moving on. When we don’t ever slow down or stop moving, it makes it nearly impossible to know when it is time to change course. This practice is an invitation to slow down to speed up – to let the year integrate, connect back to yourself, and move into the new year from a more grounded and intentional place.
I love any and all markers of time. I love the transition of ending to beginning and the transition that happens between. I love changing seasons, months, years, etc. I love the cathartic experience of reflecting and releasing the past in order to make space for the potential of the future. While the grief that comes with something ending is never comfortable, I love the practice of honoring what no longer is present in my life and dreaming about what could be.
What’s great about this practice is that it can be done in any period of transition – a season of life, a season of the year, at the end of a job or relationship, or whenever you are feeling stagnant in life and want to move forward with greater intention. Take the essence of this practice and use it in your everyday to carve out consistent space to check in with yourself and feel empowered to adjust your focus as needed. If there is one thing that the practice of intention setting gives me is the permission to change course whenever things are not working for me. There is limitless potential for this life – nothing is ever truly stagnant and there are a million doors (or ways of being) waiting to be opened.
Reflection:
– Where have you been?
Spend time taking in the past twelve months. I like to flip through my journal, scroll through my camera roll, skim over all of the newsletters I have published. I take note of themes, highlights, lows, moments that I never want to forget. Look at the year at a whole and then break it down into different chapters; how would you synthesize your year? What are moments that impacted you most?
Prompts to Get You Started:
Who were the most important and impactful people to you this year?
What experiences left the biggest impression?
If you had a time capsule for this year, what are the things that you’d include? (Albums, recipes, items of clothing, books, etc.)
