What will you leave behind in 2021 – what will you take forward into 2022

I love this time of year for so many reasons, one of them is that I have the opportunity to reflect on the year that’s been and look ahead to a crisp New Year! In today’s busy life it can often be hard to stop, think and ponder, yet reflecting is so powerful and freeing! Although Christmas time can be so full on with all the partying, entertaining and busyness, the time between Christmas and New Year is often my favourite time to look back at all the highs and lows the year has bought and think ahead to the next year.

I love this time of year for so many reasons, one of them is that I have the opportunity to reflect on the year that’s been and look ahead to a crisp New Year!

In today’s busy life it can often be hard to stop, think and ponder, yet reflecting is so powerful and freeing!

Although Christmas time can be so full on with all the partying, entertaining and busyness, the time between Christmas and New Year is often my favourite time to look back at all the highs and lows the year has bought and think ahead to the next year.

I do this in a number of ways. In previous years I have taken a day out to sit or walk and ponder, other years’ time hasn’t been in abundance, so I have taken the odd hour here and there. If I’ve been journaling, I will take a look through my journal, if not, I go through each week in my diary to remind myself of what I have been doing or what’s happened that year. As I reflect back, I ask myself some questions to guide my thoughts and jot these in a notebook or journal, I like to make it look pretty so it helps me keep focused! I remind myself that this is a time to celebrate and be thankful for the year. If you are anything like me, you’ll know that life is like Roses… beautiful with bright colours, fragrant with fabulous scents but also prickly and thorny too! If I’ve dealt with a number of thorns this year, I get to be curious about them. No matter what has happened throughout the year, I choose to make ‘peace’ with it.

Looking at the beauty of a situation it is easy to be thankful, but what about those pesky thorns? Ahhh, now they aren’t so easy to be thankful for until you think about what you can learn from them! I enjoy the opportunity to seek out the learns from the year. I always say that ‘a mistake is never a mistake if you learn from it, if you do then it was a lesson not a mistake’. That mantra has helped me reframe many things that I first thought were mistakes; I try to see them from the perspective of what I’ve learnt from it.

This time pondering helps me to look ahead and plan things I’d like to do or places to see. I do this with work too, I think about what I would like to be doing in my role, targets I’d like to achieve, new things I’d like to learn, new customers I want to work with and for me, exciting new courses I can train. I get to make objectives for my year ahead (yes, I do this!), if you don’t have targets how do you know if you’ve reached them or not, and just think of the fun you’ll have this time next year when you get to reflect on 2022!

I enjoy having the space to reflect on the things I’m proud of from my year and maybe not so proud of. Achievements are great to look back on with pride, but also how you’ve handled a tricky situation or person. We can learn from what we’ve done well and from those things we’d do differently next time. It may be that you reacted where you would have preferred to have responded – responding in this situation may have resulted in a better outcome. Responding not reacting has been a big learning for me over the last year, when I was first learning this lesson, I could often be heard saying “Respond don’t react” to myself, now it’s pretty much in my character.

So let me ask you: Professionally and personally, what will you leave behind in 2021? What will you be taking with you into 2022?

ü  What ‘highs’ are you proud of?

ü  Which ‘lows’ are you learning from?

ü  What is it that you have learnt from these?

ü  Which roses and thorns are you thankful for yet will keep in 2021?

ü  Which roses and thorns are you grateful for and happy to take into 2022?

ü  Which strengths, character traits and skills are you taking in to 2022 with you?

ü  What lessons from 2021 will you be taking with you? What difference do you want them to make for you?

ü  As you look back at the end of 2022, what is it that you want to be saying to yourself?

I’m choosing to have a great year 2022 full of learns, growth, quality time with precious ones, fun and laughter – what about you?

If you would like any help in looking at the year ahead and what that might look like for you, you may want to consider some coaching with one of our team, contact us for a chat.