Year-end Clearing & New Year Jumpstart
We're getting ready to round the corner into another new year, so I thought I'd share my end of year process to help you kick off your new year with the tone you'd like.
Find some time and space to cozy up with a journal or laptop and feel your way through the following reflections. (Lean into the prompts that speak to you and leave the rest.)
1. What are you proud of yourself for from this past year?
*What intentions did you fulfill or goals did you hit?
*What growth or uncertainty did you ride out with grace despite how challenging it was?
*What accomplishments or achievements (no matter how dismissibly small the ego might try to tell you they were) felt good to you?
*Where did you show up with bravery or courage?
*How did you let your authentic self shine in some new (maybe scary) way?
*How did you nudge out the edges of your comfort zone toward some larger purpose in your life?
*Where did you operate from new empowering beliefs?
*Where did you hold kind yet clear boundaries in some newly assertive way?
*Where were you able to show up for someone with more presence and compassion and less judgment than you might have in the past?
*In what new ways did you honor your truest, most essential Self this past year?
*What lessons are you walking away with in the form of greater wisdom or compassion?
{I know it can be tempting for the perfectionist in us to skip this step, but give yourself the gift of pausing to reflect on the things you felt good about your growth or achievement around from last year. Give yourself a chance to start this new year with your Inner Critic in the backseat rather than the driver's seat.}
2. What are you grateful to this past year for?
Before setting your vision for the new year into motion, slather yourself up in gratitude for all that the past year has gifted you — no matter how challenging those gifts may have felt or how much resistance those circumstances may have stirred up at the time. This will get you in a great head- and heart-space to step into the new year tuned into an abundance frequency.
My favorite way to do this is as a "Highlight Reel."
Make a nice long list of all the moments and events - big and small - that bring a smile to your face or a sense of warmth, expansiveness, integration or joy to your body as you reflect on them from the past year.
{It's amazing how easily the mind can forget about all our growth and accomplishments and lean toward regret or self-criticism for things that didn't feel like enough. So, again, I really encourage you to linger with these first two steps before diving into the next.}
3. Clarify your vision for the coming year. (In with the new.)
Supported by your growth and new wisdom from the past year, what are you ready to create, welcome, manifest, contribute, experience, and receive in this new year?
If fear (often disguised as self-doubt) weren't telling you it's not possible, what would you declare out loud that you're ready to create, ask for, or welcome in this new year?
4. Clear the channels. (Out with the old.)
In order to create space to welcome that next-level vision for the new year, what needs to be let go of, processed, or integrated?
*What's it time to step up and be willing to say goodbye to - literally or energetically - in the name of freeing up energy to put toward what you really want to create or receive in the upcoming year?
*What beliefs have been limiting your greatest good or highest Self that you're ready to ditch and upgrade in this new year?
5. Capture your intention for the new year in a theme word or phrase.
Joy? Expansion? Abundance? Openness? Courage? Connection? Compassion? Play? Freedom? Peace? Love? Creativity? Curiosity? Spaciousness? Grace? Equanimity?
Once you land on a word or phrase that just feels right, let it become your anchor — your North Star — for the coming year.
Any time you find your focus or motivation wandering from your intention this year, just glance at your Post-It notes or calendar reminders or screensaver or signs you've painted with this theme word to bring you back to your home base intention.
6. How do you want to feel this year? (Inner goals.)
What adjectives capture the essence of how you want to feel regularly in this coming year?
Grounded? Joyful? Open? Loving? Spacious? Expansive? Connected? Present? Successful? Inspired? Fulfilled? Energized? Kind? Accomplished? At ease? Confident? Trusting? Accepting? Strong? Abundant?
Write these core desired feelings down. Getting your desires and commitments on paper already starts to bring them to life.
7. What actions can you regularly take / what habits can you proactively nourish to help nurture those feelings? (Outer goals.)
This is another step we often want to try to skim over, but it's vital to the conscious creation process.
This is the start of your action blueprint for the year.
Brainstorm onto paper all the possible ideas you can imagine for how you could feel more the way you want to feel and bring to life the ideas and contributions you want to bring to life this year.
Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling:
*Change all your passwords to intention-aligned mantras.
*Plan ways to surround yourself with supportive, inspiring people: A new book club? A mastermind group? A new dance, creative writing, language, improv, or cooking class? A hiking group?
*Invest in an annual pass to the yoga studio or gym you've been saying you "should" get to.
*Write out a list of all the things that bring you joy or energize you and commit to picking one thing off this list to bring front and center in each of your days this year.
*Start a meditation practice to jumpstart greater focus, deeper connection to intuition, clearer intention, more energy and ease, and more heart-connected presence. (Of course this is on every one of my recommendation lists ;))
*Write out your first three steps to "getting out there" with your new business venture or creative project.
*Write out what exactly you plan to say when you ask for the raise or promotion you're due or tell your clients you're raising your rates.
*Ask a supportive, like-minded partner to be your accountability buddy for the year.
*Write down the first step you'll need to take to bring your top intention for the new year to life; then do it right now.
There's no need to get too nit-picky about this whole process. No "perfect" required (or possible) here.
Take whatever chunk of relatively uninterrupted time you can find that's realistic for your life right now — you'd be surprised what you can clarify for yourself in just 20 minutes in early January, if that's all you can reasonably snag with a new baby, job, or whatever other fullness is going on in your life right now — and just do a little reflecting and capturing on paper.
You'll experience whatever you regularly focus on this year (as always). So bring some kind, consistent attention to what you want to experience this year, starting right now...
Starting by pausing to write what you most want to create or experience down.
Translating the intentions in your head onto paper is like sending a flare into the universe that says, "Bring it on, I'm ready for real!"
Raising a glass to a new year filled to the brim with whatever you'd most like to experience and contribute.
Lots of love,