Goodbye 2020: Annual Reflection

Near the end of each season, I spend time reflecting on the previous three months and planning for the next three months.

At the end of the year, I reflect and review the past 12 months, giving gratitude, grieving, forgiving and releasing the year. I dream into the coming year, making plans and setting intentions.

I’m preparing for my 2020 reflection, and I’d love for you to join me!

Prepare to Engage

Over the course of this month, I’ll be sharing my process with you and invite you to share yours with me. 

Here’s how you can participate:

• Joining The Burnout Proof Interpreter Collective private Facebook group where we’ll be sharing and discussing our reflections and intentions
• Sharing your reflection and intentions in the comments below as we move through the month
• Replying to my weekly email love note where I’ll be sending out prompts and my own reflections

You can also of course keep your reflections and intentions private, and just use these posts as inspiration!

Prepare to Reflect: Set a time

The first step in looking back over my year is to set aside a time to do it. There are a few parameters I consider:

• When can I have everything gathered by? The list of what I like to gather is in the next section.
• When do I have 2-3 hours to myself? If you need to break this up, schedule it in whatever increments will work for your schedule.
• What time of day do I have the most energy? This reflection can be emotionally intense (especially after the kind of year we’ve just had) – schedule accordingly.

Once I’ve got my dates on the calendar, I know how much time I’ve got to gather my reflection items. 

Prepare to Reflect: Gather

The next step in looking back over my whole year is to gather the tools and info that will help me. 

Here’s what I gather:

• Journals – I make a new one each month, so at the end of the year I have 12
• Calendar – my Google calendar
• Visioning + Intentions document – created the December before
• Photos – I use Google photos, which makes it easier to jog my memory by looking up specific dates or locations

Over the years I’ve made it easier on myself by keeping all of these things in specific places, so I don’t have to spend too much time looking for them. 

If this is your first time, or you’re just developing your routines, do your future self a favor and spend some time getting intentional about where you keep your items during the year.

Thank yourself

If you’ve made it this far, preparing for your annual reflection, you’ve already given yourself a great gift! 

Spending time with yourself, giving care and attention to all that you’ve been through in the past year, goes so far toward developing a loving relationship between you and you. 

Take a moment to thank yourself for devoting this time to you!

I look forward to sharing my review and reflection process with you next week! Until then, take such good care of your precious self.