As I write this, it’s December, and I can’t quite believe we’re almost at the end of 2020. It’s been a challenging year and we’ve all been tested in ways we probably never imagined would happen in our lifetime. The word of the year would have to be “uncertain”.
The pandemic caused us all to examine our lives and what it essentially means to be human. The very act of living in such uncertainty (there’s that word again!) meant we have experienced a world that at the end of 2019 would have seemed like someone’s bad joke.
But, as is the human way, we adjusted. We shifted. We adapted. We learned a different way of living, how to take better care of ourselves and each other and the importance of slowing down, pausing and reflecting.
We’ve all come a long way and as the year draws to an end, now is the perfect opportunity to start looking to 2021 and to think about the kind of success you want to see in your personal and professional life.
One of my favourite ways to start planning is by asking yourself reflective questions and journal your answers - our Ponderlily journals are perfect for this! Journalling will help you arrange your thoughts, set your goals and create a plan for the new year.
To help you get started, we’ve put together an easy reflection guide so you can move into the new year with intention, thoughtfulness and purpose.
Reflect on the Past Year
What is the single most important lesson 2020 has taught you? Think about what happened both in your personal sphere and in the wider world.
Reflecting on the past and what we learnt from it helps us think about what will continue to serve us into the future or things we might need to change. It also helps us recognise what we are grateful for in our lives and how to honour this going forward.
2020 was the year of finding the silver lining. Maybe you had to home school your children but also relished the time you then got to spend with your family. Or maybe you finally started that online business you’ve been thinking about for years.
How do you intend to serve this part of you into 2021?
Look Towards the Future
After reflecting on what you learnt and loved in the past year, you can create an informed plan of what your needs and goals are for the year ahead.
What do you want more of? What do you need to let go of? The things that served you in the past may not continue to do so in the new year, but the lessons you learnt from them will help you craft your goals for success into the future.
Visualise a future “you” that has the successes you want to achieve. What does she look like? What’s her way of being? How is she showing up in her life?
Set Those Goals!
Time to set some goals for success! Write down your top three ambitions that you have for the new year and what it would like for you to achieve them. Will you need support to help you along?
Support could be resources you need, people who may be able to help or a skill you'd like to learn! The act of writing your goals down and expanding them into actions will help you create thoughtful intention and purpose for the next year.
It’s also important to think of what you do if your goals don’t go according to plan. What will you do to remind yourself to get back on track or if you need to change course?
While 2020 wasn’t the year many of us dreamed or planned for, the year came with its own lessons and experiences.
Everyone - from the individual to large corporations - was forced to adapt to a new way of working and living. Priorities shifted, new joys were discovered and, while it’s never been harder to travel, we’ve never been closer as a global community.
Now as we look to 2021, we can utilise what we learnt in the past year and bring the lessons into the new year to find success in an intentional and mindful way. Use our guide and prompts above to prepare and create your own path to success for 2021 and have a wonderful new year!
