ep021: How to Learn From the Past Year Before you Jump Into the New One: My End-of-Year Ritual

In this quickie episode, I’m going to share with you the practice that I do to at the end of every year in order to reflect on the past year, and learn from it, and really glean the lessons that the year gave me – so that I can head into the new year more aware and more empowered. I hope that you’ll use this practice yourself to learn from the past year before you jump into the new one. 

Many of us don’t do good-byes very well. We’re uncomfortable with endings. And so it’s common to avoid them, to avoid endings, avoid saying goodbye, and to kind of push forward, as if nothing is changing.

And so here we are – if you’re listening in live time – it’s December, the end of the calendar year. 

And things are changing. We are about to move from one calendar year to the next. We are about to move from one season to the next. Depending on where in the world you are, the darkest day of the year or the lightest day of the year is happening around now, and then the light starts moving in the other direction.

This is actually a pretty magical time of endings and beginnings. 

And I’d like to encourage you to mark the ending of year or of the cycle of the seasons, with a ritual that brings you closure to the cycle, that helps you reflect on where you’ve been, what you’ve experienced, and what you’ve learned – that you can carry forward with you. 

So I’m going to share the simple ritual I do to close out each year – and this is for both my personal and professional life, it’s all integrated in this ritual.

I this ritual BEFORE any kind of vision-setting or strategic planning for the next year. And in fact, if you’re joining us at Launchpad 2023, this is the first thing we’re doing. 

Launchpad 2023 is an event I lead where we create time and space just for you and your business…so you can set your vision for the new and then make a clear, actionable plan for manifesting it.

This event starts January 6th, so if you are listening to this before then and want to join us, I’ll put the link in the shownotes so you can register and get a spot and join us, I’d love to have you. 

Here is the process:

Step 1, I gather together everything that will show me what I did this past year, what I participated in, what projects I worked on, who I spent time with, what I thought about it – everything. 

For me, the things I gather together are: my journal (which is where I regularly record my personal reflections), my notebook (which is where I record information and thoughts and notes specifically for business, and my online calendar.

So you would pull out whatever you have that would show you what you were involved in this year, what you were doing with yourself. 

And I take these things, and I go back to January, the beginning of the last year, and start noting what I was up to and what I was doing. 

And you can write these down in a new spot, to have it all together in one place, where you see what you were doing. Go through each month and note the stuff you were working on, the things you were thinking about, the emotions you were dealing with, whatever made up your year. 

Step 2, is to process all those things, and to pull out what my friend Kat Knecht calls, your  Highlights, Lowlights, and Insights. (I used to call them your Wins, Challenges and Lesson, but I love her wording: Highlights, Lowlights and Insights.)

So your Highlights are your happy times, your achievements, your wins, the things that you’re proud of. The Highlights of your year. 

And what’s cool is that you’re going find Highlights that you’ve totally forgotten about – that’s fun, remembering your wins, remembering the good stuff. 

Your Lowlights are the challenges you faced, the struggles, the hits. You’re going to find some of those that you forgot about too, because we often don’t want to remember stuff that is painful, or has painful feelings, like shame. 

It can be hard to look at those things, and it can be very insightful – which brings us to the next part: 

Insights. This is where we process what we learned. What did those Highlights and Lowlights, what did those wins and challenges, teach us? 

So I want to encourage you to take your time with this part. 

You can prompt yourself with the sentence stem: “I learned that..”

And the write whatever comes out. And then do it again, “I learned that…”

And keep going. And keep going. 

Your insights will be powerful. They’re from your inner wisdom. This ain’t no Instagram post with an inspirational quote from some spiritual guru. This is YOU, learning something powerful, from your own experience.

I learned that…

And just write, and keep writing. 

This is a wonderful way to create closure on this past year, and head into the new one more aware, and more empowered. 

And I recommend you do this before you do any intention-setting, goal-setting, dreamboarding, or strategic planning for the next year. 

If you’re willing to share any of your insights, I would LOVE to hear some of yours. You can email me at joanna@joannasapir.com