My first vision board
Early in the year I put together one of my first vision boards during a Nest by Revel call. The reason I never got into it before was because I have an aversion to spending so much time sorting through magazines that don’t really resonate with me or reflect my interests… The other option is to find and print out all of your own images, which also seemed a bit cumbersome.
This year I decided to use Canva which ended up being a game-changer. (This is not an ad for Canva, as any similar image editing tool will do.) I was able to include images of myself and my family, words specific to my situation, and scenes that held the vibe I was looking for this year.
When I could consider it “good enough” (added benefit, it could be updated whenever!) I set it as my desktop background on the laptop I use daily. Although I don’t spend a lot of time staring at it, I see it for short bursts several times a day and I’m sure that the words and images subconsciously made their way into my psyche. Looking at it again now, I can see how I’ve made huge strides towards these goals.
My progress
Art - I signed up for two watercolor classes and made a “no electronics corner” for new creations.
Writing - I rekindled a journaling practice and started working towards worksheets, blog posts, and other writing endeavors that have been on the back-burner for several years.
Radical Self-care - I took steps to take better care of myself such as working with a coach to hold me accountable, designating one self-care action per month, asking for help with childcare, and booking myself two nights at a local retreat in January.
Family - I spent a lot of time with family, prioritizing them over other opportunities this year, but I also put up boundaries (still a work in progress) to take care of myself when needed mentally. Margaret will only be this little once and soon enough she’ll be off living her life. A couple of family members passed this year and as I get older, and family gets older, it is obvious how much time we get together is uncertain and to make the best and most of the moments we have now.
I am still working on the “peace comes from the mind” quote I put in there and although I know it will continue to take time and effort in the area, I feel calmer internally this year. I’m improving at knowing that I can’t control all situations, and at letting things go when they don’t serve me.
Reflecting and Planning
This month will continue to be full of reflections - looking at the past to create the next version of me in the future. Something that I’m really excited about, one of the long overdue worksheets I mentioned above, is that I finally made time to put together a New Year’s Workbook! It’ll have a page or two for reflecting on 2023, a number of prompts to get ready for 2024, space for vision-boarding if you like to do so on paper, and then a variety of tools to plan out the year ahead including quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily planning sections.
A few prompts to get you started:
A few questions below to reflect on this year. Share some of your responses in the comments below or get out a journal and jot down some thoughts for yourself.
What goals or aspirations did you have starting out this year?
How did it go? What would you keep the same? What would you change?
How did you grow or change as a person?
What events, positive or negative, contributed to that change?
What other reflections do you have about this past year?
