Tools I’m Using To Reflect on 2018

Last night I sat down to make my vision board for 2019.

For the last 4 years I’ve hosted a vision board party of sorts. The first year was a cozy gathering of my closest friends at my apartment. And then the subsequent years I’ve hosted a more formal event with my friend Leslie.

I love making vision boards, the feeling of doing something tactile and crafty, but this year I wasn’t feeling super hyped at the prospect of making my annual collage of hopes and dreams for the upcoming year.

I don’t feel ready.

Not just because it’s only mid-December, but I also find myself clinging onto 2018.

2018 ended up being a great year for me, personally. I know, I know — 2018 has been a shit storm of a year in the news. For me personally I came in with really low expectations, I figured the whole year would be about staying the course and staying focused on grad school. But it ended up being a year of SO much more for me, which I’ll get into in some of my other end-of-year blog posts.

Today, though, I wanted to talk about how I’m taking a step back to reflect on 2018. I think it’s really important to pause and reflect. To acknowledge how far we’ve come in 12 months. And to also think about the ways we want to continue to improve in the year ahead.

Here are some things I’ll be doing in the next few weeks to reflect on 2018 and prepare for 2019:

I’m going through all my blog posts from 2018

At the end of the year I like to go through all my blog posts that I wrote during that calendar year. I’ll be writing a big round-up post of all my favorites and your favorites from this past year like I did last year. Even if I wasn’t planning on doing a big round-up, I’d still go back and reread my posts from this year.

As a blogger sometimes I forget the posts I’ve already published (it’s sad but true!). And I know I sometimes forget just how much content I’ve published in the course of a year. I feel really guilty whenever I have slow months of blogging (like this past month and earlier this year when I was in thesis writing hell). But even with those slow months I’m always pleasantly surprised [and a bit amazed] at just how much content I’ve still managed to create. I don’t mean this to toot my own horn, but as a reminder that there’s a good chance you’ve done a lot more in this last year than you might be giving yourself credit for.

 

I’m looking at my analytics from the last year.

I don’t obsessed over my blog analytics as much as I used to but I still like to use them as a tool and guide for the content I want to create going forward. I plan to dedicate some time before January to cozy up with google analytics and look at my top blog posts from the previous year, how people found my blog, old blog posts that still get a lot of traffic and my overall social media growth over the past year.

 

I’m rereading my old journal entries.

At the beginning of the year I journaled a lot. I was still in grad school and trying to drill down on what I wanted my life to look like post school. It’s through journaling that I realized that the days I felt like my happiest most energized and vibrant self were the days I spent my time teaching and writing.

I’m a bit nervous to go back and read those old entries, I know some people don’t believe in rereading journals. For me I believe this will be a useful tool to both remind myself how far I’ve come (once upon a time teaching 4 year classes in a week felt HUGE — now I teach 12 a week consistently). I also think it will help me continue to stay focused on those things that light up my soul and let that be my career guide for the year ahead.

 

I’m looking at my vision board and the intentions I set for 2018.

I keep my vision board above my desk. Whenever I look up away from my computer it’s there as a friendly, colorful reminder of what I wanted to manifest in 2018.

Last year I created a intentions for 2018 rather than traditional resolutions. I also have them hung up over my desk. Before the end of the year I’m planning on sitting down and journaling about those intentions — what went well? What intentions no longer serve me? Where can I improve? This will help me decide the intentions I want to focus on in 2019.

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Your turn: Do you have any favorite rituals for reflecting at the end of the year?