As we enter the last month of 2017, I am spending more time reflecting. Thinking back over the year and remembering the lessons. I know that if I can’t see the lessons I have learned this year, I am destined to repeat them next year. I want to make sure I extract the gold from the tough times, the aha’s, the insights. My process is to capture them in writing, and in the process I realize how much happens in a year. Time is a strange thing, when you are waiting to turn 16, or 18, or 21 it seems to take forever. When you have a vacation planned, or a big goal set for the future, time can seem to move so slowly as you wait for it to arrive. However, when I look back through the year I am always taken by surprised that things that happened 6 months ago can seem like 2 years have passed.
So here I sit, with a blank sheet of paper and a pen. I find a quiet space and say a prayer of thanks to God, to the Universe, to my body, for the ability to see, to write, to remember and to think.
Step One: I brainstorm all of the lessons I can remember from this year, mentally going month by month through the year.
Step Two: I get my phone and open up my pictures app. I scroll back to January, and look through all of the photos. I begin a second list of all of the things I am grateful for, triggered by the photos and memories stored in my little device. This also brings more lessons to the forefront, so I have 2 lists going simultaneously now.
Step Three: I go through my 2017 calendar, and here comes another wave of memories, lessons and gratitudes
I date and sign the paper, and set it aside. I will bring it out again next week, early in the morning, in a quiet place, and read it. What is amazing is that when I read it next, with a fresh mind, it will bring back all the lessons and feelings of gratitude, and I will be in the perfect place to plan out an amazing 2018.