End of Year Reflection
One of the (many) reasons that I love the Unbound Planner is it's attention to goal setting and deliberate reflection. After spending many years in university, my internal clock ticks on an academic year, which conveniently aligns with my birthday and has become my preferred time for yearly reflection and goal setting. So, as I celebrated my 32nd birthday this year, I settled in to transition into my new year.
The Unbound Planner includes a "Self-Reflection" to start the year, a "Mid-Year Reflection" and finishes off with an "End of Year Reflection." Even though it seems a little backward, I will first talk about the End of Year Reflection, since my year just ended.
This reflection section of the planner strikes a nice balance between highlighting your favourite moments, the successes and achievements with goals you fell short on, and the challenges you were faced with throughout the year. It also helps you to set up for what you want to learn from your previous year and carry forward into the next. I won't get into my reflections' specifics, but I will share my general acknowledgements about my year.
Of course, the biggest challenge of the year, as was with most people I would imagine, was COVID-19. While I was lucky in that my loved ones and I stayed safe and healthy, and I continued working throughout this time, it still had its difficulties. I had a year planned, jam-packed with travel, visits with family and friends, standing in one of my best friends' wedding, and meeting my first nephew. As each event was cancelled, one by one, I faced a small wave of grief. There was also a lot of guilt about my grief, knowing that there were worse scenarios I could be facing during this pandemic, but I allowed myself to experience my feelings for what they were. I sometimes still feel frustration and sadness about these losses but forge ahead into the next steps.
And from this, I was able to bounce back and make the most out of the unexpected time at home, spent almost exclusively with my husband. We were able to support each other and find ways to make this time one of growth and quality. This leads me to the question of what I was grateful for this year. While I initially began this exercise, thinking that COVID would completely skew it, I remembered that because of when "my year" started, this presented me with the opportunity to be reminded of the months before that carried a lot of joy. Firstly, before the pandemic, I had the chance to have a couple of trips to reunite with good friends, which, without knowing it at the time, springboarded into consistent connection throughout the pandemic. I also have endless gratitude for having a partner with whom this time became a period of growth in which we shared a lot of laughter and enjoyment.
I was prompted not only to identify what goals I did not achieve this year, but also why that was the case. This question was an important reflection for me as the goals that were not accomplished (some home repairs and professional development) continue to be important and will be reconsidered for the coming year. I appreciate this question as it pushes me to be deliberate in understanding what may be getting in the way of my goals being accomplished, whether it is is something practical or simply a mindset.
One of my most significant sources of pride this past year is, in fact, this blog. I have always desired some creative outlet and have toyed with some form of writing for years. While this continues to be a small project for me, I hope to develop it further and set some larger goals for myself in the coming year; I am very proud of having finally taken the first steps. I continue to find balance in setting goals and expectations for myself while also allowing for flexibility and reminders that this is meant to be enjoyable.
To wrap this up, the Unbound Planner offered me an excellent platform to deliberately reflect on my last year. The questions and some rating scales regarding my satisfaction with different areas of my life will launch me into my planning for my 32nd year of life. I was left with a sense of pride while acknowledging my struggles and shortcomings, all of which motivate me through this transition time of planning and goal setting.