This year has created a lot of uncertainty for many of us. Somewhere amidst the turmoil, there have been some great moments, that somehow managed to get lost and buried in this year’s events.
Let us end the year on a high, with a smile, starting 2021 with motivation, optimism, working towards new year achievements.
Now is a great time to share your reflections with a loved one and prepare the journey ahead, make plans, and celebrate all the good times you have had this year.
Pull up a chair, curl up together on the couch, and review your 2020. Here are a few questions to ask yourself and to each other:
- What are you most proud of this year?
- What have you done that you will remember for the rest of your life?
- What has been the most challenging part of this year, how did you overcome it?
- What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself?
- What has made you smile?
- What is your biggest, health, and wellness accomplishment?
- What has made you laugh?
- What is your biggest regret?
- If you could change one thing about this year, what would it be?
- What books have you read, what did you learn from them?
- What song have you listened to repeatedly?
- What positive habit have you taken on?
- What bad habit have you dismissed?
- What is the scariest thing that has happened to you?
- What has been your favorite movie this year?
- What are you most grateful for?
- What is the most amazing thing you did for someone?
- What skills have you developed?
- What is the best gift you bought yourself this year?
- What are you leaving behind as you move forward into 2021?
After reviewing your 2020, take note of your answers, how do they make you feel, what other questions came from them? Make sure you celebrate your accomplishments.
As you watch the year draw to a close, it is time to prepare for what lies ahead and to make this your best year to date. Here are a few ideas to get you started and plan for a successful year.
- Investing in a journal for the new year comes with some great benefits:
- Achieving goals and improving your quality of life
- Creates inspiration, helping bring your vision to life
- Boosts your memory
- Healing qualities
- Builds self-confidence
- Helps to manage stress and anxiety
- Allows you to get all your emotions out on paper
- Helping to see the progress you are making
- Learn something new each day
- The internet is an enormous resource for information, making it easy to learn new things each day.
- Watch a YouTube video on something that has generated interest.
- There are lots of blogs and articles on health, wellness and many other topics.
- Listen to TED talks. Inspirational and motivational, triggering new thoughts and ideas.
- Rebalance your life
So many things happen in life that gets taken for granted. It is critical to look at each of these areas and prioritize their importance to establish a fine balance in life.
- Health
- Family
- Work
- Homelife
- Friendships
- Values and beliefs
- Financial
- Leisure and relaxation
- Personal development
- Caring for others
Finding balance is not always easy. You need to take time to review what is happening in your life and prioritizing its importance. Rebalancing comes from within and the choices you make. Make better choices, make better decisions, enhance your life.
Work-life balance is about creating a life that flows with you rather than a life you have to power through.
– Jaime Marie Wilson
Sometimes life is overshadowed by the negative attitudes of our surroundings, losing our way in the process. Regularly assessing your life plan, thinking about the things you do day-to-day, where your thoughts and actions are leading you, can help put life into perspective, giving you an awareness of what is happening around you.
Explore who you are, look at what is deep inside, create a greater understanding of what you need and want, rebalance, focus, helping shape a successful life ahead, giving you the tools necessary to lay down the foundations of your pathway.
You create the life you want; you control your future, your life destiny.
These are powerful questions to ask ourselves when reflecting on 2020 as well as to looking forward to the positives that are coming for us in 2021. For many, journaling while home alone is the only way to speak from the heart when no one is there to physically listen and hear our voices. Keep writing and publishing! Thank you for opening our minds to new possibilities.