it's that time again...

You know the time. We all start to shed the past year's drama and inadequacies for our new year coat. Hopeful and optimistic thoughts swirling about as we rid ourselves of anything negative we remember from the past calendar year.

Before you kick 2021 to the curb, journal with me a bit?

Reflection can help you clear up your thoughts and start to challenge yourself in new ways. I use a few simple prompts to look back on the past year and use it in my journey.

first, look back at the past year's memories

When we start to prepare for the new year there's often a twinge of "good riddance" involved and I think we need to let that go. Outside of 2020, we almost all can find some good in the year we just came through. So my first step is always to think back and list all of the fond memories and fun moments I enjoyed that year.

Even when looking at the things you would like to improve on, you can do so with a positive attitude. Don't look at it as failures or shortcomings, but instead as opportunities to succeed. Opportunities to set yourself up for success and try again with a new plan mapped out.

Related Post: Monthly Bullet Journal Reflections

what could make it better?

If you had it all to do again (which you do, because a new year is just around the corner) what could make it even better? What sorts of things can you do or work towards to make reaching each goal that much sweeter? For the parts that you didn't like so much, think about what could have made them less awful.

5 years from now

This question is one of my favorite ways to set up goals. You can use it with three years or ten years, whatever timeframe makes sense for you. What's important to me about it is the visualization. I write down the person I want to be, the schedule I want to have, the location I plan to live, etc. so that I can work backwards from there.

If I want to be at Z in five years, what do I need to have complete by year 4? To make year 4 happen, what needs to be accomplished in year 3? And so on?

Something about working backwards this way helps me focus in on what my true priorities are. From my five year stance I can decide on large scale projects or goals and then break them down into achievable quarterly and monthly tasks to complete.

prompts to get you started

• what locations do you want to travel to?
• what have you learned about yourself?
• any poor investments?
• have you held yourself back this year? how?
• what have you accomplished this year?
• how will you nurish youself this year?
• what firsts are you looking forward to?
• brainstorm your word of the year
• list books you plan to read
• what are you starting? what are you stopping?
• daily step count or flights climbed goals
• big challenge coming and how you plan to prep

Your turn. What prompts or questions do you make sure to ask yourself at year's end? Share your end of year reflection pages with me @love.becomes.her too, I love the inspo. You can also check out my bullet journaling Pinterest board here.

I used the Groovy Month Header stickers for this spread.