Reflections and Dreams for 2020

Many of us enjoy creating New Year’s resolutions for ourselves and I think those can be valuable as long as we use them as inspirations and wants and not yet more “shoulds” and “musts.” Like “I should exercise more” or “I should eat healthier.”

Do you have a habit of creating New Year’s resolutions?
How does it feel to you? Is it a must, a task, exciting or inspiring?

At the beginning of each of the past four years, I’ve done a reflecting and visioning exercise. Over the past few days, I’ve been reviewing it and working on a new one for 2020. Previously, I had themes such as “freedom”, “connecting with people and nature” and “community.” I judge I achieved most of my themes pretty well. For example, in 2016 I gave up a job and turned to my dream of leading people in workshops, coaching and therapy full-time and experienced incredible freedom that year both in my work and in my relationships.

I want to share the questions I answered in my New Year’s Reflection and Dreams exercise in hopes that you may get inspired.

Reflecting
– What kind of feelings or thoughts arise in me when I think of last year?
– What did I learn and how did I grow?
– What I am grateful for?
– What do I want to take with me into this new year? What do I want to leave behind?

Getting ready! 
– How do I ensure I have time and energy to pursue my dreams?
– How do I sabotage myself when I don’t pursue what I want? How will I tackle that?
– What needs to happen so that I’ll trust my dreams will come true?

Dreams for 2020
– What do I want for this year?
– How do I want to grow and what do I want to learn?
– By what values do I want to live? How do I greet this year?
– What is this year’s theme (if any)?
– What is the first step towards my dream? And when will I take it?

When pondering those questions, if I am not sure about my answer, I pause and check the sensations in my body, checking what really feels true to me. After I answer those questions in writing, I go back and underlined the key words and/or sentences and added comments. For example, in addition to what I had wished for the year, I had added: “Dance! Fun! Love!” For values, I highlighted the words Honesty, Caring and Love.

What was great about your year 2019? What did you learn? What do you want to leave behind?

How you make yourself excited about 2020?

Love,

Tuulia