63. Reflect on 2023 and Set Intentions for 2024

Hi everyone. I’m Saralyn Hodgkin, and this is the podcast to practice your leadership.

Hi folks. It’s time, it’s time to look back over 2023, reflect and get all the juicy stuff, the good, the bad, and the ugly, the energizing and draining, the all of it, and reflect on what 2023 has looked like for you. Mostly as a way of coming into our own being versus doing, so that we can do more intentionally, so that we can learn what gives us energy and what drains our energy and just where we’re at now, right?

And so we take this moment to take active reflective time to reflect on 2023 and all that has been and that has brought us to this space to set our intentions and the flirts we want to send out for 2024. So let’s give it a try, yeah? If, uh, you go onto my website and, and sign up to the newsletter and all that good stuff you can get a reflective journal that goes along with this, that just gives the prompts and such.

Otherwise, listen to the voice and be laying on a couch just imagining or grab a notebook and start journaling or start drawing using charcoal or paints or markers, whatever is your process to come into reflective space and play with things. I use pen and paper. Some people use digital notebooks, whatever it looks like.

What we want to do is use the way that you learn and the way that you process, use those ways so that we can just explore what all the new possibilities and untapped potential there is for 2024 as we, as we look at the opportunities for rich reflection from all that has been in 2023. So grab that reflective journal, grab your own tools of your trade and um, let’s try and cultivate the conditions of learning and reflection so you can set yourself up well for the next season of your world.

So we’re going to do this in a couple of parts. First part is reflecting back into 2023, and here it’s a stance of non-judgment, complete curiosity and, and a, and a place of appreciation of all the glory, the challenges, the lenses of 2023. All that that has and, has been in all of its form.

And in that place of appreciation is, is the word that I use for myself so that I don’t start to get all judgy or analytically and in a, in a way that’s not helpful. So first thing for you to do is just at the top of your page, um, and title it like what happened? We’re going to do a sort of a, a what, so what, now what, we call them, what happened?

Reflect on just the significant happenings for you in your life over the past year, jot them down. What are those inflection points, moments, situations, people, uh, emotions, what are the significant happenings in your life over the past year? Jot them down. And you don’t have to necessarily jot them down in order right away.

Just start throwing them down in a way that’s useful for you. As you do this, you might come up with, uh, seeing different trends in what you’re sharing with yourself or, or themes or threads. Maybe it’s about your leadership or your family or your community in some kind of context or your own inner development.

You can note those themes, just keep it flowing. What happened? What was the context of that? Jot those things down. If you want to press pause to take some time, do that. Do that.

So here we’re capturing what happened over 2023 for you. What are some significant things that happened for you? Next step is with all that you’ve crafted sort of on your next page, or maybe with a different colour highlighter even. You want to create a highlight reel from 2023. So choosing a set number 5, 8, 3 highlights from 2023.

If you were to pull out some of those key highlights, what would go on that, that collage of yours? What would be those five or eight significant happenings for you. What is that highlight reel that brings you energy and brings you that feeling, right? Of, oh yeah, that happened, right? Some of the highlights for you from 2023.

Pause if you need more time, right? But creating that highlight reel for you.

And then as you look at your highlight reel, you look at the significant happenings of what’s happened for you. Are there implications from that? Meaning, so why do these things matter to you? So what about these? What is it about these pieces that you’ve gathered from your highlight reel or your significant happenings.

Why do they matter to you? What was it that you were paying attention to in the time or what didn’t happen? Maybe fill in a bit of texture around them and capturing why do these matter and are there implications either within 2023 or beyond 2023 from these happenings? Are these sliding door moments?

Are, was there a place where you thought you were going to turn right but you turn left, right? Keeping a stance of curiosity, non judgment, and a place of appreciation that your life is unfolding, right? Just what are the implications? Why do these elements matter? What, what’s missing or what didn’t happen that you yearn for?

What were the elements you were paying attention to? Capturing some of that to get some of the context here, folks.

And now, if you’re following along in the reflective workbook, you’re coming along in these pages with me, right? And here we are looking at now, what does this mean for me? And the prompt here is to tap into your body in a way that makes sense for you. For some of us, it’s hand on chest, hand on belly, taking some deep breaths.

For others, it’s just grounding our feet. For others, it’s wiggling your bum for a second to just be grounded in your chair. But gather your awareness in your body. Tap into your energy, your energetic quality. Recognize places in your body that are, are yearning for your attention in some way. And as we tap into this space and we reflect on what happened over 2023, what some of those highlights were, what some of the implications and why those elements matter, the prompt here is what are you learning about what needs nurturing now? What are you learning about what needs nurturing now?

And what gives or takes away your energy? What are you learning about what gives you energy and zaps your energy? And a great topper question to that is what makes you feel alive? What influences your energy to thrive? What does that look like for you?

And as you flip the page, there’s another element here of what this means for you. And it is to now reflect on these pieces you’ve worked on and capture three commitments that you want to take forward into the new year. You reflected on your significant moments in 2023, their context, their implications, what’s helping you feel alive or not.

What does this mean for you going forward? Write down three commitments that you want to take forward into the new year. They don’t have to be proper SMART goals, blah, blah, blah. They can be intentions. They can be a bit loose in how clear you are with them. But here, it’s just to take a moment around what are your three commitments or at least the essence of your commitments to take forward into the new year?

Pause it here if you want. Reflect on this section that we’ve worked on because we’re about to go into the next section. So if you want to pause, totally pause here.

Let’s come into this second section. This is where we’re reflecting forward. We’re taking the learnings from 2023 and creating our intentions for 2024.

Let’s give this a try. So, first and foremost, let’s honor the work that you’ve just done and take a look at those reflections. What is one intention you can carry forward into 2024? It can be a word, a stance, a mantra, an image, a statement, it just needs to be representative of one intention you want to carry forward into 2024.

So my intention coming into 2023, the word flow is what worked for me and I wanted to be able, and it had a bunch of meaning for me. And I wrote down the word flow and I also created an image of, of a river sort of flowing along, right? And doing s-curves and the geography of, of the earth.

Carving through the soil in a way that flowed with my energy and that is an intention I wanted to hold for 2023 is the stance of flow, not rigidity, but being able to flow like a river with things that change, with a new pebble being thrown in, with some erosion on the, on the shore banks.

That is something that I set for 2023. What is a statement, a word, a mantra? An image, something that represents the intention that you want to carry forward into 2024. This can be hard. I’m spending some time here because this can be hard. We’re used to saying, okay, what are the 10 things I’m going to do?

And then your voice starts sounding like this, and that’s not what we’re doing here. Before we get into converging into my 500 task list to do’s, it’s, if you painted 2024 with a brush, what is the one intention, the one stance, word, statement that you want to hold for the year? It may change over the year.

You don’t have to carve this in stone as they say, but for now, with all that you’ve learned, Felt, connected into for 2023. What is an intention you now want to carry forward into 2024?

So now that you have that word, that statement, that intention for 2024, let’s get intentional about the practice of learning and growth through the process of reflecting as we come and flow in to 2024. We’re going to use, um, a sideways, uh, S curve, a panarchy cycle, an eco cycle, an infinity loop.

Again, you’ll, you’ll see the image in the reflective workbook, but it’s drawing out a sideways figure eight. We’re going to walk through this in a way where we start to set up our intention of 2024. We’ve learned from 2023, now we want to see our 2024. So let me, let me walk you through this, yeah? So as you come and you sit in your 2024 and maybe you’ve got a blank piece of paper, again, maybe you’re doing this by just visualizing it in your mind or you’re listening as you’re walking, whatever your process is, right?

If, if you draw out visually or actually on a piece of paper that sideways figure eight, that infinity loop, let’s start up at the top right hand corner around what they call conservation. What do you want to conserve when you come into 2024 and start dreaming up 2024? What is it in 2024 that you want to maintain?

From all that you’ve learned in 2023, and probably previous to that too, what do you want to maintain in 2024? What do you want to nourish and conserve? Think of it as an old growth forest. These are elements, behaviours, stories that you tell yourself, actions, whatever it might be. They are well-grounded and rooted in, in you, in who you are and what you do.

These are patterns that you want to keep, right? These are elements of yourself where you’re like, yeah, keeping that, right? Jot some of those words down. It may come in sentences or just jot note words, whatever it is. It’s things that work for you.

Again, you can pause the recording at any time if you need more time there, but know that we’re going to come back through, but we want to come on to the next piece. If you come around that circle, that, that edge of the infinity loop down to that right hand bottom quadrant. This is the place of creative destruction.

These are the things that are, it’s like, that is not working for me and I want to release that. I want to unlearn some of this. I want to say no to these elements. I want to let go. I want to compost this. It no longer serves for whatever reason. I don’t need to know your reasons. Nobody needs to know your reasons.

You get to decide. What is it that you want to now let go of? Knowing that when we let go of things, we make more room for the yes.

Starting to jot down some of what you want to let go of. Some of it might just be something you want to let go of by writing it on a piece of paper and throwing it in the fire. Some of it might take active work of letting go and releasing. All is welcome. So capture some of that. And then, again, you can press pause if you like, but coming and moving along forward, we want to come to that upper left hand quadrant of the infinity loop.

And this is where we start talking about what is it that I want to seed? What do I want to start embracing? What what new seeds do I want to sprinkle into the soil and watch them germinate? What do I want to start cultivating here? I don’t know if it’s going to take root. I don’t know if it will always be in my life, but I want to be playful with this, curious with this.

I’m going to try a bit of that, whatever that might be. Start jotting down some notes around what are the new seeds I want to sprinkle into my world. And as you play with that, know that you don’t know what’s gonna take seed here. You don’t know what’s gonna root and that’s part of it here That’s part of it.

That’s okay. This is a place of unknowing which can be scary for some, exciting for others, all to say what do you want to sprinkle, right? What seeds do you want to sprinkle? And then when you come around down to that lower left hand quadrant, what is starting to take root that you want to grow deeper?

Where you want to see more growth or want to make room and space for growth? Where you want to fertilize and nurture and water and tend to more? And what there have you seen not take root? That’s okay. What are you learning from that?

And so we go through this loop again to reflect on it and add. So we come up to that right hand quadrant. What are you learning now about what you want to maintain? Was it something you were maintaining or is it more that you’re still growing it? Should it come further down in that eco cycle? What does that look like?

Right? Or, can you start to explore, wait a minute, there’s some things here that I’m putting down that I want to conserve, but maybe I’m avoiding something, avoiding a conversation or being rigid about something that I’m not willing to let go of yet. I’m just going to be curious about that and come on down around into that, uh, composting creative destruction quadrant.

Is there anything you’re learning here about releasing? Come on up to that germination and new seeds sprinkling. Is there anything you’re learning there that you want to add or emphasize or magnify? And where might you get fearful about things you want to grow? Where are you being hesitant as you come around to that other quadrant down in the lower left side?

Is there anything fearful that you’ve got going on that is just F E A R, false evidence appearing real? F E A R. I did not come up with that. I’ve heard it along the way a few times, but what are you fearful of or what fear is standing in your way to explore the growth and the deepening of, of things you’re tending to.

And so again, pausing if you want to reflect on that more, but you come into then a place of looking at what you’ve drawn, adding what’s missing, upgrading what you’ve added. And use the space below in the next page just to look at what’s coming up for me. What are the energetic qualities that are coming up for me?

What’s coming up in my body? What’s coming up as noise and questions? What’s coming up as ease? Just what’s coming up for you? Right? And then lastly, what we want you to do is choose a stance. How do you want to hold yourself with intention? What is a stance of power, humility, humbleness? What kind of stance do you want to hold yourself with over 2024?

Confidence, ambition, passion, humbleness. You use your intention that you’ve set and your stance as touchstones as, as you move into the new year. How are you going to capture those?

And lastly, the last page in the workbook is how are you going to forward immediate actions with all of this? You’ve gathered learnings and intentions and insights and commitment. What are you going to do now? What are you going to do by the end of the week? What are you going to do over the next month?

What are you going to do by the end of this season? By the end of this quarter? Just one or two things. I’m going to go and put this in my calendar to remember to X. Whatever it is. What are some of those tangible actions you can do right away to keep this alive? Yeah?

Wonderful job. Take time, sit with your reflections, chat about it with a colleague or a friend or family member. Use this reflective journal or what you’ve written down as an artifact to look back at, uh, over the course of the year and, and as a touchstone to come back into. 2024 is setting up to be something full in your intentions and on your path.

We have no idea how it’s going to unfold, but part of our own resilience building and intention setting by dreaming up how we want to be as we move into a new season, a new year. Taking what we’ve learned and letting go of what we’ve learned to come yet further into conscious, intentional ways of being.

That gives us such beautiful stance of power. Confidence and the ability to claim confidence. That this is my path and I’m leading it no matter where it takes me. I’m making some conscious choices and I’m dreaming up with intentions. It’s worth the work. Stay in the practice.

Thanks all. I’m Saralyn you can find me at holonleadership.org. I walk alongside you as you practice your leadership.