Is It Time to Reflect and Move Forward?

January is a good time to pause and reflect over the past year and assess both the good and the bad. What went well? When unexpected challenges arose, how did you handle them? What have you learned, and how will you apply those lessons going forward?

I ran across a post that had a great list of questions to help me asses the past year. Thanks to Molly at Transatlantic notes for this idea. You can see her original post here. Here are her questions, and below them are my answers.

9 Questions to help you reflect on your past year and move forward

1. What are three thigs (big or small) that brought you joy in the last year?
2. What unexpected challenges did you overcome and what did it teach you?
3. Share a selection of words that characterized your year.
4. What is one motto/mantra you’ve chosen for this year?
5. How has your relationship to yourself changed over the past year?
6. What did you wish you’d spent less time doing?
7. Did you achieve any personal goals last year?
8. What advice would you give yourself for the year ahead?
9. What is your focus this year?

Three things that brought me joy in the last year

• The birth of my first grandson!
• My debut novel was published and has won several awards
• I live on a beautiful, wooded hillside and I love taking walks in the nature that is right outside my door.

What unexpected challenges did I overcome and what did it teach me?

My father passed away last March. Over the weeks that followed, my mother shared with me some of the many people who came out of the woodwork to let her know how much my father had meant to them.

My father was a quiet, introverted, behind-the-scenes kind of person. The kind of guy who gets things done with no fanfare and isn’t known for being everyone’s friend or the life of the group. And yet, he made a big difference in many lives in his own quiet way.

I’m a lot like my dad, so this is a huge affirmation for me. Like him, I can do effective ministry in my own quiet, behind-the-scenes way. I don’t need to change who I am or how I operate best in order to make a positive impact on those around me.

Some words that characterized my year:

• Grief and joy, ups and downs
• Changes
• New adventures
• Quietly unconventional

What is one motto/mantra I’ve chosen for 2022.

As I mentioned in my soundtracks post, I’m working on an improved playlist of soundtracks (ie mantras). I’ll be giving the whole list in a few weeks, but here is one of them:

Doing something is better than doing nothing.

(In other words, I don’t want to let the fear of doing the non-ideal, not-quite-perfect thing keep me from taking the next step. Movement forward, even if it’s mostly sideways, is better than staying stuck.)

How has my relationship to myself changed over the past year?

I’ve been listening to some podcasts about discuss the enneagram personality types and all they can teach us about ourselves. One thing I’ve learned is that there are three primary “centers of intelligence” (Thinking, Feeling, & Doing).

My type’s dominant style is thinking, and my type’s least dominant is doing. This was a revelation for me—that I am not good at doing. Now I see how often I spend too much time planning, learning, fretting, and overthinking instead of just doing the thing. So lately I have been trying hard to trust my gut and take an action instead of analyzing it to death.

What did I wish I’d spent less time doing?

Wasting too much energy feeling overwhelmed and letting unhelpful soundtracks play on auto-repeat.

I’ve come to see that having an unhelpful mindset focused on my problems and all I lack not only leads to lower motivation, but also saps mental and emotional energy that I could be using to get more positive things done.   

Did I achieve any personal goals last year?

Yes! After many years of hard work, practice novels, rejection, feedback, difficult-to-swallow-but-accurate critique, and the encouragement of many, my first novel was published last February. Death and a Crocodile is a light-hearted mystery set in ancient Rome. It’s won several awards including Golden Scroll Novel of the Year.

A major dream come true.

What advice would I give myself for the year ahead?

I’d combine several of these answers to encourage myself to spend less time worrying and more time taking small steps toward the goals I have.

What is my focus this year?

Becoming better at promoting my books and speaking ministry.

My second mystery novel, Fountains and Secrets, just released. This time around I know a bit more about the publishing world and how to go about promoting a book, but it still feels like an overwhelming task most of the time.

I am feeling more confident because this time I have some coaches who are helping me to develop promoting and marketing strategies that fit with my personality and strengths. All last spring I kept say

Your Turn

Have you taken an hour or two to reflect over your past year? If you haven’t, give some or all of these questions a try. You’ll be glad you did.