The Beautiful End-of-Year Audit

What happened this year? More than you remember.

Marc Chagall’s “Wheatfield on a Summer Afternoon”, photo of a painting of a print on the wall of my living room.

Hi all you Gorgeous Mcgorgeousons,

Here’s a little something I like to do in December.

An end-of-year audit.

If the word “audit” makes it sound 🤮, stay with me! I’m going to lay it out for you:

1. The purpose is to see what happened over the past 365 years, as a way to answer: What the hell am I doing with my life?; to kill the illusion that time is flying and remind yourself that life is throbbing with all kinds of juice all year long. To slow down and spend a bit of time with Time and Experience.

2. First: get yourself some kind of white blank canvas. I like to use an unlined notebook. One year I did it in a spiral Mead notebook from the supermarket. One year I sprinted out my list and reviewed it on Word.

3. Start with the very beginning: January 2022. Write January at the top of the page. Take a deep breath and relax. Stare out the window, really sink into January, time travel, see what your memory can call forth of that month. Anything counts: waking up with a strange feeling one morning; a career highlight; a low point that created some kind of change; an unprecedented conversation; an athletic record; a moment of vulnerability that changed a relationship. Achievements, experiences, events, moments in time, insights, curiosities, witnessing. All are welcome.

4. Then I whip out my calendar and go through it day by day to see what actually occurred because there’s always something cool I forget—from a workshop, a trip, a sports event, a visitor or a visitation. Some months do feel a bit flat and that’s OK too.

5. When I’ve finished all 12 months, I then review by month. Each month gets a single sentence wrap-up. So it might be: “not much happened” or “dad stopped talking” or “mom moved to MI” or “in a funk” or “had so much fun” or “launched Play salon” or “joined a writing group” or “had some fun adventures with Steve”

6. If so inspired, you can then look at what occurred by season and give that a general title or short descriptor.

7. Grand finale: sum up the year. If you gave 2022 a title, what would it be? What would the subtitle be? What would the theme/s be?

8. Some years I’ve been really startled into how much happened over the year. I relished how much the year gave to me, and was appreciative of my mind-body system for being with everything that went down and blah de blah, gratitude, and all that jazz.
   
   Some years I did this exercise, closed my notebook and didn’t give it another thought. What the hell! It’s the ritual that I like, an attending-to that works for me.
   
   MOST IMPORTANTLY: view it without judgement. Imagine this is data, neutral. Treat yourself to the impersonal nature of life.

9. Since I’m at #9, I should get to 10 don’t you think? OK, how about this: Maybe the year would like to get a little love for sticking around, and will chug happily beneath your wings at the start of January. Pretend you’re waltzing with Time as you move through your year. “Ow, Time, stop stepping on my toes!”

10. Time is an illusion, it is not linear, it is more than we can imagine, there’s no such thing as “falling behind” or “not enough time” or being “time poor,” yet we can still play with Time, as long as we know that most of our thinking about it, especially the scarcity thinking is an illusion, and that our wing span is about 20 million times longer than we could ever imagine. And yet, if time is in its many forms also a container, what did we put it in this year? What did it hold for us?

    
    Here’s to your 2022 Audit. Thanks for playing with me. I’ll be doing mine in the next couple of weeks. I might open a Zoom to others who want to spend an hour coming through their year. Leave a message in comments, or email me if interested: tatyana@everydaycreative.net
    
    Next up, we flirt with 2023 and come up with a mantra with which we can cross over into the new year. Stay tuned.
    XOX

    2023 Starter Kit : A jaunty, powerful & fun 1:1 coaching offering this January.

    Plant bulbs for the best year ever, using beauty and play as your muses.
    
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