Your Annual Review

This title might sound dreadful, if you’ve ever had an annual review to measure your job performance. Leave out the dread and think self-review with the goals of patting yourself on the back for a job well done and redirecting your course in the year to come for goals you’ve missed.

The review I suggest isn’t your typical report card to Mom and Dad, even the Mom and Dad in your mind. (If I could learn how to turn off parental voices in my mind, I’d be the richest woman on earth when I shared that secret!) What I’m suggesting is an objective, loving look at your course and whether or not you’re getting closer to where you want to go. I talk a lot about my GPS or God Positioning System. Have you veered off course? That’s all … and if you haven’t, it’s time to get excited about whatever represents Paris, Rome, or other exciting destinations. You’re getting closer!

My Year-End Review

No joke, it’s more than a rear-end review where I measure how much weight I haven’t lost! I review my journal to see what’s really been going on in the past 365 days. I play Objective Observer and view the scene from further back than too close to see what’s really happening. If you don’t already journal, read Journals: The Sort-It Detail and consider starting one as a goal for the new year and decade. But even if you don’t journal as yet, you can do a meditative review of your year by simply observing it as a movie in your mind. Do it as early as possible in the new year.

Keep a calendar or PDA? Use it as a memory jogger to recall key events. Find a quiet corner and an hour to do this exercise. Start with January, and month by month, see what you were up to. Drink in the events as your memory movie unfolds, then contemplate them for 3-5 minutes to sort out the feelings and learning. Next write what comes up for you. What were your key lessons, feelings, progress, stumbling blocks?

Once you’ve got 12 monthly blurbs, you can check for common patterns and truly experience the magic of Objective Observer or Overseer. Remember, there’s “seer” in that last role, which means you are seeing with wise eyes and the ability to notice the course you’re taking. What would you redirect? What would you “not change for anything?”

Enter the New Year Softly

Wave hello to 2010. After all, it’s a new decade. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were worrying about terminal crashes to our computers (pun intended) and stashing food for the dreaded domino effect of bad programming fallout in our electronic devices? Bad programming is what we’re trying to avoid taking into the new year with us. To change a pattern, we have to see what it is—and tinker till we get ourselves back on the path we want to travel.

I can’t repeat too often, winter is an inner time. Be joyful, celebrate the New Year, but the real celebration is another year of growing as a spirit embodied on Earth.

What’s your “10”—your hottest projected accomplishment—in ’10? What do you aim for? What looks like success? At the end of this new year, you may change your mind and discover in this process that your truest accomplishment was something different all together.

That’s the inner adventure. May yours be fulfilling and dotted with exciting surprises. May the 2010 decade overflow with cool insights.

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Photo Credit: HOLIDAY BACKGROUND © Dmstudio Dreamstime.com

Journals: The Sort-It Detail

We all talk to ourselves, even if we don’t do it out loud. A journal performs the most important follow-up function to inner dialogue, what I call the Sort-It Detail.

It’s much more difficult to sort what we’re learning and how patterns repeat themselves without annotation—like trying to do math in your head. Journals are spreadsheets. They allow you to “go figure.”

Since I am a writer, the habit of writing my thoughts and feelings is natural to me, but my journal has morphed over time to a custom fit. I invite you to try on some journaling styles until you find the one that’s perfect for you. Like a comfy pair of shoes, your journal needs to fit well but boast a style that’s yours alone and makes you feel like a million.

Since I live at my computer, I have developed a Word template for journaling. I print out the pages in color and prong them into a three-inch binder, the kind with a clear front pocket, so I can make a custom cover. At the end of each year, I reread and relive my 12-month journey and contemplate where I’m headed next. My journal has sections in the back for greeting cards and other keepsakes.

My template header, in a fancy font, says Joyce’s Journal. The subtitle is Learning, Growing, Spirits Uplifted, Stuff Sorted. Below that, I type the date. I insert an ever-changing graphic beside the header to fit the content of the day’s summary. For example, on a day I was angry, the clip art was an explosion. These “icons” show me, at a glance, the quality of my days and how my moods are shifting.

The most important part of my journal is a box on the left that runs the longer side of the page, Things I’m Grateful for Today. Each day, I find at least 10 things. It’s not difficult for me. I have a lot of practice.

I believe that the universe gives back to us as much as we appreciate the gifts we are given. When we send out gratitude, more abundance flows our way. But that’s not why I journal thankfulness. It’s just polite to say thank-you for generosity. It’s who I am, how I was raised. Maybe your custom column is Blessings I Count. Observations I’ve Made. Positive Experiences.

Speaking of the universe and sky, once it turns dark, we dream. I have a different template for my dream journal, and I mix the pages in my binder—waking and dream accounts. I simply sort them by date in chronological order, the most recent on top. For example, on June 3, there was a journal entry. On June 13, I wrote down a dream. This isn’t strange to me, as I revere the information from the subconscious as much as consciousness. I’ve learned to “play the symbols” in various careers, especially as an astrologer and dreamworker.

Perhaps the most important thing I do in either my dream or journal entries? I give them titles. Whatever we choose to name our entry is an intuitive key phrase for the experience, day or night. You can do a quick review of your journal at any time, just by paging through and reading the titles. You’ll be surprised at the sensation of your whole year flashing in front of you!

Best of all, my journaling technique led me to realize I could use similar techniques for telling my life’s story. What a fabulous discovery while writing my memoir with the same name as this blog, Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights.

May all your insights be cool!

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Honorable Mention - This article won Honorable Mention in the 2008 annual essay contest on Be the Star You Are! The mission of this wonderful not-for-profit corporation, is to provide, promote and distribute its library of books and other media to empower women, families, and youth-at-risk to improve their daily lives. I love their slogan, "To Be A Leader You Must Be A Reader!"

Thank you, Cynthia Brian and the judges, for allowing my star to shine in your galaxy!

Photo credit: GIRL LOOKS THROUGH WEEKLY JOURNAL, © Zigf Dreamstime.com