As things simultaneously wind down and speed up for the holiday season, December is a great season to sit down and check in with ourselves. These journalling exercises are designed to help you figure out who you are now, what you want (and don’t want anymore) and where you’re headed in 2020. So get your coffee, tea or cerveza, a notebook and take your time answering any of the following questions that call to you.
1. What are the three things in your life you most use to define yourself? For example, it could be that you have a great job, that you are a traveller, that you are a family person, that you are a mother, a wife, a student, a writer… etc.
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2. How do each of these things make you feel about yourself?
(For example, if ‘I have a great job’ is one of your answers, you could say it makes you feel creative, productive, useful. Or if your relationship or marriage was a big definer, you could say it makes you feel loved. Wanted. Grounded)
Thing 1.
Makes me feel…
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Thing 2.
Makes me feel…
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Thing 3.
Makes me feel…
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3. How do you think you would feel about yourself if you couldn’t define yourself by these things? Lost? Free? Directionless?
4. When do you feel most like yourself, like ‘this is me.’? Where are you? What are you wearing? What are you doing? What is the weather like? Who are you with, or are you alone?
5. Who did you spend the most time with this year? Do you feel like they are a good representation of who you are?
6. Put down the name of the 5 people you’d like to cultivate the most quality time / conversation with.
7. What are three things you accomplished in the past year that you’re really proud of?
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8. What is one goal you intended to accomplish this year, but didn’t?
9. How do you feel about this? Is it still a goal of yours? Or do you feel like you want to let it go?
10. Where do you feel like you’re most blocked in your life right now? What hasn’t moved forward in a while, feels stagnant, or heavy?
11. What is the hardest thing you went through this year? How do you feel like you’ve moved through it? Do you feel like you’ve moved through it?
12. What did you learn about yourself through this experience?
13. If there would be no negative consequences, what is one thing you would let go of and stop doing right now?
14. what is one opinion you had that you changed this year? What was it? What happened that made you change it? What is something you started believing in this year, that you didn’t believe in before? What happened? What changed?
15.What or who had the biggest positive impact on your life this year?
16.What advice would you give your early-2019 self if you could?
17. What areas in your life do you feel like you are hardest on yourself about, and put a lot of pressure on yourself to be ‘perfect.; Is it in your social life, your health and fitness, your romantic life, your career life, your family life?
18. What ingrained ideas do you still have about ‘the perfect life’? Where in your life do you feel like you’re living by someone else’s rules or standards? Who gave you these rules? Family? Society? Social media? What if you let that go now?
19. How much of your time each day is dedicated to doing something you love?
20. What would you like to have more of into your day? How could you concretely make that happen this year?
21. What do you want the overarching theme for 2020 to be? Choose 3 words.
22. What skills do you want to learn, improve or master?
23. Adventure wise, where would you like to go? Small getaway or big trips, which one(s) at the top of your list?
24. How would like to give back to the world around you this year? Social action, conscious changes, etc.
25. What is your highest vision for yourself next year? Perhaps, your number one goal?
