It's that time of the year again.
The new year, 2024, is starting tomorrow and everyone is talking about:
1- “defining your goals for the year to come”
2- “remembering all the things that happened last year and being grateful for them”.
Remembering the past year and being grateful for everything that happened. Yes, but how?
The whole thing about setting up goals has never been my thing.
BUT I like the idea of looking at the past months of my life and trying to remember all the cool things that happened.
You know, because of the whole cultivate-the-habit-of-being-grateful thing.
And also because it IS one of the most efficient ways to actually learn from the past.
Doing a review of the year can be challenging
So I tried to do this in the past, specially at the end of the year.
But you know what? I absolutely sucked at it! Every time I tried, my brain went completely blank. So I always ended the year with that well-nothing-exciting-happened-this-year feeling.
And this happens to lots of people.
Because we tend to forget the everyday life, specially, the small moments of “random” joy.
We forget about those nice, fun dinners with friends.
Or the laughter with the kids in the middle of the food shopping because they said something funny.
Or that out of the blue compliment from a stranger the other day.
Here is a method to end the year being happy and content
But then, this summer, I found a way to stop sucking at this practice.
Thanks to a LinkedIn Post written by Simona Omidkar, a brilliant woman I admire a lot! 🤩
In that post, she shared a routine she has established for herself:
1. Jeden Sonntag in ruhigen 10 Minuten Highlights der Woche aufschreiben
2. Ende des Monats die Highlights der Wochen reduzieren auf deine Monats-Highlights
Translated it means:
1- Every Sunday, write down the highlights of the week.
2- And at the end of the month, summarize these weekly highlights in a monthly highlight.
My mind was blown.
I started this routine the next Sunday.
And now it's December, and I have a sheet full of things to be grateful for that I would have NEVER remembered otherwise.
It's so oddly satisfying! 🥹
(And it took me less than an hour per month!)
So, if you want to stop forgetting about what brought joy and happiness in your life, try this little routine too.
Happy New Year!
Warmly,
Nazanine, your professional home organizer in and around Hamburg.
PS: To get you started, here is a printable template you can download.
PPS: I wrote this on Dec 31st. But it really doesn't matter how far you are in the year: If you want to start, just start in the month you're in. I started in June.
