I'm not here to say New Year's Resolutions don't work but....

they don't. Not reallllyyyyyy anyway. Want to try something different this year? Read on.

Jan 12, 2024

I sat down to write this article hours ago and I’ve written 5 paragraphs, atleast 4 different ways, telling a handful of different stories in them about how I stumbled on this practice I begin every year with. I have officially decided instead of diving into a flowery story that attempts to inspires you into wanting to drop everything you have planned for this afternoon and dive into this exercise right here and now, I’m just not.

Frankly I’m coming off of a week with the annual gnarly sinus infection/cold that plagues me this time every year and my spoon count is running low but I promised myself that I would get this out today and I’m resolved to break less promises to myself this year.

So here it is, the Yearly Audit that count’s experiences over accomplishments and how it can help you reprogram your mind for what success FEELS like for you rather than what arbitrary “success” in the world is “supposed” to look like.

And full disclaimer, you can really do this exercise any time of year as a course correct when you’re feeling in a funk and re-decide what you’d rather believe possible for your life instead of whatever’s been filling the cracks as of late by using this framework.

Step One is really fun because I just collect images and trinkets separated by each month of the last year. Ambitious girlies can utilize Pinterest or folders on your computer or even turn this into a physical project by printing pictures out or gathering your instax polaroids if you’ve got one!

For the tired girlies like thyself, I honestly just use Google Photos and my Albums on the Photos App on my iPhone that already has it all separated by month and I skim through all the photos picking out people or key events that marked the month and jot them down in my journal or a Notion Doc. ( This step always takes me like an hour because ya girl rolllssss in the revelry of living)

[[insert photo here]]

Step Two asks for a bit more gritty energy because the goal is to channel the energy of the notes from. Answer this for each month:

+ What did we love and want more of?

+ What felt short and what did we learn?

+ What’s a fuck yes, what’s a fuck no thxxx?

(This step takes me twice through to really dig for the good, real stuff)

I call Step Three the the “name it” staged because it calls you to get REAL HONEST and reflect on the answers from each month and boil it down to one - three words that you want to call in.

Ex. January for me was: Community + Creativity

(you may see that some months call for the same word! Trust that! It’s not about the most amount of words * trust me on this * it’s about the honesty and quality of the words.)

After distilling it into one to three words for each month. For Step Four you’re going to write these three questions under each word:

What does this mean to me ?
What is this NOT?
When I’m aligned, how do I demonstrate this in my life?

Now, I know this is a lot of writing but here’s the thing…. you’re the most important person you’re ever going to know in your life and let me tell it to you straight — YOU ARE WORTH GETTING TO KNOW. Yes, the easy, the challenging, and the chaos that bumbles in between. You’re a human being and it’s messy, that’s just reality and that’s perfect.

For the next part, now that we have a clear foundation for who we want to be and how we demonstrate that version of ourselves, what do we want to do with it?

……wouldn’t you like to know…. HA!

Since I’m definitely out of analytical spoons for the day, you’ll have to come back for the next part!!

And if you’re not already, this is where you

So it will be delivered right to your inbox when part two goes live!!

Love you, mean it