To retrospect is to look back on things past; to remember, survey, review, reconsider, reexamine. Retrospection is something we often engage in at the end of a year, the end of a career, upon reaching a milestone, or after we’ve experienced something with great impact, e.g., a major success, a serious loss, a change in direction, a pandemic! We can bring curiosity to the process of retrospecting and learn from the openness it provides, as well as the clearer vision and understanding that hindsight brings.
In looking back on the blog topics I chose for 2020, ten were based on the guideposts for Wholehearted living from Brené Brown’s book, Daring Greatly (2012, p. 9), while the first (Wording an Idea: Wholeheartedness – about choosing an intention and focus of attention for the year) and last (Retrospecting an Idea) were selected as “bookends”.
- What word did you choose or what intention did you set for 2020?
- What practice(s) did you engage in to support your intention?
What impact did your intention and/or practices have – on you? On those around you?
If you explored any of the ten guideposts that were the topics of this blog this past year (listed below), here are some questions to consider as you reflect and make meaning for yourself. Be gentle with yourself and think about tiny shifts you made or baby steps you took in a different direction. Changes on the scale of +/- 3-5%, rather than cataclysmic changes.
Which of these did you let go of this past year?
- What People Think
- Perfectionism
- Numbing and Powerlessness
- Scarcity and Fear of the Dark
- The need for certainty
- Comparison
- Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth
- Anxiety as a Lifestyle
- Self-doubt and “supposed to”
- Being cool and always in control
Which did you cultivate more of?
1. Authenticity
2. Self-Compassion
3. A Resilient Spirit
4. Gratitude and Joy
5. Intuition and Faith
6. Creativity
7. Play and Rest
8. Calm and Stillness
9. Meaningful Work
10. Laughter, Song, and Dance
At the end of her book, Daring Greatly, Brené Brown shares this line from Spanish poet Antonio Machado:
Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
Traveler, there is no path, the path must be forged as you walk.
Brené Brown identifies one of the challenges in becoming a grounded theory researcher and, also, of living a courageous life as letting go of one’s own interests and preconceived ideas and trusting in emergence as (2012, pp. 252-253).
· What emerged for you this year as you let go and/or cultivated a quality or characteristic of your choice? (e.g., what do you know now that you didn’t before?)
· What difference has that made?
Maybe you didn’t choose a word or intention. Maybe you didn’t practice letting go of something or cultivating one or more of the characteristics or guideposts of Wholehearted living Brené Brown discovered in her research. If anything smacking of self-judgment creeps into your awareness, please stop right there and cut yourself some slack. Exercise a little self-compassion. This has been an unprecedented year in so many ways, that some have even described it as a decade! Maybe it’s enough just to have managed to get through 2020!!
· What are 1-3 ways you were enough? (try to be specific)
· What are 1-3 ways you did enough?
Take time to be aware of and celebrate your “enough-ness” and any learnings you gleaned from this year.
🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕
I’m grateful for the ground we’ve covered over the past twelve months, and for the challenges in our society and world that have called on us to reexamine our values, to reprioritize, and to respond in [hopefully] more Wholehearted ways.
Thanks to Brené Brown for her inspiration for this year’s blogs and in Daring Greatly.
Thank you for sharing the journey with me and with each other.
Here’s to reflecting on what we’ve learned and how we’ll use it through the holidays and moving forward into 2021.
Be well 🙏
Tina
