Write the Book Inside You
Write the Book Inside You
Finding Gold in your "Past Year Review" to Catapult Goal Success 2024
Goal setting and New Year Resolutions can wither and die unless seeded in the rich soil of a PAST YEAR REVIEW (PYR).
I designed this important ritual to help you sift through the dross and uncover the hidden gold and gems of the past year. This reflective practice is more than just a simple review; it's an exploration of the rich tapestry of your experiences, a deep dive into the highs and lows that have shaped your journey.
Culminating in a Past Year Review Vision Board to celebrate the highlights.
As you navigate through this exercise, you'll be guided to revisit the moments that sparkled with success and those that were dimmed by challenges. It's an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate your triumphs, no matter how small, and to recognize the valuable lessons learned from the obstacles you've overcome. This process isn't just about looking back; it's about distilling wisdom from your experiences, understanding patterns, and recognizing growth.
The 'Past Year Review' is your personal alchemist's lab, where you transform the ordinary into extraordinary, finding meaning and value in every experience. By examining the past with a curious and open heart, you set the stage for a future filled with potential. You'll emerge from this exercise with a clearer vision of where you've been, a deeper appreciation of your journey, and a renewed sense of purpose and direction for the year ahead."
You will get clarity on what to STOP, START or CONTINUE for your best year ever.
Get your copy of the Past Year Review Workbook here: https://carylwestmore.com/past-year-review
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Hello, Caryl Westmore here… and Happy New Year. Whenever you may be listening to this, the crux of this podcast is about doing a past year review before you set in motion your intentions for the following year.
I'm recording this at the beginning of 2024, but I've set myself up with the past year review in the days leading up to January 1st, and I want to share that with you.
INTRO (upbeat music) Hello and welcome to the Write the Book Inside You podcast. Tips, tools and interviews for coaches and healers like you who want to write a non -fiction book to boost your visibility, clients and cash flow while making a difference.
I'm your host Caryl Westmore, a multi -published author and energy psychology tapping book coach. Now let's jump into today's episode.
Of course, I'm not the only person who talks about doing a past year review but what I share with you today is something that I pioneered in 2016 and includes a past year review collage.
There are other people like Tim Ferriss and Mel Robbins who have their slant on doing a past year review, but I want to share with you mine so you can say, like me: 'Dang, I did quite well last year. I did amazingly well. These were my achievements. I'd forgotten about this and that and that.' There's a link in the show notes to my version of the past year review workbook.
I do hope you enjoy as I go through it with you in this podcast. The biggest mistake most people make with goal-setting at the start of the new year is to grit their teeth and plunge in with resolve and a long list of New Year's resolutions as if their willpower and mindpower learn will carry them through the next 12 months.
months. But that is like planting your seeds on fallow ground, ignoring the valuable celebrations and insights of your journey through the previous 12 months,
inclusive of the perspective of your heart and soul. Instead, I recommend a unique goal -sitting, vision-boarding way of approaching this, starting with what I call your past year review. The exercises I devised encourage you to dig into the rich compost of your past year looking at both the challenges and obstacles you overcame (or faced and didn't overcome) and your celebrations.
What did you achieve? One way to do this is to go through your calendar and week by week, month by month, jot down some of the things that you achieved.
It's also a good idea to scroll through the pictures on your phone and look at your social media accounts and see what things came up so that you can say,
"Oh dang, that was great !" For me, I can tell you right now, the three things (actually four) that sprang to mind immediately:
1. I published The Inner Path of Writing book as an Amazon Best Seller,
2. Bust Writers Block Forever as an Amazon Best Seller, and
3. I was featured in an anthology by Ray Bream, The Author Code, and
4. I was a speaker at the Dublin Writers Festival.
In addition to that, my podcast grew 104% and gave me a lot of satisfaction, but I will also share with you how the numbers and countries reached improved from the previous year.
By the end of answering the questions I give you, you will be pleasantly surprised at the bountiful harvest of your efforts from the previous year and ready yourself to replant your seeds for the coming year, giving you a chance to be poised to rock your goals in the coming year. You will also have clarity about what you do not want in your life and what you want to release and let go.
You can do that by burying or burning the list of not wanted things and that gives you a rocket of desire to decide what you do want when you come to doing your goal sitting for the coming year.
I would say put aside three to five hours to do this PYR Workbook, but I'm going to go through it in such a way that you can just, by the end of the podcast, have made some notes that will suit your way of doing things.
So let's begin. Visualize your past 12 months as a landscape. Imagine yourself sitting on the top of the mountain, looking down.
Close your eyes and if it feels safe, move down into the landscape to explore the colors, images, animals or people in it.
Next, notice coming towards you an angel or wisdom keeper and note what they give or say to you, they may give you a word for the year or a symbol of something that is meaningful for you. Open your eyes and write down in your workbook (that I've provided links in the show notes) what they say or give you.
As you continue to reflect on the year ask yourself what two or three themes came up and do they remind you of constant themes throughout your life going back to your childhood?
Now it's time to just reflect on the past 12 months or events, the celebrations, the milestones as well as the disappointments and failures.
Page through your desk calendar and through your photos, the photos on your phone and ones on your computer and that you sent to social media.
What single thing stands out? For me, it was being a writer, a scribe, addressing other writers and expressing how they can clear and break free from the blocks that stifle or keep them from writing and creating to their maximum.
So let's start with the positive. I am proud of myself for …and write that down. I am happy because ...
And in the negative… I choose to let go and release … and write what comes up for you.
Next ask yourself what was most missing from my life as I reflect on the past year. Focus on different roles as a writer created what was missing in health, as a wife or mother, as a coach. How about your expertise in managing your time, your money, your energy and your health.
You can ask yourself, if there was one thing I could change, what might it be? What lessons have I learned from the past year that I can take forward in my life today? I know myself better because, in my life, my wants, my dislikes, where do I need to set better boundaries? And what really gives me joy and excitement?
I want to highlight one question in the workbook:
The incredible thing I discovered about myself was... and take time to be patting yourself on the back for the things you did get through and achieve.
If you like, you can then go through the months… January, February, March, April, May, June, July and as you go through marking the things that came up.
I like this definition of a goal: It's something that wouldn't happen without you doing something.
So what goals did you achieve this past year because you took some action?
Once you have clarity about your past year review, I urge you to burn or bury your list of regrets and negatives and end on a high note by making a celebratory vision board, collage of the year that's gone by.
And I like that question, what small baby steps can I take right now to rectify things that weren't right last year and to continue doing what gives me joy, brings in financial rewards, what should I STOP doing? What should I CONTINUE to do? And what can I START doing? What have I always wanted to do?
For some of you, it might be to write that book (and I can help with that). But for others, I urge you to go to my book, Five Steps to Goal Success, and go through the exercises in there.
I've also redone the video that I did many years ago, explaining how to use those five steps for the year ahead. So good luck and I look forward to hearing from you if this has been useful.
Outro: Thanks for joining me on today's podcast. Want a free gift to inspire you further on your bookwriting adventure? My free checklist, Five Book Hook Tips to Kickstart your Bookwriting Journey will help you get clarity on the key essentials to make your book a winner.
Download it at www.writethebookinsideyou.com /freegift. The links are in the show notes. Until next time, a big virtual hug and keep writing.