Gathering The Year
by Tash Brooks
Before we begin, we need to prime our ability to extract and gather the data. Set yourself up for success. Make sure your environment is supporting your ability to reflect. Clear some time on your calendar. Make sure any dependents, kids, pets are engaged and entertained so that you have time to reflect. Take a few deep breaths. Put one hand on your heart if it helps. Connect. This is a review, not a verdict. This is you, meeting the past 12 months with honesty, gentleness, and enough courage to tell the truth. No shame. No judgement. Just an analyst collecting data and gathering information so that we can review.
When I look back on a year now, I’m not trying to hand it a gold star or a failing grade. I’m trying to gather it, like putting together different pieces of a puzzle: Oh. This is what I lived. Also more importantly, This is my perception of what I lived. Because the truth is, a year isn’t one thing. It’s a thousand small moments stitched together. Some loud. Some quiet. Some that changed me. Some that just asked me to get through the day.
Gathering a year means letting it be complex.
It means telling the truth without using it as a weapon - against myself or other people.
So before we begin, here’s what we’re not doing:
We’re not making your worth dependent on your productivity.
We’re not pretending it didn’t hurt.
We’re not minimizing what you carried.
And we’re not skipping over what was beautiful just because it wasn’t perfect or it didn’t worked out the way you hoped. Oooff that one.
We’re simply noticing.
Gathering the Year
1) What were the highlights of your year?
Not the “most impressive” moments, the most alive ones.
Like you were back inside your own life.
Highlights / Bright spots:
I’m most proud of…..
I felt the most connected….
I’m the most grateful for….
What these moments had in common was:
2) What were the hardest aspects of this past year for you?
Name it without shaming yourself.
Hard parts (the real ones):
What hurt?
What stretched me?
What asked more than I had?
What it cost me (energy, time, confidence, peace):
What I needed then (even if I didn’t know how to ask for it):
3) What did you learn about yourself over the past 12 months?
Not “lessons” like a motivational poster, real data.
What did you discover about your needs, boundaries, patterns, resilience?
I learned that I…
need…
value…
A pattern I noticed:
A boundary I strengthened (or want to strengthen):
4) What do you want to stop doing and not bring into the next year?
Release what drains you. Be specific.
This is where you stop volunteering to be swallowed or make yourself small.
Stop / Release:
Because it costs me:
my peace
my self-trust
my energy
my relationships
my joy
my body (stress, tension, exhaustion)
my light
5) What do you want to continue doing in the next year?
Keep what works. Protect what supports you.
What helped you come home to yourself?
Continue / Protect:
Because it gives me:
6) What do you want to start doing in the coming year?
Choose a few brave, doable beginnings.
Not a reinvention, an invitation.
Start:
My first tiny step is:
(So small you can’t talk yourself out of it.)
What I’m proud of:
What I’m forgiving:
Where did I abandon myself this year?
What am I done carrying?
Where did I honor myself this year?
What I’m calling in:
Word / Theme for the year:
One sentence promise to myself:
Nothing here is “final.” These answers are simply a snapshot of what you’ve learned, what you’re ready to release, and what you’re choosing to protect as you step forward. And here’s the key: don’t file this away like a one-time exercise.
Put a date on the calendar for six months from now and come back to these pages. Re-read your Stop / Continue / Start list. Notice what held. Notice what shifted. Update it with compassion. Let it be a living document, because you are consistently changing and becoming.
When you’re ready, turn the page and join me in the next workshop:
What I’m Bringing Forward This Year
A simple, powerful practice for naming the values, habits, boundaries, and brave beginnings you’re carrying into your next chapter, on purpose.
Love always,
Tash x