Blog Post Series on Change: “Year In Review”

Setting yourself up for success in the new year… why it’s important to have a “year in review”

This is the first blog in my blog series that is dedicated towards growth, change, setting intentions, and renewal. As 2016 draws to a close and I prepare for 2017, I am feeling inspired to discuss ways to make changes in a more effective way. I am also setting a personal goal to get back to blogging more as I realized how much I have missed it over the past year!

So, this blog is dedicated to discussing the importance of reviewing your growth and progress over the past year (or whatever time frame feels helpful to you!). I believe that it is so valuable to have markers in time that help signal us to sit back and contemplate how things are going. For some, that may be attending therapy on a routine basis to check in with yourself and for others, changes in the season, anniversaries, or the approaching New Year might signal a time of reflection for you. As a therapist, I contemplate progress and change often!

Here are 5 Questions that may guide you in completing your own “Year In Review” as the first step in your overall process of renewal, reflection, and further growth and change.

• What are the perceived successes of your year? (What is going well?)
• What areas show you opportunities for growth? (This is a different way of saying, where do you feel you are not doing your best or where are the failures at? I prefer to re-frame the word failure to take the sting out of it and make our reflection productive!)
• In your life, what are your priorities and how would your rank them in importance? Are your actions consistent with this ranking?
• When you consider how you are balancing all the different roles in your life, how do you feel you are doing? Is there something that you may need to let go of or something to add in?
• What areas might you be avoiding and consciously or unconsciously not dealing with? This might be a relationship, feelings about a situation or person, or opportunity. Consider why you might be avoiding this area and if it is something to consider handling differently in the New Year.

Make sure to set aside some time to sit back and reflect on how your year has gone. Maybe you grab a coffee, go for a walk, sit at a favorite place of tranquility. Maybe you squeeze this into your routine at night when the kids are in bed. Either way, try to take some time to really sit with these questions to help you process your year fully as these questions and your experience of them will guide your intention for the upcoming year.

The next blog in this series will be all about intention setting for the New Year! I hope you enjoy it and take the time to read it!

Also, I wanted to let all of my readers know that I have super exciting news… Not only am I setting an intention for the New Year but I am also announcing a huge step in my practice in our transition to Thrive Therapy Studio! This will be a collaborative group practice where we will be able to expand our reach and ability to help people. Plus, I got to make a cool logo and develop a whole new vibe to my office. So exciting! Anyways, please feel free to sign up for the newsletter on the website at www.thrivetherapystudio.com when it launches January 1st, 2017!

Thank you all for reading and for your support! As always, your comments are welcome regarding any issues around child, teen counseling services in San Diego by Thrive Therapy Studio.