Are You Ready To Make Space For 2020?

Is it me or does it feel like we are having a sprint finish towards the end of 2019? Life seems to have sped up! I don't know if it is because here in the UK we have had a general election squeezed into December, but life doesn't quite feel like my usual slow down into the Christmas holidays.

That said, I have started to reflect back on 2019 so it seems like a good time to talk about how I like to close off one year and make space for the next.

Celebrate

It’s always good to start with celebrations - what happened this year that you want to celebrate?

What did you achieve?

What great people did you meet?

What magic turned up when you were least expecting it?

For me one of my biggest surprises was reaching the end of my Motorhome tour of the UK by finding somewhere I wanted to stay for a while. (Although as my friend and coach pointed out I did originally set an intention to find the place I wanted to be by September 2019 so I shouldn't be surprised really, intentions have a way of doing that!)

Be Complete

What do I mean by that? What I mean is that it's easy to go through life with lots of open loops - things that we said we were going to do that maybe we never got round to. Maybe you planned to get in touch with that old friend, maybe you planned to move house, maybe you are still thinking about how you planned to travel the world when you finished University.

The thing is that these open loops often take up space in our brains - they are like little gremlins reminding us of the things we haven't done yet.

Take a moment and write down as many of them as you can think of - capture all of your open loops. All of the shoulda, coulda, woulda that are floating around up there in your noggin (head for those that don't understand my Northern slang).

Any juicy ones?

I think my juiciest ones are:

I planned to drive the NC500 in Scotland

I haven't reached my business goals for the year

I told everyone that I would meet someone this year and be in a relationship.

Notice how you want to add the 'yeah but' to justify to yourself why you didn't do these things? I nearly started writing mine here!!

Being complete isn't about justifying to yourself or anyone else - it's about accepting that where you are now is perfect and you didn't get some stuff done.

It's about closing the loop. Does this mean that you will never do these things? No not at all, but closing the loop releases you from an internal obligation. If it was something you agreed with someone else - I'd recommend getting it complete together.

Also because our words are powerful it really helps to declare it out loud "I am complete with 2019" or "I am complete that I didn't travel the NC500 this year".

How do you know if you are complete?

Personally, it’s a feeling - like an exhale happens - a release and I feel lighter, less burdened. It feels like there is space. Space to create what 2020 might look like!