I tried something new last year – putting a desk-sized calendar up on my wall to keep track of a few important things throughout the year (work, travel, community gatherings). When I first put it up, it felt like a really interesting way to have a longer view ahead than my typical Outlook calendar that I keep on a weekly view.
Over the course of last year, though, I started to realize how interesting the retrospective view became in addition to the forward-looking view. When I was feeling more tired than usual, I could look back and see I had been doing a lot of travel in a short period, leaving me with little time between to re-settle at home. When I was feeling anxious about a light week of work, I could look back and see I’d just had a full week or two – meaning there would be a natural break for clients between sessions. This macro view not only helped me plan ahead, but reflect along the way as the year progressed.
Was I doing the things I wanted to be doing? How often? With whom? Was my calendar filled with things I loved, dreaded, was indifferent to? It served as a constant, visual reminder and planner that time will move forward no matter what we do – it’s up to us to fill it the way we want it to play out.
So here I find myself yet again, at the start of a year, thinking about what lies ahead. What is already planned, what is up in the air, what is yet to be discovered. My new calendar is blank, just waiting for the possibilities and plans to land by way of a colorful sticky, claiming time and space and energy in my year ahead. And with the help of my ongoing reflection last year, and my end-of-the-year reflections, I have an even better sense of what I want to create, what I hope will unfold.
When you look back…what do you notice? And when you look ahead…what do you hope for?
