Yearly Reminder

It’s the end of the year and I wanted to offer my yearly reminder: you’re here and so that means you did something right. There are always ways we can be improving and growing, but you did something right in this last year, because you’ve survived. You can use this time to reflect on what you want to be different and how to get there or you can use the rest of this year to just be. It is hard to human.

So, as you see people posting about their accomplishments this year, I hope you’re able to remind yourself of two things: you don’t know what their lowlights were and you don’t know where they started from. I guess both of those points were just to say that you don’t have the full picture. They may not have the same barriers that you do to getting to whatever point you are comparing yourself to. And they aren’t showing all the work it took to get to this point or all the really hard stuff they dealt with. So, if you find yourself comparing to others, especially on social media - I want to invite you to pause. Sometimes that pause can help you to put things into perspective or sometimes that pause can help give you the strength to pull away from social media.

I have a couple questions that you can think through or journal on, if any feel helpful.

• What are 3 things that helped you survive this year? (people, behaviors, activities, etc. - try to resist the urge to only name “good” things)

• What are 3 things you’re proud of yourself for this year? (getting out of bed most days, advocating for yourself, etc.)

As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest. I hope you have the week you need.