Finish the year....
If you google the words “finish the year…”, the word STRONG is the first to pop up.
Essentially, we’re conditioned or taught to believe that we must/should finish the year strong and resilient… on a positive note, if you will.
Finishing a year means looking back and seeing how things in life, from goals, career plans, relationships shifted and changed throughout the past 11 months.
And then “reframe” our thinking, sharpen our focus and take action. So, we can be STRONG and plough through adversity until December 31st.
Though I have nothing against pushing through challenges, building resilience and climbing to a pinnacle to end the year with a big fist pump, it’s a pretty tough call when research shows that there is a 15-20% productivity loss in the last months of the year!
For some of us, November and December are months we struggle through due to higher stress, holiday chaos, anxiety, darker days, colder temps, etc.
So the social media posts that ring loud, “Follow these Top 10 Tips to Finish the Year Strong” can actually hurt us instead of help us.
Dr. Caroline Leaf said it well…
“Stop stressing to ‘finish the year off strong’. You can finish it off grateful, relaxed, slowly, peacefully. The idea that we always need to ‘be doing’ and ‘achieving’ only creates cycles of anxiety. Rushing will not solve your problems. Rest will.”
This resonated with me. I am by nature a do-er, a “get-things-done-stay-busy kinda girl”. And though there’s definitely a place and space for that, it’s not a requirement for my existence. Nor yours!
I’m not sure how your November played out, though I know for some of you, stress, illness and loss was a part of it. And so now we’re here in December and the idea that we have to get our sh*t together to end the year strong doesn’t make any sense. At least for me it doesn’t.
So how WILL you end YOUR year then?
Grateful?
Disappointed?
Reflective?
Strong-ish?
A mix of all of the above?
As for me, I’m ending it…
Wiser… I learned so much about myself and others and my expectations for both. Some hard lessons of life.
Grateful… I survived some dark days and chased some rays of light. More lessons here but much to be thankful for.
Grounded… I feel planted again on solid ground instead of shifting sand. A little more anchored after swimming in the unchartered, choppy waters of 2022.
Stronger? Not sure… but definitely different than I was 11 months ago.
Final Thoughts…
I don’t know your 2022 story… only you know it intimately well. Instead of finishing the year strong, or putting pressure on yourself to do so, how about finishing it in a reflection mode of the lessons, mistakes, expectations, wins, losses that happened and see from there how those experiences shaped your 2022 and ultimately shaped YOU.
There is NO obligation to end the year strong… instead end it in a way that gives you a perspective of peace in knowing you made it, you survived, and I am grateful that you’re here!
Wishing you a calm, peaceful December, ending your year your way ❤
Coach Lisa
