#50: Planning for 2022 part 2

50 Episodes. Wow. This was my goal when I started this show nearly two years ago, and we're there. We did it. I said at 50 episodes I could re-evaluate if Bite-Sized Philosophy was a project I wanted to continue, and for the moment, it still is. I'm planning to renew the show for 24 more episodes in 2022 and then will check in again at episode 74. This is the past-year review. The New Year is upon us, and that means there will be all sorts of resolutions. Promises to ourselves that we don’t keep very well and don’t have a lasting impact beyond January 31st, and sometimes not even that long. So instead of making new year’s resolutions, what about conducting a past year review? As we talked about on Monday’s episode, there are many ways to approach the new year. Monday we talked about defining personal values to bring more clarity to hard decisions in 2022, and today is about doing a past year review of 2021 to shed some light on what actually mattered from this past year that we want to bring into 2022 and what we really want to leave in 2021. To do this exercise, you’ll need your 2021 calendar. However you track your events and schedule, as well as maybe a journal or any other way you keep track of what happens in your life. For me this means Google Calendar. I also have journals, but my Google Calendar has enough on it that I don’t need them. Then you need a way to take notes on your year. I used a Google Docs form and a powerpoint this year, but the last two years, I’ve done this by hand in a journal because I set aside more time. Either way, we’re looking at the hobbies, activities, projects, and events that happened in 2021 that we enjoyed, didn’t enjoy, or had mixed feelings about. I try to keep this pretty simple, so I use a highlighter for it. Green is enjoy, red is not enjoy, and yellow is some of both. It doesn’t need to be too complicated, the point is to get through your whole year, so the simpler the better. Then, I turn to January of 2021 and get started. Start week by week and write down the major things that happened in your life. This could be classes you took, leagues you were in, hobbies you did regularly, and people you saw consistently, as well as projects or other commitments. Go week by week and jot down the major engagements throughout the year, week by week and month by month, until you have a whole list of what you were involved with in 2021, and then take a highlighter and put them into these three categories: Enjoyed, mixed feelings, didn’t enjoy. And there you have it. Your year in review that informs what you want to be involved in next year. Do more of what you enjoy and less of what you didn’t enjoy as much as you’re able to, and your 2022 will have a good chance of being better than your 2021. It’s less rigid and defined than new years resolutions, but if you keep this in a place and refer back to it throughout the year, it can provide a template for you to enjoy your life more next year than you did this year, even if this year was great. For me, this means more of my podcast, more drawing, more journaling, and more classes and leagues like axe throwing, martial arts, and creative exercise like that sort of thing. Less volunteer projects for organizations I’m not invested in, less umpiring for sports, less binging Netflix, and less fantasy football leagues. For more Bite-Sized Philosophy content, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my email list for a fun story delivered right to your inbox every single Friday! Text me! 323-609-5262