Have you ever noticed that the most profound rituals are often simple?
As I mentioned in my last blog, the exercise that I use to begin my visioning process is one I call Cleaning Out The Closet of Your Year. This is a message I send out every year because it is a ritual I recommend repeating at this time of year.
It is super simple and it is super powerful.
I might even be so bold as to say … it is the one element in my visioning process that is THE most important. Might as well claim my passion for this!
Do you know how good it feels when you clean out your physical space?
- When you clean out closets that are holding both junk and treasures?
- Letting go of things you no longer use?
- Finding those items you stashed out of sight when you rushed to straighten up?
There is a feeling of liberation when you clean out your closets!
There is also this wonderful open space that gets created. Spaciousness allows you to make way for the new.
The same is true in your business. I have a Cleaning Out Your Business Closet exercise that works like magic. Real Magic.
But my Cleaning Out The Closet of Your Year tops them all!
I remember clearly the first year I did this ritual. Curtis and I were on a getaway for the Holidays. I was feeling magic in the air and couldn’t wait to begin my vision board for the New Year.
When Curtis suggested we look back at the past year first, I have to admit I was resistant. What is the point in that?
I also noticed that some of my resistance came from not wanting to face some of the failures that had occurred that year. I just wanted to move on!
What I found, though, as Curtis and I looked back and saw the good stuff and the bad stuff, was how much there was to learn from it all.
The failures were hard to face at first … but once I got past my feelings of shame, I could see the gift they brought in ways I hadn’t imagined.
To my surprise, I found that some failures opened the way for my greatest successes. The experiences that brought me the most joy often came from lessons learned from mistakes. Have you ever noticed that?
Also, sometimes what I had deemed a success wasn’t all that satisfying … the ones that were motivated by what other people might think or that had some kind of “not enough” or “lack thinking” woven in. You know the ones.
As coaches, we help our clients face the “hard to be with” feelings, but sometimes we forget to do this ourselves!
In the Make It Real segment below is a template you can use to do this process for yourself as this year comes to an end.
A year – 2021 – that has had its share of new normal experiences as well as the usual ups and downs life brings.
Because of this, I believe it is even more essential that you take time to see what you have learned and Clean Out The Closet of Your Year to make way for the NEW year to come.
This exercise is best done when you set aside a big chunk of time for it. Give yourself half a day on your weekend. Or a couple of hours in the evening during which you turn off everything else and allow yourself to enjoy the process.
You might want to have a journal or notebook handy to make notes of what you find.
This cleaning out process begins with the “Highlights” of the past year. This allows for a celebration of what was good and the opportunity to bring forward that wonderful feeling of accomplishment into the new year.
Using your day planner, online calendar, photos and other prompts … look back at each month from the past year and notice what went well.
Then the process moves into the “Lowlights“… this gives you the chance to clearly name and be with the failures, heartbreak and disappointments … so you can know them, let them go and make space for something new.
Do your best to just observe and notice these events. It is fine to feel your emotions too! Just don’t allow judgment to block the gifts these experiences gave you.
Finally, this clearing out offers an opportunity to soft focus on everything to reveal the “Insights” from the integration of all that you have seen and known from the Highlights and the Lowlights.
Where did you grow? What have you learned? What do you know now?
As with any cleaning out of closets, some things will go and others are keepers.
What will you let go of?
What will you keep?
This month, I encourage you to take the time to look back. Even in this crazy year. Maybe especially this year you will find surprises and insights that will give you a great start to 2022.
If you would like to clean out the closet of your coaching business I would be happy to help you out.
Simply book a consultation using this link: FREE CONSULTATION
I am taking the Cleaning Out The Closet of Your Year ritual public again this year!
We invite you to join us for our Soul Strategy Vision for Coaches Webinar I am hosting on Thursday, January 13th from 11 am – 12 pm PST.
With a community of lively coaches who will be guided to look back at the year, clean out the year’s closet and begin to Vision for 2022 together. Register Now for the FREE Webinar on January 13th – 11 am to 12pm PST
