Episode 96: Annual Review & Closing Ceremony: A Guided Audio Workshop
Let’s make one thing crystal clear. There are no rules about WHEN you must listen to or take part in this ceremony/guided workshop. It can be December 31st or well into the New Year. You can listen to it after a chapter of your life is ending or just before a new one is about to begin. You can listen to it in July before you get ready for the new school year or when you need to center yourself.
Unnecessary rules are just that, unnecessary.
Before you hit play or keep listening I also need you to know how excited I am for you to listen to this episode.
This workshop was originally created in 2016 when I was just starting my business and when I was still extremely nervous about speaking into a microphone or doing a live workshop. I’m sharing this audio with you today because this is a powerful workshop and I still get messages from people asking me about it and if it will ever come back - so here it is!
It will involve you doing some work. It will most likely require you to hit pause, to get real with yourself, and to ask yourself some big questions.
This used to be part of a larger paid program I offered back in 2017. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to join one of my courses, workshops, or online group programs, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
I also want you to know that you can listen to this in podcast form but you can also watch along with the workshop video by going to MindfulProductivityBlog.com/closingceremony
If you find this episode helpful, please share the crap out of it, and leave a written review on iTunes. Thank you!
Let’s get to it!
Transcript:
Welcome back. I'm Sarah Steckler, and this is episode 96 of the Mindful Productivity Podcast, and oh, my gosh, you guys, this is a very, very special episode today I am sharing with you something that I recorded years ago, and this is my annual review and closing ceremony workshop that I did. I think it was back in 2016. It ended up being part of a paid membership program I had in 2017. And then it's been kind of like in the Vault, and I actually still get messages about this workshop.
People asking, Are you ever going to bring it back? It was so helpful. It helped me so much. And I was like, thinking about podcast episodes I could do to wrap up the year. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to make it easier on myself. I'm going to bring this workshop back, and I'm going to make it a podcast episode. So I want to make one thing Crystal clear before we dive into today's episode.
Okay.
And that is one that there are no rules about when you must listen to or take part in the ceremony and guided workshop. It can be December 31 or it can be well into the new year. You can listen to it after a chapter of your life is ending, or just before a new one is about to begin. You can listen to it in July before you have to get ready for a new school year or when you need to recenter yourself. Okay. So even though it's an annual closing ceremony, I just want to make it clear that these practices are super helpful no matter what time of year it is.
Okay. Unnecessary rules are just that they are unnecessary. And before you keep listening, I also need you to know how excited I am for you to listen to today's episode.
Okay.
So just like I was saying, this episode was originally created in 2016 when I was just starting my business, and when I was still extremely nervous about speaking into a microphone or doing a live workshop. So I'm sharing the audio with you today because this is a powerful workshop, and I still get questions about it, and I'm just really excited to share it with you. So it will involve you doing some work. So this is most likely a podcast episode that you're going to want to be able to kind of sit down with.
You can definitely listen to it and be driving or on a walk. But you may want to listen to it again where you're able to go through the exercises and prompts that I talk about and actually write down your answers.
Okay.
Because I'm going to be asking you to get real with yourself. I'm going to be asking you some bigger questions.
Okay.
Now, if you've ever wondered what it's like to join any of my courses or programs, I want to give you an idea that this Workshop is very similar to the work that I do. So the stuff I do is very in depth. I give you tons of guidance. So if you've ever been wondering, like, I don't know if I want to invest in some of the things Sarah is doing. If you enjoy this workshop know that this is just the tip of the iceberg for what I put into and the quality of content I put into some of my paid programs as well.
I also want to let you know just one more thing that you can listen to this on the podcast today, but you can also go watch the actual original workshop video with all of the slides and follow along. All you have to do is go to mindfulproductivityblog. Comclosingsremony and it'll take you right to this episode 96 page and also you guys, if you find this episode helpful, please share the crap out of it. Okay, leave a written review on itunes. Tag me on Instagram. Let me know you're listening.
Let me know that you've downloaded the worksheet that's also going to be available. So make sure you do go to Mindfulproductivityblog. Comclosingceremony because that is where you're going to find this beautiful PDF that walks you through the entire process. It's a worksheet. You're going to love it, and I can't wait for you to go through it. All right, enough about all of that. Let's go ahead and dive into this audio. I'm so excited for you to get started with this workshop.
Welcome to the Mindful Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is the place to be to live a more mindful and productive life. If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention, then get ready to join me. As we dive deep into mindful living and personal productivity, it's time to connect with your true self so you can live the life you want to live, and it all starts now.
Today's workshop is going to leave you with some solid ways to build your awareness and get ready for next steps. When it comes to goal planning and intention setting for the New Year the importance of closing ceremonies. We typically want to move ahead to plan our goals and set New Year's resolution. So we're typically always just trying to push the path behind us and move forward. And while that's great, it's really hard to make changes in our lives if we don't reflect on what worked well and what didn't service and all of those things.
So I have a quote for you guys, the past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it. So today's workshop is really geared to help you guys reflect on the past so that you can move forward with intention and a lot more fulfillment. I like to kind of compare it to the Olympics, right. So there's a ritual in a sacred way about taking time to ignite and extinguish your own flame as cheesy as that may sound, but we only burn for so long.
So ceremonies and rituals allow us to take pause to allow ourselves into stepping into our own inner guidance, really build that support and community around us. And it allows us to work collectively to reach our interpersonal goals and really just contribute positively to the world we live in. I want to talk to you about as promised, kind of what we're going to be diving into today with these Journal prompts and these exercises. So we're going to go through how to reflect back on the year with mindfulness and compassion.
So this can change a lot when we're able to look back on our past self and experiences with compassion, acknowledgement and reflection instead of judgment, guilt and resentment. Whether we want to hear it or not. Each experience in our lives brings with it profound, a profound sense of awareness or a lesson that will help us moving forward. So when I look back on top things I went through, typically, there's a big lesson there. We're going to go through how to create awareness surrounding your experiences over the past year to fuel your future goals.
I don't know about you, but if you ever feel like you keep making the same mistakes or you keep falling off the wagon in similar ways, it usually has a lot less to do with your capability to be consistent. And instead it's just really a key piece missing in your awareness. That's actually really encouraging, right? Oftentimes we think that because we're not taking action, it means that we're not capable, but there's usually another piece missing there. And that's what we are going to be working on today as well.
So there's also that quote, I think insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results. So the changes we often seek to make require minimal adjustments over time, but they can feel more complex because we expel energy, bringing awareness to them. So this goes away over time as things become more routine habits and new ways of living through how to recognize when to let go of people in situations that haven't served you and make mental space for what you truly need. This might be my favorite part that we're going to do today.
I have some really great tools and tips for you guys on this, so I'm really going to share here some key strategies for how I've been able to really give less Bucks the past year as well as how to figure out what you really care about and what doesn't require your energy or attention anymore. I was completely surprised through this process with me how often I was caring about things that one I had no control over anyway or two weren't even important or related to my overall goals or daily habits in the first place.
When you go through this process and you're able to really let things go, it's like so liberating. And then last week I'm going to help you walk through these Journal prompts and activities to explore the deeper meaning behind your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. If you guys don't have your Journal in front of you or a piece of paper, grab that now because we're going to start going through these exercises and then you'll be able to kind of share what you're thinking about in the chat as well.
So this is a process I created. Reflect, release, remove, reclaim, reset I use to just kind of declutter my mind and really get rid of things in there that I just don't need anymore. So I call these the five R's because obvious, but these have really allowed me to reflect. Let go and readjust to what I need as life unfolds, scoops me up and spits me back out into the unknown as many of you may relate to. Very well. Life is nuts, you guys, and I'm learning more and more just how non linear it is.
So there are times when we have solid choices and times when we must accept the moment we're in and work with what we have. So really, at the end of the day, maybe it sounds cheesy, but we have the home that we live in forever that no one else fully understands, and that's our own mind, so we can let people in. But really, you're the only person that lives there, and you are typically the only person that really speaks to you there. So this process really allows you to really be comfortable in your own mind and be comfortable with yourself.
And starting from the inside out like that is so powerful, and it's really changed my life. I want to briefly touch on what all of these five different Rs mean and how we will use them. So reflecting means that we're giving ourselves permission to go back to seek awareness of the past without staying in nostalgia, regret, or preventing ourselves from moving forward for too long. So when we take time to reflect, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to learn and to see things from new angles.
It's why we learn from our past mistakes, so we hopefully don't repeat histories that won't lend to our happiness in the future. Releasing this is the brave, sometimes uncomfortable but ultimately rewarding process of wedding shed go. It's when we finally unhinge our attachments to experiences that only act as boulders in our backpacks. So I like to think of this part. It's kind of taking time on a hike to take off the pack, set it on the ground, and kind of clean out the fridge. So to speak, of all the spoiled foods that are only taking up space but also are sticking things up.
So don't be surprised if you find that you had no idea that certain things were rotting in your mind or taking up space. This is all part of that mental decluttering process. Removing is part of the process that many people overlook. So when we think about releasing, we think that's kind of done right. Like, oh, I've gotten rid of the stuff I don't need. We think that when we release things, we're good to go. The problem is that if you this is a silly example. But if you unlock a chicken coop in your backyard and you release a bunch of chickens, they're probably going to stay there for a few days.
They're probably going to wander around. Maybe even some of them are going to go back into the coop, like, the whole reason you open the door and let them go in the first place. Right. So when we think we set things free, we have to make sure that we give them a direction or that we push them in a direction so that they don't come wandering back. And so if they do come wandering back, we're not like, oh, maybe I should keep you. Maybe I should keep that negative thought.
Or maybe I should do this because we're used to it. It's normal, and it's kind of comforting. Reclaiming means that we begin to take back the mental space we just made room for empty and lonely when you move into a new house or an apartment before your furniture gets there. And it's not uncommon to want to fill it back up with all those cozy feelings, even if they made you feel miserable. So what we're ultimately seeking is familiarity, predictability and comfort, something that we can feel that's missing even after we get rid of something we don't like.
Finally, the last part resetting means that we're arranging this new, cleanse mental space of ours in ways that brings back structure, joy, fulfillment and ease. So in a lot of ways, we're clearing out or cleaning out closet and we're getting ready to go mindset shop, which is really fun because I love shopping and it's free, right? You get to take time to figure out what you want your mind to look like and what you want to focus on on a daily basis. It's an exciting time to consider what you ultimately want next.
But it's also an overwhelming time that can be filled with not so great habits if we're not mindful of what we said as priority. So you get this big, empty mental space going on, and it can be really easy to fill it up with things just because we're seeking comfort and guidance. I'm not going to be calling on each of these single stages as we go through these next Journal prompts and activities because they all kind of blend together often kind of like in a flurry of a snowstorm of awareness.
So these are really going to help with our progress and our growth. Think of this process as a continual inhale and exhale. So we're breathing in now, we're holding it in to acknowledge it, and then we're breathing it all back out a CO2 or whatever. Right. So this first exercise I'm going to have you do may sound a little counterintuitive, but trust me, it's necessary in your Journal right now and feel free to share some of these in the comments as well. Write down everything to piss you off.
Now, I understand that that could be like pages for some people. Right. So a couple of things during this workshop right now, I'm going to limit you to five things. Write down five main things that just really piss you off irks you that you're really unhappy with that you're disappointed about. Okay. So you may actually want to write this little prompt down at the top of your Journal page and give yourself the whole page or give yourself a spread, which is two pages with your open Journal.
Right. So for now, just take a minute or so to write down at least five things that really irked you this past year. But I definitely want to encourage you to think about things that directly happened to you. So there could be things in mainstream media that affected you. But when you think about your own life, your own ways of being, take this time to write down those five things in the past year that bothered you that directly affected you. So now that you have a list of a couple of things and you can go back through later after this workshop and dive deeper into what those things are and why they bothered you and really get clear on that.
But now I want you to make a list of two to three things you learned from each of them, for example. And these can be shortlists. But for example, one thing that really pissed me off in 2016 is that I felt like four months of my life were stolen away when I fell into a deep depression, the deepest depression I've ever been in. And I shared that experience on a podcast recently, too. So I sometimes still feel really resentful, and I regret that I didn't do more even though I was really in a place where I needed that time to heal.
So my list might be things like through that, I learned how important gratitude is. I learned how much value the ability to do things and to feel passionate about hobbies is, because when I was in that depression, I just didn't care about anything. I didn't have that passion. I didn't want to Journal. I didn't want to do all these things I used to love, and I also learned how much my friends and family truly love and support me even when I'm not feeling like myself. So I'll just give you guys a brief moment here to continue to make your list.
I know there's not a whole lot. I'm not giving you guys a whole lot of time during the live workshop to work on this. But again, if you just want to write down these prompts in your Journal, so now I'm going to have you make a list of what went right. So what can you celebrate? There may be a part of you that automatically says nothing, but I'm challenging you here to think of at least three things during this workshop. So start small and work your way up.
So now we went through kind of what went right. So the next prompt, what surprised you about yourself? So the more we dive into reflection, the more we recognize what we went through and what we overcame. I think I mentioned this before, but it's kind of like you're on a cruise ship or you're on a boat and you're kind of drifting away from the shore. We don't realize how fast we're moving away from something and how soon we come up on a new horizon. Right? Because we don't have, like, checkpoints throughout our life.
So doing exercises like this can kind of help you do that. So sometimes I think back on past experiences that I had years ago, and I go like, Holy shit, I really did a good job of getting out of that relationship, for example, or whatever. So take a moment here to reflect on what changes you went through and what surprised you along the way. So this next part is, what will you give yourself permission to let go of? I use this phrase a lot so much that many of my clients might be tired of hearing it now.
But giving yourself permission may sound like a silly idea, because, of course, you can do whatever you want, but we often limit ourselves in profound ways. So what will you give yourself permission to let go of this year? Will it be harshly judging yourself every time you make a mistake? Maybe you're giving up yourself permission to not try to be perfect all the time or permission to let go of expectations for how every moment of that road trip should have went or et cetera. Right. Take a moment to consider why you're just ready to give yourself permission to let go of this next prompt is my favorite.
And this is where I start swearing a lot, but it's mainly because of the prompt. Right? We're going to talk about what do you give a fuck about and not give a fuck about? Okay. There's this amazing book that I've been reading. If you've heard of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, there's a parody book by Sarah, and I called The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck, and I highly recommend it. Sometimes we all just need to take a moment and reflect on the fucks we are handing out.
Okay? Like we hand them out. Sometimes we hand them out like shitty Halloween candy. We're just like, here you go, here you go. So this is definitely huge. As you can see, I've made my own little list here and warning it may offend some people, but here's the thing. The key here is that making a list for yourself. It's important that it offends people. Why? Because if it offends people, it means you're being true to yourself. Because when we're true to ourselves and what we decide we want to care about and not care about, chances are that somebody else is going to disagree with us, right?
That's just part of life. That's just part. We can't please everyone. My mom always says, Please all, please, none. We all have the right to give a fuck and not give a fuck about a variety of things. And we're not all going to agree. Taking that and now and respecting the fact that you can care about one thing and I can care about something else is really key in this. I don't want you to view this as an opportunity to step back into comparisonitis or anything, but instead, this is a liberating exchange with your pen and your paper about what goes where.
So you'll notice that I have both big important things, but also like silly, shallow and mundane things on my two sides. You may have noticed that I do give a fuck about Vice Land. That's because I consider it high quality television programming and will go out of my way to watch a show on that channel and use TiVo space to record ones I miss. You may also have noticed that I put narcissists into my Do Not Give a Fuck column. This means that I will not and do not make time, space or energy to give any fucks out to narcissism or narcissistic behavior.
Whether they are people I've known, family members or in laws, I do not give them any Bucks. It's just really fun to say that you guys have fun saying that. I feel like I could say this all day, so therefore their horrible behavior does not intrude on my happiness. This was a seriously fun exercise exercise that I did that. I created an additional four pages in my bullet Journal to continue the fun. You may find that you just want to make one big list to start and then go through later and highlight and cross out everything and categorize everything.
You may have seen this. I posted it recently. I love this quote. I wish I knew who wrote this. You should give a fuck. You really should, but only about things that set your soul on fire. Save your fuck for magical shit. Okay, some tips on what to care about and what to let go of because it can be easy to start your list and then you might get kind of tripped up. It's a lot easier when you try to give a fuck about things that you Canva change or sorry don't try to give a fuck about things that you can't change.
Okay. So, for example, it might make you really unhappy that your friend from College still won't come around to accepting that you're married now, and you don't really feel like going out binge drinking anymore, okay? Or maybe your parents make an appropriate political comments during family gatherings that encourage you to drink more wine and get back into kickboxing. Okay. The thing is, there's a difference between giving a fuck about your own self and giving a fuck about other people's behavior that you cannot change. Now, there are always circumstances and times in your life when it's important to stand up and push people and their boundaries for social and humanitarian issues, right?
That's a whole other thing. What you can do is assert your own boundaries so you can. Giving a fuck about things means that you're willing to give energy and mental time and space into investing in something or caring about something enough for it to affect you. If your parents come over or having a family gathering, something that you could say is like, hey, guys, so glad you made it. But I bought five bottles of wine and another Cards Against Humanity bonus pack so we could have fun talking about insert political Firestarter here makes the goal unattainable attainable.
So I ask that we leave that for another time. So boom, you've established your boundary. You're saying, hey, I'm not giving a fuck about that. And you're not an asshole in the process. You've just clearly asserted yourself and your boundaries. Sometimes all you can do is influence people with your behavior on saying is, choose your battles and how many fucks you want to give out. You only have so many each day, week, month, year before you start feeling resentful, lose interest in humanity and start looking into off grid, tiny homes.
I know this because this was 2016 for me, gave out way too many, too many Bucks. I want to take a pause here and talk about your future self. We're also looking forward. So we tend to hold our future self in a light that's far more unrealistic, romantic and epic in proportion to how we actually see ourselves now. So we just spent some solid time together going on what went well, what's up, what could be better and what you're ready to let go of. This is good stuff, but I need you to take a moment to pause here and remind all of you that we tend to throw ourselves into a major pitfall trap when it comes to the excitement surrounding the New Year.
So I'm not saying that you shouldn't aim for the moon here, but I am saying that there's a reason that smart goals exists, and we're invented it's like saying we'll drive to Disneyland, but then never getting gas, never buying a plane ticket, or even thinking about what rides we want to go on. So then it just doesn't happen. Some common things I hear is I'll start next week or I'll be happy when I do this, or I'll have so much more time after I do that we're really focusing on.
If our mindset doesn't change now, then it's not going to magically change on the first of the year. One thing that I'll touch on again here is when we set high, unattainable, unrealistic expectations about what we should or want to accomplish tomorrow, or by next month, we can tend to watch our future self feel deflated defeated in the press. It's important to acknowledge that in order to get to where we want, we have to take baby steps every single day. Another thing to consider here is this notion, this idea of saying I don't have time versus it's not a priority.
I say this a lot in my head. I say I just don't have time to work out. I just don't have time to do that. Is that true sometimes? Yes. Is that true? If you're a mom or if you're a business owner or if you're working two jobs and going to school? Yes. Sometimes you really just don't have time. But there's a big difference between not having time and not making something a priority, because if I made going running, for example, every day a priority in my life, I would make it happen no matter how busy I was.
That would be like something that was a focal point, so it'd be more likely to occur. So that's something to consider. One thing I'm going to have you guys do. And I think this is so fun is I'm going to have you write a letter to your future self if you haven't went over to FutureMe. Org. This is one of my favorite websites. I've been writing letters to myself for, like, ten years. Somewhere along the lines, I wrote myself a letter to, like, 30 years in the future, knowing that I have the same email address and nothing happens to me.
I'm really excited to see what I said back then, so this is a great little system to use. So I even created a template for you with some ideas in the worksheet that you can download, so you can kind of copy and paste that in there. It includes some prompts and fill in the blank statements, and you can set this up to deliver to yourself next year on December 30 and maybe even make this part of your annual ritual. Just imagine how cool it's going to be when you get this a year from now.
Chances are you're totally going to forget about it, and it's going to be fantastic. I know that you have to send them at least 30 days in advance, but it's fun to send yourself something every month or send yourself something every year or three years or five years. Really fun stuff.
All right, you guys, I'm dying to know what came up for you and what you discovered about yourself during this workshop. I'd also love to see your gap list both what you do gap and not gap about tag me on Instagram and your stories. I'm at Mindful Productivity Blog. I'd love to see what you're setting boundaries around this season and in general, if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it. Go to mindfulproductivityblog. Comcosingsremony and make sure to click on the Share button so that you can share this with your family and friends or anyone that you think would find this super helpful.
Again, if you enjoy the podcast, it would mean so much to me if you leave a written review on itunes. As always, you can always find more resources by going over Mindful Productivity Podcast. And if you're interested in learning how to self publish your own Journal on Amazon in 60 days or less, and you're going to be excited because I'm going to be talking about when the new round is going to be launching for that course, publish with purpose as well. All right, have an amazing year ahead.
Wherever you're listening to this, whenever you're listening to this, I'm so grateful you're here. I'm so grateful you're a listener and I can't wait to see you back here next Monday.
