My Full End of Year Process
it's been a year | The Muse Letter No. 172
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I’ve always been a new years’ resolutions kind of gal, I’m sorry, I know it’s like the uncool boomer hanging out on “the Facebook” but I like a classic way to self-destruct. It’s like when I watch TV and am secretly enjoying the ADs, because it gives me a sense of what is going on in the world outside my alternative/artists bubble, because I am usually so far out with everything else in my life: I moved abroad at 29, I write/think/breathe in a second language, I have to explain to people “how I can make a living with this writing thing” A LOT, I still am making plans like going to Mexico to learn weaving to the horror of my whole family who thinks it is kind of dangerous, instead of paying off a mortgage or thinking about retirement, so when I say I like new years’ resolutions it is me holding on to something “normal”, so don’t ruin it for me, okay?
I like the idea that at least once a year I sit down to reflect on my life choices and I like to do it collectively and to be honest the inevitable failure of over-committing, I like that one, too. It teaches us something valuable which is that: most things don’t work out. Failure is part of the process and that’s okay. I don’t need the word failure to be re-framed into a fancier word, I am okay with it just being that. Calling a thing by its right name, it loses its power. So let’s move on.
This is my end of year process:
I grab all of my diaries, notes and phone and skim through the year. I usually have forgotten half of the good things that happened and mostly remember the worst moments, so it helps to give me some perspective on how the year actually went. Then I go through the following tasks:
Write down your highlights and something that you learned, a lesson, a challenge: for each month.
How did you spend most of the time this year? Think of a regular day? What did it look like?
– Boil it down to 4-5 activities.
What is most important in your life?
Try to condense it to 3-5 themes. Reflect on whether the activities you've been doing represent those things.
Looking ahead to next year, set 3 big goals that you want to reach based on what's important to you.
Write down the first steps to reach these goals and try to loosely set milestones, remember this will probably change throughout the year and you need to check in every month to see if you need to adjust anything.
Give your year a motto/a mantra. Something that will guide you through the year whenever you need to make an important decision to center and support you.
Write an ins & outs list of all the things that shall be removed from your life and the things you want to call in.
Have a gratitude bath/shower. Write on a list what you are thankful for this year and take a bath/ a shower and recollect all the things you are grateful for.
Treat yourself.
Go on a walk and tell yourself you've done enough.
The last three tasks are strangely always the hardest for me or the ones I like to skip. Especially the last one. Telling myself I’ve done enough, that I’ve done well and truly mean it: is hard. I’m definitely prone to moving the goal post all the time, which means that I rarely let myself settle into accomplishment. It’s as if I don’t believe in finishing or rewarding myself. As if I’m more comfortable in not reaching my goal. If that’s you as well do not skip on that walk.
Make it an extra long one.
And if you want to know what went on my personal ins & outs for 2025, read below. It’s behind a paywall because this thing that I do here almost every week is a lot of work, I’ve been doing it for four years now and it is barely held up by a handful of my readers (thank you so much if you’ve been a paying subscriber all those years x).
One of the things that I’ve been reflecting on this year is this very thing “The Muse Letter” and how much work I’ve been putting in, how much I’ve been giving away for free and how sustainable this model actually is. At some point I will have to evaluate whether it is still feasible, whether only paid-posts are the thing to do in the future. For now, all I can say is that if you’ve been enjoying it, if you’ve had a moment of comfort or self-reflection and you want this to continue into the fifth year and you do have some spare change, a paid subscription is less than the price of a cocktail a month and it would be so so appreciated. Thank you x
ins & outs 2025