Greetings and welcome to the Why Struggle Podcast.
I'm your host,
Barbara J.
Faison,
And my intention with this podcast is to offer ideas,
Insights,
And inspirations so you can live life better.
Greetings and welcome to 2024 Week 26,
2024 Mid-Year Review.
This episode is about checking in with 2024.
We are halfway through 2024,
So this week I decided to look back at some of the accomplishments and experiences I've had so far.
I started doing this around 2018 after TD,
My husband,
And I were having a conversation about the last time we had gone to visit his family in Tennessee.
We couldn't remember when it was.
After that,
I started writing down a year in review so that wouldn't happen again.
I had already been keeping a daily quick log of things I wanted to remember in many journals.
I would buy in three packs that would often have quotes on them like fascinating thoughts.
Most days of the week,
I would do a quick note with the date and what I wanted to remember.
My journal from 2017 had a note on 9-23-17 that while we were on vacation in Panama City,
A woman on the beach gave us four chairs and an umbrella because they were heading home and didn't want to take them.
A lovely reminder of the kindness of strangers.
A few examples of notes from my mini daily journal this year.
4-16-24,
No sweets or coffee.
5-2-24,
Student mani pedi at beauty 21.
5-7-24,
My friend Ade was in town for her birthday so we enjoyed Indian food for dinner.
5-16-24,
A ladybug on my windshield.
This is important because I used to call my mom ladybug and whenever a ladybug is nearby,
It makes me feel that she is somewhere close watching over me.
Those are things I want to remember.
I think it was around 2018 I started doing the review slash reflections for the year.
It was a great way to recap what stood out that I wanted to remember.
Using columns in a Word document or a OneNote document,
I added a header called 20 fill in the blank review.
There are 12 columns with headings for each month and bullet points under each heading.
Each month I write down something I want to remember about the month.
Sometimes it's two things,
Sometimes it's ten things,
Sometimes it's an accomplishment,
And sometimes it's an experience.
My review goes like this,
Written in bullet form.
January,
Bullet point,
Started a weekly newsletter that also serves as my podcast.
Bullet point,
Birthday weekend with TD,
Dinner at Pier 42,
American fiction movie.
March,
Bullet point,
March,
Recorded 14 audio description voiceovers for Accessible Chicago series.
Bullet point,
Lunch with Susan.
April,
Tybee Island Beach for the first time.
Bullet point,
Day trip to meet with Regina in Charlotte,
North Carolina.
The year in review is a way of logging and tracking important moments in my life.
I can print this out and keep them in order and capture the year.
I couldn't,
I could,
But so far the reviews are just online.
Looking at my year in review reminds me of where I focused money,
Energy,
Effort,
Time.
The only way I can do my year in review is by referencing my mini journal with my daily activities.
Okay,
You may be thinking,
Why don't you use a day timer slash planner?
I tried to do that,
And I found that I ended up having a bunch of planners that took up space,
And I would have to go back and find the dates I wanted to remember.
And that's where my small journals that are about four inches by six inches come in handy.
I may not write in it every day,
Although I do write in it several times a week to remind me of what has happened.
Daily,
There are opportunities to remind me where I want to meet life.
When I make decisions,
I ask myself,
What am I willing to commit?
Meet money,
Energy,
Effort,
Time.
I log my daily or weekly important activities I want to remember in my mini journal that feeds into my year in review highlight sheet.
Most days,
I also will do a quick daily journal where I connect with how I feel about things.
It can go into more detail.
I realized when I sat down to write in my journal this morning that I did not journal yesterday.
My day started differently because TD needed me to take something to him at work.
That started my day outside of the house earlier,
And it didn't dawn on me until I went to journal this morning out on the deck that I had not done my journaling practice yesterday.
Today,
I give thanks that I have been journaling for 69 days straight,
And I started over again today.
In the past,
I probably would have beat myself up because I missed the day.
It's a great opportunity to practice kindness to myself for missing yesterday.
How are you doing at the halfway point of this year?
Let me know by posting a comment or an observation where you're listening to this podcast.
