Reflecting on the Past Decade Through Journaling

By Lauren Garretson

Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain

That awkward moment when the 1980s feels twenty-years past, instead of forty. Have you seen that meme going around? For some reason, it’s a challenge to wrap our collective head around it – but it’s about to be a new decade, y’all. If you’re like myself (or, really, any other millennial on the planet) you’ve probably been so focused on accomplishing the next “big thing” that will allow you to survive capitalism and ciswhiteheteropatriarchy that the years have been somewhat of a blur. But now, in the last month of the last year of the 2010s (and much like the winter season itself) it is time to slow down, go inward and reflect.

Settle into a comfortable spot with your favorite pen and think back on the past decade of life.

• What work have you been doing – emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially – the past decade that is manifesting and ready to harvest now?
  • What were your most rewarding moments? Most challenging? Things that you are most proud of?
  • What gifts, talents, rewards, blessings, etc., are you ready to call into your life and receive after the past ten years?

• What still needs to be watered and put out in the sun?
  • What are the situations, relationships, goals, etc., that you don’t currently feel satisfied with? What about them feels this way?
  • How might you cultivate and improve a more satisfying reality over the next five years? Write at least five ideas down.

• What seeds are you planting now for the next decade?
  • What are the most important learned lessons that you are taking with you into the new decade?
  • Envision yourself over the next ten years. Who are you, and what does your life look like?

Optional Prompts:

Write a letter to the person you were ten years ago and/or the person you will be ten years from now. What wisdom, warnings, words of motivation do you want to give to them? What are your hopes, dreams, visions for this person?

 

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