Re-Set Your Compass for 2024
Are the echoes of this year still ringing too loud for you as stand at the threshold of a brand-new year? Before you dive into 2024, do you need a moment to re-set?
Based on global events and the inevitable challenges that comes with ongoing growth and evolving into your strongest self, I’d venture to say that 2023 was another rough year for many.
What were the main events that governed your life scape? Did you bump up against any of the following:
A major home relocation.
Losing a loved one.
A challenging job or career shift.
Scrambling to adapt in strained economies.
Trying to make sense of soul-searing global events and environmental catastrophes.
A health crisis.
Navigating a failing or changing relationships.
Coming to terms with bittersweet endings and uncertain new beginnings.
How do you regain your footing when the ground shifts beneath your feet again, and yet again?
Chances are that who you were at the start of 2023 is not who you are as you step over the finish line. A year can surprise, delight, blind-side, bend and twist you in ways you never imagined possible.
How has 2023 re-shaped you? Do you feel weaker, stronger, defeated or empowered as you look to the future?
Without sugarcoating it, this year pulled and stretched me in ways I wasn’t fully prepared for. My edges feel frayed, and I’m drained - mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally.
Before stepping into the new landscape of 2024:
Do you need a rest, a life review, and a re-set?
In other words, do you need to take a much-needed break to rest and re-charge?
Do you need to take stock of how this year has impacted you?
Do you want to notice what you learned about yourself, others, and the world that can carry you forward in helpful ways?
Or, do you simply need to re-set your life compass to help guide you through the unknown pathways stretching in front of you?
If so, where do you even begin?
Stage 1: Start with a Pause
Danna Faulds, in her poem, Walk Slowly, offers us a gentle reminder to pause.
Image: Created in CANVA by Glynis Klein
Two common misconceptions about self-care, are that it’s an indulgence reserved for those with free time and extravagant resources. Or, worse, that selfcare is selfish.
Self-care is neither indulgent nor selfish. It’s essential for physical, mental, and emotional health to foster and regulate your well-being.
It’s widely known that self-care can improve physical health, and concentration, and increase energy levels. Self-care practices can help reduce anxiety and depression and raise your sense of happiness. Whereas, a lack of self-care can lead to unhealthy coping habits, not to mention stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout.
Self-care can focus on any of these life domains:
Physical wellness (a walk or hike, run, cycle, dance)
Emotional wellbeing (therapy, crying, laughing, constructive introspection)
Social wellbeing (quality time with family or friends)
Environmental wellness (take care of your home, work and broader environment)
Financial wellbeing (wise spending, budgeting, financial planning)
Spiritual wellbeing (prayer, meditation, learning)
For more on this topic, Dr Tess Browne, succinctly walks you through the benefits of reactive self-care, proactive self-care and value based self-care.
Stage 2: Move into ‘Gratia’
Gratitude or ‘gratia’ is a word derived from Latin, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. It’s simply taking a moment to acknowledge the good things in our lives.
Without discounting the immense challenges of this year and the heart-wrenching impact it’s had the global community, recall the smallest things that brought you joy, a smile, or a little relief.
Research shows that counting our blessings, or focusing on gratitude, can help us feel happier and improve our health. We can then deal better with adversity.
Recall the four seasons you journeyed through this year. For each can you list at least one thing you feel grateful for? If so, take a moment to cherish that.
Stage 3: Dive a Little Deeper
The past few years global events turned our lives inside out. It broke our hearts, enraged and baffled us. Then, 2023 unveiled new crises, pressures and challenges that tested us in new ways. If you consider the frantic pace of life, how did you make sense of it all. Reflecting on how life impacts you is essential to support you in several ways.
Introspective reflecting can remind you of what went well in your year.
It can help you notice your growth.
It can help you identify and mitigate your triggers—notice what set you off and what helped you cope well. Then, find ways to reduce the former and expand the latter.
In retrospect, reflecting on past challenges can help you calmly and rationally unravel these without the overwhelming emotions you felt when the event originally happened.
It can help you re-frame regrets, untapped or unrealised goals.
It can help you set new intentions and fresh ways to cope with life stressors as you move forward.
Stage 4: Re-set Your Compass for 2024
As you get ready to step into a new year, what do you need, or want, to release to free up space for what’s ahead? What do you want your health, relationships, or career to look like in 2024?
What small or big changes are you willing and able to put in motion to move you closer to a more satisfying life?
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step.
-Lao Tzu
When planning for a new year, there are three tools that can help.
A life purpose statement,
A personal manifesto,
A simple guiding word or phrase for the year.
These capture the way you want to feel, live and move through life. Using tools like these can help you get clear on what to focus your time and energy on as you step into the future. It can serve as a compass to guide through the next four seasons. Then, at the end of the year, you can reflect on how any of these impacted the quality of your year. Notice if and how it helped you make clearer decisions and choices and if it helped you enjoy a more fulfilling and meaningful year.
Spend some time thinking about the year ahead and consider how one of these tools can help you capture your hopes and intentions for the future.
For more support to live a life of deeper meaning and fulfilment, have a look at my flagship resource that just launched. The Midlife Roadmap: Six Guideposts to Thrive on Purpose in Midlife is a self-paced, flexible e-course that includes a midlife time capsule that integrates the resources discussed in this article. Click here for a sneak peek inside the Midlife Roadmap.
Whatever your plans are for 2024, may it be fuelled by grace, self-compassion and ever-growing wisdom.
Until next time, take care, and remember to travel gently through 2024.
XoXo
Glynis / The Midlife Introvert