As the end of 2019 quickly (read: feeling a little unprepared for its end) approaches and we start looking towards 2020 there’s a temptation to dive into New Years Resolutions, goals, dreams, and planning for them. 

Being a business that designs planners, we’re certainly not opposed to planning and dreaming, and doing both of these in advance of the year. We actually recommend doing this (more on this to come). But there’s one thing we believe you must do first. If you have the Kindred Planner, maybe you’re already onto what we mean, because we designed the last couple pages with this in mind.

Celebrate! 

Take a few moments to celebrate and cheers to the achievements and accomplishments of 2019. What were some of the little and big things you saw come to fruition this year? Things maybe you’ve been working towards for a long time, or things you maybe just needed to get started and you started this year. 

Celebrate the bold and courageous steps you took this year, whether they ended in success, failure or somewhere in between. You took the step and showed yourself there is boldness and courage inside of you and this should be celebrated. 

Celebrate the new friendships formed and the old friendships and relationships that have deepened this year. Celebrate the people that have been kindred friends and spirits to you, the ones who have journeyed with you, encouraged and challenged you, laughed and grieved with you. For any friendships or relationships that have changed, shifted or are being left in 2019, mourn the loss and celebrate the good memories they contained and the lessons learned from them. 

Celebrate, if you can, the failures, disappointments, unmet expectations, and heartache, for these tend to be our best teachers in life. They teach us how to get up again, how to not let fear be the driving force in our lives, how to shift perspective, and the ways to maybe not do something in the future. Thomas Edison, in inventing the light bulb, has been famously quoted saying “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” 

Celebrating first helps us practice gratitude for the year behind us and prepares us to be in a better mindset and posture for the year ahead of us. We can plan and dream for 2020 from a place of abundance rather than a place of scarcity. 

A place of scarcity from not having the best perspective on 2019 and maybe feeling it didn’t live up to the expectations we put on it. Creating plans from a place of scarcity can produce anxiety, a sense of insecurity, and high pressure for 2020 to be better than 2019. It can create a rhythm of high expectations and little rest in the year ahead. 

A place of abundance comes from experiencing gratitude for and celebrating 2019. Planning and dreaming from a place of abundance produces confidence and a freedom to dream big without pressure for 2020 to meet expectations that 2019 didn’t fulfill. It helps create a rhythm of celebration, rest, and balance in the year ahead. 

Celebrating first helps remind ourselves of the failures and successes which can help us more reasonably and realistically plan for 2020. It also reminds us of the bold and courageous steps we took, which reminds us we can also dream big and take bold steps towards those big dreams. It reminds us that the big dreams we have start with the one bold step and since we’ve done that last year, what’s one or two more big bold steps? 

Here at Kindred & Co, planning for 2020 without celebrating first might look like “y’all, we have such a long way to go in 2020 in order to be the best business we can be. We have to sell so many more planners, have way better marketing for social engagement and following. Here are the 20,0001 things we need to do in order to improve for 2020.” All said with fearful hearts and frazzled eyes. 

But, if we pause, breathe and celebrate, then this is what start saying “Wow, look at the bold step we took in starting a business and this was only 5 months ago! We’ve grown from zero followers to 200 and we’ve sold over 100 planners, even to people outside our immediate network. For 2020, let’s see if we can double our following, sell twice as many planners and create a better community around the planners.”

Did you catch the shift? It’s subtle and maybe not noticeable. But trust us, writing those two paragraphs, there was a felt difference. There’s a freedom and gratitude for 2020 to be able to plan realistically and dream big, knowing even if there’s failure or unmet expectation in 2020, there will still be celebration. 

So before we dive into 2020, let’s take some time to celebrate 2019. Use the pages in the Kindred Planner to write out your celebrations, before you dive into planning for next year. Celebrate as above, celebrate in your own personal meditation and with the sweet friends and family you have around you as well. 

Cheers to 2019!