Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
Today on the podcast I'm sharing how you can create momentum now to carry into the new year. In this episode of the routine of things podcast I share my end of year rituals and how they allow me to plan the year ahead, let's get into it.
Ashley Brown 0:26
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Ashley Brown 1:40
Hey, girl, and welcome back for another episode of the Routine and Things Podcast. Today, it's gonna be a fun episode. We are talking about how to create momentum now to carry into the new year. And I'm specifically sharing what I do to create momentum as we head into the new year because it's right around the corner. And I'm going to be sharing my yearly rituals that I do. These are things that I do at the end of my year, that really helped me to set the year up in a beautiful way and to get excited about the year and to create momentum for the new year so that when I get into the new year, I am like ready to go I am feeling all of the good vibes as we all want to do. And so that is what I'm sharing with you today. All right. So when it comes to the things that I do, and the rituals that I have to create momentum for the new year, I'm sharing three things with you that I do with in my life. And hopefully this gives you some inspiration and gives you some things to think about. So that if you want, you can start to create certain end of year rituals for yourself and practices that you do.
Ashley Brown 2:51
And hopefully this gives you some inspiration and insight and allows you to think about maybe what are some rituals that you can put in place or some practices that you can do at the end of the year that help you create momentum for the year ahead. So I'm sharing three things with you that I do. This is going to be a really short and sweet episode. The first one is I take an inventory of my previous year. And how I specifically do this is by looking back at my journals throughout the year. So I am a huge journaler. I typically have anything between six to eight journals per year. Because depending on their size, I typically have between six and eight journals per year. And so I'll go back and I'll look through them. Now, I won't read every page. I don't have time for that. But I don't want to do that. But what I will do is I will flip through my journals and I will read certain entries and like I'll look at certain dates and be like, Okay, let me see what's going on here.
Ashley Brown 3:50
Because what I'm looking for are patterns, I'm looking for healthy patterns, and not so healthy patterns, specifically the healthy patterns so that I know in the new year, these are things I want to keep going like keep going with that, like keep that in your life because it's going to be helpful. And then I'm looking for unhealthy patterns, of course, because I want to be able to improve the patterns that haven't been so healthy for me or remove the people that haven't been so healthy for me or even just think about what I'm going to do and what course of action I'm going to take next. And so that's one of the rituals that I do is take an inventory of my previous year. And I do that by looking at my journals. Now you could do this in a different way. Maybe you don't have a journal, maybe you want to look back at your planner and see like, Okay, well this week I was doing this and it seemed like I was doing so much and I seem to be stressed on that week or this just looks like a lot.
Ashley Brown 4:42
Like maybe looking at your planner could be a helpful thing for you to do. That's just an idea. Maybe even just sitting down and thinking like giving yourself at least like an hour at least if more that would be fantastic. But at least looking at that for an hour or at least thinking about what how happened this year, what things went really well this year? What am I proud of this year? And then thinking about what am I not so proud of, or what could have been improved this year that maybe I put off, or maybe I saw come up throughout the year, just giving yourself the space and time to sit down and think and reflect what is important, but it's super duper helpful. So that is the first thing that I do in order to create momentum for the next year. Because what it does is it gets me excited and inspired, really inspired, because I'm like, Okay, I've seen these patterns, these have been really good patterns. And then I see these other patterns. And it's like, no, I don't want this happening going into the new year.
Ashley Brown 5:39
So either I'll address something at the end of the year, or I'll wait to the top of the year and be like, I need to really address this. And so it just depends on what it is. And that is what I'm doing. Because here's the thing, personal growth is important to me, like I am huge on personal development, personal growth, self improvement, because I know when I'm growing, everything I touch gets better. That includes my family, that includes my friends, that includes this business routine and things, that includes how I impact the world just in what I'm doing throughout my life, I just know I have to be well, I have to be growing like I can't just stay stagnant and think that, Oh, I've arrived so much to where I don't have any development to do. Your girl can always grow in different ways. So that's important to me. And this ritual really allows me to do this. So that's the first thing, take an inventory of my previous year, you can do the same. The second thing that helps and can help create momentum for the year that I do is I choose a word of the year.
Ashley Brown 6:40
So at the end of the year, I always think about after especially after looking at my journals, I think about okay, what's an inspiring word, an asprational a word that will help me to have momentum throughout my year and that I can focus on throughout my year in every aspect of my life, because the word has to be in alignment or it has to be applied and be able to be applied to every aspect of my life. So family business, personal spiritual, just in like a lot of different ways. This year, my word is ease. So I've been leaning into ease this year. So anytime like I'm serious anytime. This is hilarious. But anytime I will find myself like even about to get to the point of rolling my eyes and being like, oh my gosh, like this is kind of frustrating. I will be like ease, ease, Ashley. Remember that I even in my business, I have this report that I do every single week. And it asks me, are you living out your Word of the Year? And I have to put yes or no. And so luckily, most of the weeks, I've been able to say yes, because it just sticks in my mind. And so that's another ritual that I have is to choose the word of the year.
Ashley Brown 7:53
And that really helps to motivate me for the next year because I'm like, Oh, I wonder how this is going to play out this year, and how much I can lean into this word in the next year. So that's super exciting for me. So you could do the same thing. And it's all about thinking about what is inspirational for you what could bring, what do you want to focus on? What word is that maybe ease? It may be happiness, it may be joy, it may be abundance. I remember I think in 2020, my word was abundant. It could be abundance, it could be beauty, it could be richness. Yeah. What is that word for you? It could be calm, it could be grounded. I think that is just such a great way to create momentum for the new year. That's the second thing that I do. The third thing last and final thing that I do a ritual that I do at the end of the year, every year. And I've been doing it with my besties for the past two years. And that is I will create a vision board. And I know this is huge. This is huge. Because I know you've heard about this. And if you do this, isn't it so fun? It's so fun. It's a great way to create momentum for the new year. But I created a vision board.
Ashley Brown 9:02
Last year my vision board was super simple. Every year my vision board is super simple. I'm just a simple chick. I don't do too much. So I'm going to explain to you what my vision board was for this year the best that I can. So it has four pictures that I cut out of magazines, so four images, and then in the middle it has a phrase and so the first image up at the top left is a woman a black woman who has like this long curly hair and she's in a black bathing suit and she's on the beach you can see the water behind her. Her arms are up and just her hair is like blowning in the wind. And that just when I saw that picture, I was like Yes, honey, I need that because it really resonated with me. I started to think about freedom and flow and ease and relaxation and so that's why I want to cultivate and bring into 2022 so I chose that one. Then beside that picture is another picture that is of like an outfit, you know, magazines, they'll have like the outfits they put together and show you the bag and the shoes and the shirt and the pants that's beside it. And that just kind of brought to me like this sense of style, which and like sexiness and beauty.
Ashley Brown 10:17
And so I chose that one. And then below that is a picture of a woman, another black woman who has on this pretty green dress. And she has behind her like this backdrop that's green, and it has leaves and trees behind her. And it just reminded me of beauty and a flow. And that's what I wanted to bring it to 2022. And so the last picture off to the left bottom of it's on the poster board, the last picture is of a stack of fluffy, delicious pancakes. Oh my gosh, I might need to take a picture of this and put it on Instagram. I might need to do that. Hit me up on Instagram, if you want me to take a picture of my vision board and show it to you. But yes a stack of fluffy pancakes that got butter a good slab of butter on top. Y'all know I love that. I'm from the south, and also a waterfall of syrup. And that just reminded me of like pleasure and deliciousness. And so I was like, Yep, definitely gotta go on here, because I want to invite more of that into my life. And so those were the pictures. And then right in the middle is the phrase and the short sentence that says we're rich.
Ashley Brown 11:38
And that is what I placed on there. Because I want it to be rich in spirit and rich in abundance and rich in spirituality and rich in beauty and rich in finances and rich in family and rich in itself. And so that was a phrase that I chose to put there. Because that's my vision board. Very simple, very to the point. But what it does is throughout the year is in my office where I'm at right now in the basement, and throughout the year. I'll just look at it every day. When I'm down here. I look at it. And it really like at the end of the year I start to think about: Did I do any of these things did any of these photos really come to life for me and what I can say this year they have. What I can say this year they have and they will continue to be as well. And so that's my last ritual. That's what I do to create momentum for the next year. Oh, I hope this was really helpful for you.
Ashley Brown 12:30
I hope that this was even fun for you to even listen to this. I want to share before you leave that the routine and things accelerator is going to be opening. Doors open January first. Top of the year its a Sunday doors are opening. Girl are you joining? If you want to learn more about the accelerator, which is a three month group program to help you get your core routines up and going morning and bedtime routines, build your consistency muscle and learn the art and skill of building and maintaining routine. So you have this tool that you can use throughout your lifetime. Come join us you can learn about that at routineandthings.com/accelerator or click the link in the show notes. I hope to see you inside. But until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are whatever you're doing, hopefully you join me next week for our final episode of the year. Stay happy and I'll talk to you soon.
Ashley Brown 13:22 [Outro]
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, take a screenshot and share it on social I would love to know you're listening and for tools to help you start maintain and enjoy your routines. Be sure to head to routineandthings.com. Here's to staying happy.