January 2021 Monthly Reflection

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Holiday_Mom

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The purpose of this reflection is to look back on January and consider the highs and lows that we experienced and how they affected our lives. On the last Sunday of the month, I will post monthly reflection questions. Obviously, I’m late in posting the questions this month.

I've posted January Reflection Questions and Monthly Reflection Questions. The January specific one for the kick off to get us going for 2021. These January reflection questions will come up again as part of the Quarterly Reflection Questions. Those questions will be posted with the monthly reflections for March, June, September, and December.

Feel free to post here but do remember that this is a public forum. Please share only that which you would be comfortable sharing with the stranger on the coffee shop. ;)


January Reflection Questions
  1. What matters to you?
  2. What do you want to be remembered for?
  3. Are you living your life according to what matters to you and what you want to be remembered for?
  4. If not, what is stopping you?
  5. What steps can you take to move forward to live that life?
  6. How does your word for the year play a role in your 2021 goals?

Monthly Reflection
  1. What worked and didn't work for me this month? Why?
  2. What things or activities made me happy this month?
  3. What energized me this month?
  4. What drained me this month?
  5. What stress or concern worked itself out?

There are weekly questions that you can ask yourself that you may find helpful for the upcoming month.

Weekly Reflection
  1. What worked and didn't work for me last week? Why?
  2. What did I learn from last week?
  3. What is one thing I can do right now to make this coming week less stressful?
  4. What was last week’s biggest time sink? What can I do this week to avoid giving up so much of my valuable time to things that aren't meaningfully productive?
  5. What have I been avoiding that needs to get done? If it will take 3 minutes or less, do it now.
  6. Is there anyone I've been meaning to speak with?
  7. Is there anyone that deserves a big 'thank you'?
  8. How can I help someone else this coming week?
  9. What am I looking forward to during the upcoming week?
  10. What am I most grateful for?
 
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girlsinmo

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These are some good questions to reflect on. I esp like the monthly ones. Thanks for doing this..
 

Ahorsesoul

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In front of my computer
I’ve been off track all month until just a few days ago. The blood thinner I was on made my heart race just from walking a few steps. I wasn’t sleeping well either. I went off of it a little over a week ago. Today is the first day I’ve felt like myself.

So goals were out the window. What I learned was I do most of the household routines. So no one else has the fainted idea of what to do. Routines were not kept up. To me a visual learner if I came to your house for coffee I would pick up where your coffee was kept and know where your coffee cups were kept. Not because I’m nosey but thats how my mind works.

Being sick for the last few months the house is just out of whack. DD isn‘t on her schedules and the dogs are less well behaved. I need to get a schedule written down and make the people here know they need to start taking over more duties. So I do not have to always be the director.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Mary, thank you for doing this. It is something that I have been interested in doing since you mentioned it a few weeks ago. As you know we are going through major changes here and I am not sure how I think about it all yet, it is still very new.
January Reflection Questions
  1. What matters to you? I have always had a very strong connection with my family. My family, their happiness and well being means a lot to me.
  2. What do you want to be remembered for? I would like to be remembered as kind, considerate to others, a good Wife/Mum/Sister and Daughter. I do not lead an extraordinary life and do not think that people will remember any one great thing that I have done but instead will remember little kindnesses.

  3. Are you living your life according to what matters to you and what you want to be remembered for? I try my best. There are days where my best is better than other days KWIM? I feel that I live a good life and do strive to be the best I can be. I am happy with where I am today as I write this.
  4. If not, what is stopping you?
  5. What steps can you take to move forward to live that life? Making notes in posts like this, reflecting on how I am living, listening to others and making notes on how they live will all help in making me more aware of how I can live a better life.
  6. How does your word for the year play a role in your 2021 goals? My word for the year is IMPROVE!! I said when I chose this word that there is always room for improvement in every aspect of my life. Not huge changes just tiny tweaks here and there. I can improve my finances, my performance at work, the relationship with my Mum and children and husband. I can improve how I run my house and how I react to certain situations. I need to be accepting of the things that I cannot change and move on from there. I need to be patient if what I have in my mind (eg Christmas) is not what my family have in mind, and be willing to adapt to what will be the best for every one. I have to understand that things will be different and that different is not always bad.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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January was an intersting month. The first month as empty nesters. I am glad that this started in January rather than at another time of the year.

Monthly Reflection

  1. What worked and didn't work for me this month? I got back into a routine much quicker than any other year that I can remember. Why? The weather was cooler which made a huge difference and I had an extra week at home which gave me a great head start. There was not a lot that I feel did not work to plan in January. The only disappointment was that both the children were away and did not celebrate my birthday with me. I have to accept that they have different priorities and that we will just catch up another time and it may be individually, not as a family.
  2. What things or activities made me happy this month? I got back into my 5 small chores a week routine which gave me a great start to the year. My Mum and I set some early goals and we acted on them. I convinced DH to do a few things that he may not have ordinarily done and that was nice.
  3. What energized me this month? I sat over the Christmas break and did a lot of reflection and came into the new year with a slightly different mind set. With DS moving out I could have fallen into a depression but I pulled myself out of that and thought of all the wonderful things the year has to offer. The cooler weather and extra time away form work also helped greatly.
  4. What drained me this month? Constant IT troubles at work really drained me. There did not seem to be a fix to the situation no matter what I tried and who I contacted. I felt like my other Co Workers were not pulling their weight to help find a solution.
  5. What stress or concern worked itself out? I was worried about setting up a few strategies for DS, but after a little tooing and froing that seems to be now in place.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Weekly Reflection
  1. What worked and didn't work for me last week? Restarting my 5 goals a week worked well, it gets me moving. Work was a pain with IT issues and then the break in.
  2. What did I learn from last week? That I cannot control other peoples actions. There are people who will hurt/inconvenience others to get what they want.
  3. What is one thing I can do right now to make this coming week less stressful? To prepare as much as I can today to make the week run smoother, finish things off so that they are not hanging over my head.
  4. What was last week’s biggest time sink? What can I do this week to avoid giving up so much of my valuable time to things that aren't meaningfully productive? Social media. I spend way too much time worrying about what others are doing.
  5. What have I been avoiding that needs to get done? If it will take 3 minutes or less, do it now. I need to make 2 medical appointments. I know that they will both lead to follow ups and I just don't feel like making the appointments yet.
  6. Is there anyone I've been meaning to speak with? No, nothing that I can think of.
  7. Is there anyone that deserves a big 'thank you'? My boss, she has been through a lot in the last few weeks
  8. How can I help someone else this coming week? Also my boss for the same reason
  9. What am I looking forward to during the upcoming week? I will spend some time with Mum on Thursday AND I am getting a haircut for the first time since March last year......it's the simple things.
  10. What am I most grateful for? My family, my comfortable home and my job.
 

Holiday_Mom

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January Reflection
  • What matters to me? Faith and family.

  • What do I want to be remembered for? Being present in the moment and laughing in adversity. This pandemic has changed me for the better. It really has made me stop and consider the life I was living a year ago was happening so fast and I struggled with it. Having the family here all the time has made me grateful for the opportunity to be with them before they spread their wings and fly away from home for good. And fly they must. I could see how my extraverted children had a harder time with restrictions and closures in the early months of virus' spread. Seeing them flying away and coming back home makes me happy. They are doing what they need to do for themselves. This year has been very trying and finding the little joys in life have been important. I've found that laughter has been really helpful for all of us. We've sat with the grief and anger over disappointments this year has brought. But then we found reasons for joy and laughter. A week before Christmas while leaving church, I saw friends walking to their car. I hadn't seen them in a few weeks. I rolled down the window and hung out of it like I use to do in high school. I started hooting and hollering their name and wishing them a Merry Christmas. Well, that had the family cracking up so hard. They were seeing the before children side of me. LOL!
  • Am I living my life according to what matters to me and what I want to be remembered for? For the most part, I am. I'm trying to add more humor and lightness to my day.
  • If not, what is stopping me? I am not making time for prayer and spiritual reading. That is where my inner peace and strength comes to handle things. I’m also not making time for writing family stories. I'm seeing that I need to write the stories down before they are forgotten or lost. As I write, I have questions and it is nice to still have my parents around to ask questions. I also want to write my story down for my children.
  • What steps can I take to move forward to live that life? To make more time, I need to keep track of the time that I do have. I need to write down what I do each day from the time I get up to the time to go to sleep. I need to look at the amount of time spent on the computer and phone. I've done this before and it helps me see where I am losing the time I want. Where is that time being spent online? Is that productive time? How does that time benefit me? If it isn’t benefiting me, then that is where I can start making time for prayer, spiritual reading and writing family stories.
  • How does my word for the year play a role in my 2021 goals? Fulfill is my word for the year. I want to fulfill my dream of being healthier, read more and do more writing of family history. I've written out a plan for this goal and I'm taking small realistic steps at a time to make habits. It's not perfect but it is progress and for this month, I'm content. I've been walking 5 days a week, I read a book this month and I've written a few stories this month.
Monthly Reflection

What worked and didn't work for me this month? Why?
  • Worked:
    • Weekly reflections allowed me to process the week that was. It allowed me time to feel my feelings, catch my breath and think how to move forward.
    • Monthly menu planning allowed me one big planning session to crank out ideas.
    • Reviewing the week’s menu plan helped me to shop sales based on the month’s plan. I reviewed the plan for the upcoming week and and replenished accordingly.
    • Taking time to plan and review set me up for a better week.
  • Didn’t work:
    • Water, Weights and Abs - I need to pay attention through the day with my water intake. I need to make time in my schedule for the weights and abs.
    • I need to figure out how to get more consistent reading time.

What things or activities made me happy this month?
  • Winter Hikes/Daily morning walks set the tone for an energetic day
What energized me this month?
  • Being outside even in the cold made me feel refreshed.
  • Having an undecorating the tree party with Christmas music and the last of the Christmas cookies.
What drained me this month?
  • Watching the news regarding the U.S. insurrection.
  • Return to college campus plans were set but we were told to expect last minute changes.
What stress or concern worked itself out?
  • Return to college plans went as planned.
  • Issues with the vein doctor were solved when I found out at arrival the doctor retired as of December 31st. I was going to leave the practice because of the stress of seeing him was causing a physical problem. I have not had the problem ever since. :rolleyes:
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Having an undecorating the tree party with Christmas music and the last of the Christmas cookies.
Mary, I can just imagine this. We make such an occasion of setting up the tree but give no thought to packing it away. I love this idea, it would make the sadness of putting the tree away a little happier.
 

Holiday_Mom

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Mary, I can just imagine this. We make such an occasion of setting up the tree but give no thought to packing it away. I love this idea, it would make the sadness of putting the tree away a little happier.
Absolutely. I've realized that I need to celebrate the ending of the season too. We've had cleaning parties where we clean, play music and eat food. We've had moving parties where we get together with others to help move people and we end with music and food. Why I hadn't thought of doing this before is beyond me.

We are going to do this every year now. I'll set aside some cookies early on and freeze them. (No one hunts for cookies in the freezer.) Even if it is just dh and I doing the undecorating, it'll be better than just me.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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We are going to do this every year now.
That is where these monthly reflections will come in handy. It would be a great place to also add anything that needs to be changed. If there are things I really need to change or add to my planner or just want to remember I can change the font colour to red to highlight that idea.
 

Holiday_Mom

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That is where these monthly reflections will come in handy. It would be a great place to also add anything that needs to be changed. If there are things I really need to change or add to my planner or just want to remember I can change the font colour to red to highlight that idea.
Oh, I really like that idea. Those visual clues can be very helpful especially months later. These last couple of weeks have been calmer. It could be that my older dc are back in school or it could be that I am taking more time out for planning and pondering and then taking action. Right now, I'm leaning towards the planning and pondering part. I've done planning for years but it's been a while since I built in time to ponder, to ask myself questions and really journal my thoughts. I just feel grounded and at peace.
 

housewife2

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to say the least ive had several deaths in the last few months. but im thankful for my kids and grandkids. just have to stay positive . i need to make a list of things i want to get done and keep back on schedule.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Faye, so sorry that you have been through a rough time.
 
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Holiday_Mom

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to say the least ive had several deaths in the last few months. but im thankful for my kids and grandkids. just have to stay positive . i need to make a list of things i want to get done and keep back on schedule.
It is hard when you have to deal with multiples deaths in a short time. This year has been particularly hard. I will say a prayer for you.
 
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