The PROCESS: How I Shape the Year
I regularly journal. Volumes now sit on my shelf filled with notes, thoughts, poems and keepsakes. Wondering what do I do with them now?
A few years ago I was introduced to a practice that I’ve made my own that has made recent journals far more valuable to me. This practice is what I call “The PROCESS” and feels one of the most important things I do each year. I want to explain this practice that has shaped my year and serves as a compass that guides me through the year’s crossroads. My hope is that you might find some ideas that will bring meaning and direction to your year.
Step Two – The Read-through
(I’ll address step 1 later.) Come New Year’s Day I break from journal writing to simply read the previous year’s journal entries. As I read I check, double check or circle comments that feel important – kind of like when reading a college or grad-school text. This reading process is not rushed but I try to finish within a week. When completed I have read my entire journal and identified key moments in the year. This year I identified 107 significant moments. That in itself is special considering the wider context of this last year. Themes and movements began to emerge in this part of the process and it could be enough to simply stop here.
Tip: It is easy for some personalities to mark too many lovely or moving moments. (I know - I know, if you wrote it it must be important!) It may be helpful to limit oneself to the number of important marks per month.
Step Three – The Summary
This step transforms your journal and this practice into a manageable and formative experience, but is the most arduous step so be warned! You will want to give up part way through or may wonder if it is really worth the effort and time. Trust me in its power.
In my current journal I wrote “Observations from 2020 journal” in the header of each page then looked back to summarize and analyze what I checked in my read-through. If it was a poem I write the poem title and what my mood or message or moment was. I transcribed meaningful quotes, or put a few words about what was happening in my marriage, work, observations about my children, and other life moments. This took eleven pages of my journal and a few days. Here’s why this part of the process is the hardest for me: I had already written about these events in great detail and re-writing them in a succinct way seemed to sacrifice critical details. Furthermore, revisiting them took me back to some painful and deep moments. Some days felt bleaker because of this work.
When finished I had summarized and condensed the important moments of my entire year to several pages.
Step Four – The Refining
This is where I find the most enjoyment and start to answer the questions: “Where are the movements from this last year? In what did I find progress and hope? Where has God been present and stirring? If I was to pick direction I’m already leaning into, what would it be?”
In this refining step I read the summaries and picked out themes for 2021. I tried to connect dots and identify recurring places of significance. I wrote them down and, this year, I ended up with 45. Many were duplicates or closely related themes so I would connect them with arrows across the page if I found one already stated. Words were crammed into margins as themes developed in subsequent readings of the summary. As I wrote I considered succinct themes in light of the coming year. They were continuations of things I had already been actively pursuing and doing. For example, in my refining of my 2020 summary I wrote “When activated, find the ground literally” and later “Access myself through my body, find the ground.” This was a recurring experience from last year that I connected together.
Tip: Time and a break between readings will be a helpful friend. Re-visit this on a few different days. Fresh eyes and mood will allow you see things that you missed earlier.
Step Five – The Shaping
This is a step of faith. Not blind faith, but a leap prompted by a solid hunch. I would compare this step of the process to the point in sermon preparation when one names the big idea and central truth of a scriptural passage. Study and analysis are complete and now is the definitive moment that will set all direction moving forward. The fear I face is putting words into the mouth of God, or distorting or missing the message and aligning my compass to the wrong bearing.
The shaping is naming the action points of this upcoming year. I begin each with a verb and write these very personally, specifically and concisely. I’m the only one these are for and their lack of detail does not diminish their power inviting me to further action. From the example in the previous step I shaped the following statement, “Find the ground when needed.” (Just typing these words is moving!) In the final form I tend to have 7-10 key movements. This year I have 8.
Step One – The Journaling
I will finish with what began this whole thing, the record-keeping and writing of my journey. We all have ways of capturing our experience of life. My guess if you have read this far is that you are probably a writer or an aspiring journal-keeper. If not, perhaps The PROCESS will awaken the desire in you to explore journaling further.
After going through The PROCESS for a few years and journaling a lifetime, I would offer a few helpful guidelines in this Step One: Write when you feel compelled to write - even the lack of writing communicates. Write whatever you feel you want to write - your poems, dreams, memories, jokes, tears, letters no one else will ever read, are a meaningful. Write less so that you can be more precise - you are going to be reading it next year and trust me, you’ll thank me!
Tip: There are ways this practice can be adapted for those of you who are non-journal types. It will be important to limit your focus to the past year. Have a notepad and pen available.
Open up the calendar of events, meetings, and itemized mileage for prompts.
Look through the photos that you took on your phone or downloaded on your computer. Look through your Facebook timeline and social media feeds.
Dig through the keepsake drawer or key bin, scan the fridge and study the items set in baskets and places that have not been unimportant enough to throw in the trash yet.
Look through your checkbook, bank or credit card statements, Venmo transactions or other financial records. (This is not intended to shame you or reconcile balances, this is to see movements and moments of importance!)
Review your Amazon orders and streaming video history to see what stories those items stir.
Look through your closet and drawers and remember the moments who wore certain outfits.
Re-walk the paths and sidewalks of this past year.
Final Thoughts
Personal and spiritual practices are like jeans – you try on a lot to find the perfect fit and one day they will eventually fall out of fashion. I offer The PROCESS as an invitation to move forward this year focused on what is already happening in your life. You’ll find so much more success in this than picking goals and setting wishful, distant resolutions that you most likely will not attain.