The Unfiltered Year-End Reflection

“There is nothing magical about the flip of the calendar, but it represents a clean break, a new hope, and a blank canvas.”

― Jason Soroski

There’s little time left until the end of the year. I haven’t reviewed anything yet. I don’t feel like revisiting my accomplishments or my failures. Not today. I used to do it religiously, I felt I had to measure myself and boast about everything.

I’d rather just have a cozy coffee with my hubby and talk only together about our intentions and goals for next year. Like we did last January.

I’ve been sick for a month (lightly, but still bothering me), my nose is still running or blocked. Right now I don’t feel the need to analyze stuff. Family and friends are strong and holding, everything’s good with the kids, and more sleep and some outdoor walks are needed (I have access to both).

I’ve been quite realistic about myself and the world this year, so I’m skipping the review stage. Well, not skipping it per se. I’m waltzing around it and doing a ta-dah without finishing it. And I am ok with this.

Meanwhile, I see many year-end posts on social media that don’t really reflect reality.

I feel the need to remind everyone of something.

• What you see here is just a slice of a much more complex reality.
• What people post online is not their full reality.
• If you’re doing your year-end review, please don’t compare yourself to what you see online.
• Don’t analyze your reality based on the photos you see and the texts you read.
• Don’t analyze your relationships based on the photos you’ve seen on social media.
• Don’t analyze your own skills and achievements based on other people’s lists.

All these can quickly get frustrating. We are not all so competitive, even if we imagine ourselves we could be.

Life has everything and that’s how it should be, with good and bad, with accomplishments and mistakes, failures and whatnot.

Life seen online has many leopards behind the painted fence.

Things are good with you too, exactly as they are, it’s not worse or less than others.

Did the kids scream this year? It’s okay, you heard them, you were there.

Did you have days when you felt like you wanted to start the year over? It’s okay, another one is starting.

Did you have moments of difficulty in your relationship? All relationships have difficulties, you go through them to get to the best points.

You don’t feel like you’re where you wanted to be? You didn’t check off the ideal weight, perfect relationship, proposed savings, textbook parenting, New Year’s Eve plan is under the blanket?

Congratulations, you’ve almost completed a year of life that happened to be in 2024.

These are days for review and setting intentions.

Here’s a tip:

For 2025, set just one intention and tell yourself this:

I want to live with love and kindness towards myself without pretending that my life is a facebook photo session series. GTT

*Originally published by me in DEP.