As someone who loves fresh starts, especially the feel of a crisp new notebook and a blank calendar, New Year’s Day is the ultimate clean slate. But oh-my-goodness—expectations can also run unreasonably high.
To make the most of this moment, spending time on reflection and intention setting can be much more beneficial than generating a long list of lofty resolutions. Since 2012, my absolute favorite tool to guide this process is a free resource curated by over 500 volunteers from 61 countries: the YearCompass.
This lovely little booklet can be downloaded in a print-friendly format or as a fillable PDF. The pages provide helpful prompts to reflect on our successes and sorrows and everything else that has happened in the past year, as well as thoughtful questions to set out a hopeful path for the year ahead.
I’ve just sent an order to the printer—even as a mostly digital-first gal there are some things I love do with pen and paper!—and blocked out time on my calendar during the last two weeks of the year to cozy-up with my copy and would love to hear from you if decide to close-out 2022 and welcome in 2023 working through its pages, too.

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