Hi writers! It is the very last day of 2024, at least when this episode drops!
Because I’m on break from work, like you are hopefully, I thought I would do an encore of an earlier episode that helps you reflect on the craziness of the year.
And for me, this was a really big year for my coaching business.
As you know, I am not all about external markers of productivity.
At the same time, I have worked my ass off this year and thought it would be interesting to quantify what I’ve done.
So here goes!
I released 25 podcast episodes, totaling nearly 10,000 downloads this year by listeners across 70 different countries.
The two cities with the highest number of downloads were Los Angeles, California (Hi Mom! Honestly, I don’t think it’s her but she does live there).
And, interestingly, Melbourne, Australia where some of my former coaching clients live so I hope my episodes have been useful this year.
Top 5 most-listened to episodes were the following:
- Ep. 50: Leaving Academia, Part 2: Question Your Beliefs
- Ep. 51: Leaving Academia, Part 3: What Keeps People Stuck
- Ep. 56: Essential Tips for Making Academia Easier (with Dr. Loleen Berdhahl)
- Ep. 52: The Trick to Finding the Right Publisher (with Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer)
- Ep. 55: Three Steps to Heal from Burnout
It’s clear from these numbers that people are exhausted and/or very concerned about the future of their academic positions.
To give even more evidence of this, I should mention that my #1 most-downloaded episode of all time is Episode 45: Leaving Academia, Part 1: Assess Your Situation.
So that’s what’s been going on with my podcast, and I’m excited to be bringing even more amazing guests on in 2025 as well as appearing on other peoples’ podcasts, which I had put on hiatus this year.
Unlike other years, I only gave one workshop, which was for Rice University in the fall. I am still offering them, so if you’re interested, check out the Workshops page on my website and set up a time to chat with me. I can also design one specifically for the needs of your group.
Instead, I was really focused on private coaching.
I keep very detailed records of my coaching sessions and I did, get this, 223 individual coaching sessions with clients! Seriously, I couldn’t believe it myself!
I worked with a total of 44 different clients from the following fields:
- Sociology
- Social Work
- Communications and Media Studies
- Latino Studies
- Higher Education Administration
- Security Studies
- English
- Mathematics
- African American Studies
- Comic Studies
- German
- Art History
- Public Health
- Ethnomusicology
- Conflict Studies
- American Studies
- Digital Humanities
- Psychology
- Philosophy
And I’ve probably left some out!
I am so grateful for all of my clients for trusting me in this process and for everything I’ve been able to learn about the world through their research.
I also wanted to mention that I took off a grand total of 7 weeks for vacation, during which time I did NO work!
I also did not work on weekends, except occasionally to accommodate major time differences for certain clients. And I never worked at night, which was not possible whatsoever when I was an academic.
Okay, so that was my work year in a nutshell. What about you?
Now is the perfect time for you to reflect on this past year.
I’m going to take you through a series of questions to help you think about what’s been working well, what hasn’t, and what you want to change moving forward.
Doing this now can help set you up for an easier, more meaningful, and hopefully more fun new year!
10 Questions to Help You Reflect on the Past Year
So let’s dive into reflecting about the past year.
In the questions to follow, I’m going to ask you to acknowledge your successes, reckon with your lowest points and greatest stressors, and come up with ideas about how you want to live and work moving forward.
This isn’t an evaluation of your productivity, mind you!
It’s a true reflection that will be most helpful to do when you’re feeling calm and have enough mental bandwidth to look back on the year with some objective distance.
So pull out a notebook and a pen, and go sit down in a comfortable and quiet place, maybe outside in nature.
Start by closing your eyes and taking five deep breaths. Breathe in slowly through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth.
Now do it again. And again.
And when you’re feeling more relaxed, listen to the following questions.
After each one, I encourage you to stop this recording and pause to reflect for at least a couple of minutes.
If you find that you’re still reacting quite emotionally to your experiences—like you feel angry, really disappointed, ashamed, sad, etc., you’re probably not yet ready to do this reflection.
No problem! Put this away for a few days or even weeks until you feel calmer, steadier, and more rested.
But if you ARE ready to move forward, let’s get started.
I’ve grouped the questions into three main thematic areas: what’s gone well, what’s been challenging, and what lessons you want to take with you into the future.
What’s Gone Well
1) So the first question is, what are three things you accomplished this year that you are most proud of, and why?
Now, those of you who have very strong inner critics might be tempted to not give yourself ANY credit for things you’ve done this year.
I have many clients who say things like, “Well, I was able to publish an article but I didn’t make progress on my book so I didn’t really achieve my goals.”
It takes what could be a proud moment of acknowledgement and hijacks it so you feel bad or unworthy.
Why do this to yourself?
This is a moment to politely ask your inner critic to step to the side for a moment so you can actually see everything you HAVE done.
I just want to make two points here.
The first is that this is not just about things you DID do.
You could also give yourself credit for things you chose NOT to do because they’re not in line with your values.
For example, maybe you declined a number of professional requests because you wanted to focus on work that’s more meaningful.
You might have mustered up the courage to talk to your chair about doing less service.
You may even have pulled out of good scholarly opportunities to create space to write your book.
The second thing is that these accomplishments do NOT have to be professional.
Maybe you learned how to ski for the first time in your life.
Maybe you took a long-delayed and well-deserved vacation with your family.
Maybe you finally caved in and hired someone to clean your home and you’re loving it! Etc., etc.
But it’s important to think about WHY these things stand out to you amidst all the other craziness of the year.
When you can isolate the why, then you have a much stronger sense of your own values and priorities.
2) This leads into my second reflection question: What is something you did that went BETTER than you thought it would? What does this say about how you’ve grown as a person this year?
Again, this could be either professional or personal (or both)!
Think about something you really stressed out about or felt dread about doing.
Maybe you started a new job or taught a new class or moved to a new city.
Maybe you were rejected by someone or from something that you really wanted, but realize now that it was for the very best.
Could be anything.
3) The third question is, what aspect of your work has brought you the most joy and/or inspiration? How will you prioritize this part of your work moving forward?
So this is specifically asking you to think about your job.
Rather than thinking about what you enjoy the most in a general way, I encourage you to get down to the nitty gritty details of what has inspired you this past year.
Maybe you’ve enjoyed talking with your colleagues or your favorite students about your research ideas.
Maybe you are running an institute and making big changes on your campus that will impact things for years to come.
Maybe you enjoy doing public talks on your work that engage a general audience.
The point here is to think more about the specific things you can accomplish with relatively little effort because you’re naturally skilled at it and have a strong interest in it.
This Year’s Challenges
So now we have reflected and celebrated what has gone well.
It’s time to consider what didn’t go as well as we would have liked so we can think about how to make intentional changes.
1) The first question I have is an obvious one—what were your biggest professional challenges this year? How did you face these challenges?
And again, it’s important to write down really specific scenarios.
So rather than something really broad like, “teaching sucked for me this year,” think about the particular aspects of it that sucked.
Were your students completely unengaged? Could you not get them to talk to each other?
Did you totally revamp your assignments to factor in AI and they didn’t work?
Or, when it comes to writing, maybe you weren’t able to consistently commit time to your book.
Or you set non-feasible goals and deadlines you weren’t able to meet.
And then think about what these trying situations have taught you about yourself.
2) This leads to my second question on this theme: What was the biggest mistake you made this year? How can you avoid making the same mistake in the future, and why is this important to you?
This might or might not overlap with the answers from the last question.
But it’s asking you to reflect on how you bounced back after disappointment that may have come out of your own actions or inaction, as the case may be.
And if you haven’t bounced back yet, what will you do to help yourself recuperate?
It could be to reach out to friends and colleagues for their support.
You could go on a meditation retreat or trip to a national park and get back in touch with nature.
It could be just recognizing that you’re a precious human being who is just as flawed as every other human being and giving yourself some grace.
But trust me here that ruminating, beating yourself up, and continuing the cycle of feeling bad is just going to deplete you of energy.
There’s a popular adage that says, “what you resist persists.”
So if you keep resisting what happened, it will continue to live on in your mind and in your body until you make the choice to accept it full stop.
I’m a huge fan of the mantra, “Mistakes are an opportunity to grow. I did the best I could.”
Perhaps you can use this to quiet down your inner critic and extend yourself some compassion.
And then think about what you can do differently to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Moving into the Future
So all of this is a good segue way to start reflecting on how to take all of these lessons and apply them in the future.
1) My first question is, looking back at your year as a whole, what was the most valuable thing you learned about yourself?
It may very well be about being pushed past your limits and knowing you need to instill stronger boundaries with your work and/or certain people in your life.
Is there a difficult conversation you’ve been putting off having?
Maybe it’s time to rip the band-aid off and just do it if it will help you feel better in the long run.
Also, what core value do you most want to feel and express in 2025?
Some common core values for my clients are things like freedom, fun, learning, growth, community, relationships, connection, and peace.
Once you’ve identified this value, write down a personalized definition of it.
Then think of three specific ways you can amplify it for yourself in the new year.
Think about how living into this value will keep you from repeating the same problems you experienced this past year.
For me, this fall has been a time of recalibration and resetting of intentions.
The US presidential election threw me into a fear spiral, as I’m sure it did for many of you as well.
It’s made me really reflect on how I want to show up moving forward.
I looked at my list of core values, and the one that resonated with me the most was impact.
So I’ve decided to make that my theme of 2025.
My personal definition of impact is “having tangible positive benefits on the lives of others I care about.”
That can happen in so many different ways, from the feedback I provide on my clients’ writing to this podcast.
But it’s also about investing in the local community.
I’m rededicating myself to volunteering, which I’ve always loved to do but fell out of my life during the pandemic.
It’s even more important to me to do to show my son the value of giving back and public service.
So what about you? What aspect of yourself do you want to reconnect with and enhance in 2025?
2) And my final question is, knowing what you know now, what is the best advice you can give yourself moving forward? Imagine that it’s three months from now and you are stressed out beyond belief.
Jot down 3 or 4 reminders to yourself that you can read during these times.
Since I launched my Career Reset Program for overwhelmed academics, I’ve been doing a lot more career coaching with folks who are seeking more clarity or to change direction.
At the end of our sessions, we always do a recap of what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown over the course of our time together.
Here’s some great examples of the sage advice my clients have given themselves:
- I’m my biggest supporter. I will show up for myself when things get hard by using the tools I’ve learned.
- Hard moments are not wasted time. They are necessary. No regrets.
- When stressed out, pause and ask myself, “What’s important to me in this moment?” Then look at what’s happening and see whether it corresponds to what’s important to me. If it doesn’t, then what can I let go of?
- Remember how much you value having down-time before you say yes to something. Ask yourself: what are you saying no to in your own life if you say yes to this?
- Remember that I don’t have to do anything that I don’t really want to do.
- Remember that at the end of the day, this is just a job.
- I need to trust my gut and my instincts, and if I do that, I can maintain my integrity.
- When I’m feeling fear, I will ask myself what I would do if I knew I would be successful. I don’t need to let fear control me.
- When I’m stuck, that is the time to share my work with others. I will lean into those relationships of support.
- Make sure I have time for exercise. Cook more and take good care of my health.
- Figure out what my heart wants to do before I respond to other people’s expectations and desires for me. Why do I want to do it?
- Remember that everything will be okay and you don’t have to give 100% to everything.
My clients are truly amazing!
Summing It All Up
So let’s wrap things up.
I’ve given you some prompts for self-reflection so you can bring this last chapter of life to a close and open up the next with more clarity.
I hope you take some needed time off from work without guilt or shame or the sense that you’re falling behind.
You aren’t!
We are not machines. We are not meant to work all the time or have work on our minds all the time.
And we need our collective energy and mental capacity more than ever in 2025.
With the incoming presidential administration, things are about to get crazy and chaotic again.
There’s a quote from Timothy Snyder’s incredible book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century that has been making the rounds, and I’d like to give it here.
Lesson #1: “Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”
So, continue to hold people accountable for their actions.
Maintain your integrity.
Speak truth to power even when it means taking a risk.
Enjoy your holidays, and I’ll talk to you again in the new year!