Year Out Year In

Condensing my past five years down to their essence allows me to look at them from a bird’s eye perspective and see the story that’s unfolding. Every year I spend some time with a method I call Year Out Year In and because I enjoy it so much and it has given me great insight, I am sharing it this year.

Five years ago, at the turn of the year, I had an idea of how I wanted to capture the year that had past on one sheet of paper: I drew a circle onto the paper, marked the 12 months like the hours on a clock, grabbed my diary of the year that had passed and wrote down all the things that had happened in that year on the outside of the circle. While writing and moving around the ring of months, I started jotting down on the inside of the ring the feelings and themes that had been underlying these events. In no time the page was filled and an essence for the year emerged in me. I wrote it down in the centre of the ring.

A few years later while doing this process with a friend, we realised that this would also work the other way around, as a method for setting the tone for the coming year. From then on, on a second sheet of paper, I used this method from the inside out to find my motto for the coming year: I again draw the ring of months. Starting in the centre this time, I write down the essence of the year that has passed and write around it some themes and feelings that I am wishing for in the coming year. Again, out of nowhere, a motto for the coming year appears which I write in the centre. On the outside of the ring, I then plan activities and goals that result from the motto.

I started calling this process Year Out Year In and have made it my turn-of-the-year ritual.

The essences of my past five years have been:

2011 — Dragons, Love and Loss
2012 — Re-learning to stand and walk
2013 — Growing and giving birth
2014 — Walking and Caring
2015 — Preparing the soil

Looking at these essences gives me a clear view onto the past five years. I see how they connect and what story they are telling. It is a similar feeling to the one I have when I look at the annual rings of a tree. The Year Out Year In ritual has condensed the details of the hundreds of events of the past five years into five rings I can look at from a bird’s eye perspective. I enjoy this feeling.

My motto for 2016 is One seed at a time and I am curious to see how it will relate to the essence I will extract at the end of 2016.

If you like the idea of Year Out Year In, make some time in the coming days of January, grab two pieces of paper and start!

I have put together more detailed instructions and print templates as a little digital product on my website… but you should be able to go through the process also only with the description above :)

If you like, let me know how Year Out Year In works for you, I’d love to hear about your experience, thoughts and suggestions! I am also happy to answer any question you have about it.

And if you are up for sharing it, I’d love to hear your essence of your year 2015 and your motto for 2016!