Preparing for an Intentional Year

Three Simple Steps for Starting the New Year on Purpose

Most of us never stop. Work, school, church, friendships, family—life seems to be a rush from one responsibility or activity to the next. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There’s a better way to live.

For more than a dozen years, we have been carving out time for an annual retreat at the end of December or the beginning of January. Our retreat plan has ebbed and flowed, but we’ve come up with a set of practices in a particular sequence to guide us into a more intentional life. It’s been a fruitful, keystone habit that has shaped our lives individually and as a family.

Holly and I wrote about this in The Intentional Year and guide you through it step by step in the companion journal.

Even if you can’t get away for a retreat, you can do each of the steps— perhaps on a Saturday, or even on a series of weekends.

Here is the process for preparing for an intentional year in three simple steps:

1. Reflect on the past.
2. Discern the season.
3. Create rhythms of intentionality.

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Let’s break down each step with a framework to guide you.

STEP 1: REFLECT ON THE PAST

As the year comes to a close, here is a simple framework to help you reflect on the year. If we rush into the new year without taking stock of the previous one, we may miss the milestones and memories that are meant to mark us.