I love this time of year for reflecting, evaluating and planning. I enjoy spending time looking back over the year and thinking about what I have achieved and what didn’t work out. I love the process of reviewing and tying up loose ends, putting the year to bed properly. This then leaves me free to make my plans for next year.

If you read my blog post from this time last year, you’ll know I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions in the traditional sense. I do like to have goals in mind that are quite specific but don’t find I keep resolutions.

Over the last few years I have taken to making one word resolutions to live my life by in the year ahead. My word for this year was “balance”. My life has been a crazy juggling act this year so I’m not entirely sure I managed that one successfully!

I like to look back at my year – month by month – race by race. What went right? What went wrong? This type of evaluation is a natural human process. I have a tendency not to give myself enough credit. Like many women, I am too scathing in my round up. I have a habit of focusing on the negatives – allowing things that didn’t go so well to be the things I dwell on.

I’m not sure why, but as women we really can be our own worst critics. We will often beat ourselves up for not quite hitting that time we wanted or meeting that distance goal.

“I didn’t run enough. There were those weeks I was out injured or ill. There was that race where I was a DNF. There was that weight I didn’t lose. There are the other runners I compare myself to unfavourably”.

This critical internal monologue is like the best friend from hell. We all do it. We let that voice chip, chip, chip away at our self- confidence and erode the value of our achievements.

It’s true, there have been some not so positive points this year and I am reflecting on them and learning from them but this year I will not focus on them or obsess about them. Run Mummy Run is all about kindness (read our mission statement here). This extends to being kind to ourselves.

Bearing this in mind I have written myself a list of 3 positive things I have achieved with my running this year…..

1. I completed my longest ever distance as part of a pair with a lovely friend at Equinox.
2. I started doing strength work and have got stronger, fitter and have avoided injury.
3. I ran at night, alone and self-navigated which was very much out of my comfort zone.

Now I have shared mine I want you all to think of yours and share them with us. They can be huge achievements like a new PB or little ones like your first run in the rain. Just make sure you celebrate them. Be kind to yourselves. Well done on another great year of running. We can’t wait to share 2017 with you!

If you enjoyed this post you might like http://www.runmummyrun.co.uk/articles-features/running-with-your-buggy-in-winter/  or http://www.runmummyrun.co.uk/articles-features/staying-motivated-winter-running/