YearCompass 2023-2024
YearCompass 2023-2024
YearCompass 2023-2024
Welcome
What is this?
It’s a YearCompass—your very own YearCompass, to be exact.
It is a booklet that helps you reflect on the past year and plan the next one. With a set of
carefully selected questions and exercises, YearCompass helps you uncover your patterns
and design a great year for yourself.
The booklet has two distinct parts. The first half will help you review, learn from, and
celebrate the year you’re leaving behind. The second half, on the other hand, is all about
the future. You’ll be dreaming, planning, and preparing to get the most out of the new
year.
If you do this, please be mindful of your companions’ boundaries. Everyone should only
share things they are comfortable with.
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Get ready
Arrive.
Prepare your tools and the space around you.
Close your eyes and take five deep breaths.
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Who are the three people who influenced you the most?
I am trying to not answer this question in a negative way, because I definitely have a top three people who
fucked with my juju this year. I am actually not quite sure who the three most influential people to me
this year were.
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There were definitely some fun (drunken) nights of work at N'wood. Nico was there. Graeme was there.
Pete was there. People of my past, but I'm glad to have shared some nice memories with them, even if I
can't ever imagine doing all that again. The smell of essential oils and wood that had seen ten years worth
of life is a core memory of mine.
There was joy in going to New York in June. Reconnecting with the need to be an artist, watching my
friends perform, and seeing them live their life with art as their work, watching theatre that aligned with
what I want to be doing—absolutely enlightening. I realized art and music and theatre and comedy is my
calling, and no version of myself I would be comfortable with in hindsight would exist without it in my
life. It's a practice, and an ongoing one.
Table of 3; as fickle as this friendship "grouping", let's call it, is, dinner at Banjara, drinks at 222, watching
the Cats movie, being able to hang out and connect with like-minded people was lovely. Smells like curry
and Chardonnay, rainy day pad see ew and Boulevardiers, orange zested shock at Judi Dench's wedding
ring. I felt like myself. I didn't feel small or shriveled. I felt like I could express myself openly. I didn't feel
like I had to feign interest in what someone else was saying. I didn't have to go through the motions.
Doing my in-person audition for Stratford (pulling it off with such a tight deadline and literally learning
a new song from scratch) and having Ari throw my resume on the ground at the shock that I had learned
that song specifically for the audition was such an affirming moment. Preston told me to "bet on your
talent" and that was the moment I finally began to believe it. To have the sound waves of my voice
reverberate in that big beautiful room, to finally use my voice as intended, and to have it be in front of
the people I wanted to see it—the universe was looking out for me. I'm glad I sent that submission email
despite it not being in line with the "rules".
Even though it felt lonely at times, being in Edinburgh by myself was super energizing. Not sure if it was
the city or it was just the novelty of travel, but to be somewhere outside of routine—it did so much for
my brain. Being back in the U.K. in general—I didn't yearn to live there again the way I thought I would
—but I left knowing that a return was possible. The moments of greatest joy was quite honestly the
moments I was by myself, alone, where I felt like my brain was on my side.
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1. I realized that having a good day can be about good planning. Creating a schedule where I have the
time and space to get things done, to rest and recharge, but that works with the way my body and brain
works, is crucial; you can't just wing it.
2. I really do need time to rest and recharge, and NOT feed my brain toxins like TikTok/social
media/YouTube videos that I won't even remember.
3. Dopamine is a game you have to play. How do «you 9 »use it to your advantage.
4. As tempting as it is, you don't owe work anything.
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I have improved a bit in this regard, but I still wish I could wake up in the morning bright and early, and
have the ability to go to bed naturally. Addiction to my phone feels like it could be replaced with a few
tweaks here and there, but I am still figuring out what those small things are. Reading literature about
ADHD has proven to be incredibly useful and affirming when I don't feel like I can get on top of myself.
* If you don’t feel ready to forgive yet, note it down anyway. It can work wonders.
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I am letting go of my need to be liked by everybody. I have tried and I have failed. So what's the point?
I want to let go of my drinking habits. I am going to form a healthy relationship with substances. I will
only drink when I feel that I am in good company, not because my dodgeball team is.
I let go of my need to show up for people who I don't feel like showing up for.
I am letting go of feelings of "stuck"-ness. When you feel stuck, what are you going to do? Pick up a pen,
write 3 emotions you're currently feeling. Take a nap. Drink some coconut water. Go outside. Make a
plan. Go somewhere. Money can buy (temporary) happiness.
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This year, on a micro-level, I am going to set aside time every day (like I did over the summer) to write.
Write write write. You're a performer, but you're a writer, and you this is the year you make it your
practice, and therefore your purpose. Being heard isn't just about getting onstage and making people
laugh; that's self-serving. Being heard is articulating exactly what it is that you think that you don't think
anyone else is thinking—or articulating something on behalf of someone else—in a way that is going to
make people listen. This year, writing is going to FLOW.
This year, I am going to book a lead in a musical. People are going to be thinking about putting me in
their next project. Jonathan Krisel is going to call me and ask me to audition for his new Portlandia
reboot, one where there's non-white people in it. I am going to be onstage, and then on set, and then
back onstage again. By this time next year, I will be ready to make moves and go for the O-1.
This year, I am going to have a lot of sex and learn what I like and maybe discover some things about
what I do/don't like.
When something is challenging, I am going to take a deep breath, take a break, go outside, AVOID
GOING ON MY PHONE, and then get back to it.
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Secret wish
Unleash your mind. What is your secret wish for the next year?
Oof....
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Date:
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