As the year draws to a close, I’m looking forward to some rest and rejuvenation. Whatever your plans are, I hope you have gentle holidays and space for reflection.

In the last issue, I talked about reflecting on your accomplishments over the past year and setting meaningful goals.

Today, I have another totally free tool to share with you: the Year Compass. You can download a fillable pdf to complete digitally or a version that’s formatted to print.

This workbook includes questions to guide you in reflecting on the past year and planning for the year ahead.

For those who find peer pressure to be a useful motivator (yes, that includes me!), I’m planning to host a co-working session to work through the Year Compass workbook. Join me on January 9 at 4-6pm London / 11am-1pm Eastern US / 8-10am Pacific time.

This will be a pretty informal space to work quietly with cameras off for part of the time and come together for breaks to share how it’s going. I’ll be going with the flow based on who attends, so we may chat in one big group or split up into breakout rooms.

Join by RSVPing to this calendar event. I'll add the zoom link to the calendar event in January.

As you look forward to 2025 and set meaningful goals, be sure to consider what support you need to accomplish those goals. Here are a few tools to keep in mind:

If your plans for the break include family gatherings that may not be entirely gentle:

Remember that the coaching skills that we’ve been discussing for use at work can also be used to navigate challenging family dynamics.

If you’re ready to make the mental shift from “doing more with less” to embracing quality over quantity:

Registration is still open for Slow Librarianship for Sustainable Success.

We’ll meet every other Wednesday from January 22 to April 30, 2025 at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern / 7pm London. If you want to join but that time just won’t work for you, please reach out to me - I’m playing around with the idea of offering an alternate time slot!

If you’re ready to take on a new challenging goal in the new year, or are just ready to set some meaningful goals:

Get the support you need to achieve those goals with fewer missteps in Your Next Step.

This package of four coaching sessions will help you

• develop a clear goal,
• identify potential road blocks,
• build strategies to navigate a smooth path forward, and
• make real progress toward your goal.

If you’ve been wanting to learn more about coaching your team, but haven’t had the resources to invest in Leading With Purpose:

I’ll be teaching a 4 week fully asynchronous course on Coaching as a Leadership Skill at Library Juice Academy in January. Registration is still open as of the last time I looked!

There are big differences between the two options. The LJA course is a 4 week, fully asynchronous course with up to 30 participants. Leading With Purpose is a 5 month program that meets live on zoom in groups capped at 7 participants. The prices reflect those differences. But, this can be a low stakes way to try a course with me before deciding whether to commit to the next cohort of Leading with Purpose. I offer a $200 discount on the Leading With Purpose registration fee for those who enroll after taking the LJA course.

This last one is a little bit off topic for my regular focus here...

If your reflections lead you to re-evaluate whether you really want to stay in library work:

Registration is always open for my self-paced program, Leaving Libraryland. The exercises guide you through

• reflecting on what matters most to you in a career,
• exploring the range of options that are out there, and
• learning to translate your transferable skills into new lingo.

Some participants find a new career they love, while others reconnect with the reasons they love working in libraries.

And, this is a wrap for the Coaching Librarian for 2024!

I hope you have gentle holidays and get all the rest you need, and I’ll be back in your inbox in January!