For this last episode of the year I revisit the Long Play (LP) template, inspired by vinyl records, as a way to intentionally reflect on and celebrate this past year and to be more intentional about how we move into our new year. The Ps of the template are personal, people, play, and projects and we use the Ls to reflect across there: what did you land, love, labor on, and learn this past year review, and what do you want to look forward to, let go, let grow, and let be for the next year. You can download a template to create your own personalised reflections and plans, individually or within groups, to help you shape your good academic life.
Overview:
00:29 Setting up the LP
03:34 LP Replay
05:05 Introducing the LP Table Template
08:59 Taking Time to Savour and Celebrate
12:06 Looking forward to the 2026 LP
16:12 Wrapping Up and Summary
19:09 Final Pointers
19:49 Outro
You can download your LP template here. Feel free to tailor it to what works best for you! And I'd love to hear back how you used it and evolved it.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to Changing Academic Life.
I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this isa podcast series where academics and
others share their stories, provideideas, and provoke discussions about what
we can do individually and collectivelyto change academic life for the better.
(00:29):
Welcome to this very last episode forthe year on changing academic life.
Really happy to have you here.
We started off this season sevenat the beginning of September
where we talked about the value offresh starts and being intentional.
(00:52):
And if we can pick up on that themenow in this last episode for the
year, because we are coming to one ofthose really interesting transition
points, the end of a calendar yearand the beginning of a new year.
For many people it's a timeof celebration, of family, of
(01:12):
connection, of rest, hopefullytaking some time away from work.
And so I offered this episode insupport of that, reflecting on the
past year and being intentionalabout the fresh start we want to make
(01:33):
coming into our next year, into 2026.
And to do this, I'm going to do anedited version of the LP episode that
I did on the 1st of January, 2025.
And you may or may not remember, LPis for long play record and I use LP
(01:57):
to set up some different ways of bothlooking back and looking forward.
And I'm sharing this again becausemany people have come back to me and
said how useful that template, that LPtemplate, was in helping reflections.
(02:19):
A lot of people did it just as anindividual reflection, and I also
know of people who've taken this onand used it as a tool for a group
reflection on how the research groupor the project team has been going this
last year and how they want to show upmore intentionally for the next year.
When I did this episode on January1st this year, I also included a
(02:43):
lot of personal reflections in howI instantiated the LP for myself.
I won't do that this time because wedid some good season reflections at
the end of July, finishing off thatprevious season, and the last episode
was also very personal, so this is justpurely a walkthrough, a template that
(03:04):
hopefully will help you with reflectingback and celebrating, taking some time
to celebrate and sav all that you'vedone, and to be intentional about how
you set yourself up for your next year.
So here is your LP template forrecording your record for 2025
(03:28):
and looking forward to 2026.
A pop quiz question for you.
Do you remember the LP?
Or do you even know what an LP is forthose of you who maybe aren't old enough?
Well, an LP is a long play vinyl record.
(03:51):
And it used to be our sourceof music when I was a teenager.
This was clearly a long time beforeonline music streaming services.
Though, I believe LPs aremaking a bit of a comeback.
In this episode, I want to play withLP as a template for reflecting on and
(04:13):
celebrating what will be our long playmix or compilation of our last year . And
also as we look forward to what mightbe our next long play album for 2026
. I'll explain how I'm playingwith L and P as I go along.
(04:35):
And you'll also be able tofind a template that you can
download and use for yourself.
And you can find this on theepisode, webpage that you can access
via www.changingacademiclife.com.
I'm going to first walk through thetemplate and explain the L's and the P's.
(04:57):
And then I'm going to go on anduse that as a template for myself
to reflect on my past year.
And to look forward to next year.
I've set it up for myself as a table.
And the labels on thecolumns reflect the PS.
And the Ps are personal,people, play and projects.
(05:20):
And for myself, I've added inpodcasts, and the L's reflect the rows.
And I've got different Ls forreflecting upon the past year.
And for thinking about the next year.
So the L's for reflecting uponthis last year on those P areas
(05:41):
are land, love, labor and learn.
And for thinking about what we want forthe next year . The Ls are look forward
to, let go, let grow, and let be.
(06:02):
Now I've been playingwith these just for fun.
So you could create columnlabels to reflect whatever
areas are important for you.
And if those Ls provide questionsthat don't connect for you create
your own questions or your own labels.
So let's start reflectingon this past year.
(06:23):
And to give you a little bit moreof an explanation of the P's and
the L's are the L's and the P's.
For the Ps.
Personal is about where you'recurrently at in your life and career
and, and how you look after yourself.
Thinking about what makes you, you.
People is pretty obvious.
(06:44):
And that's both people whosupport you, who make life fun and
worthwhile, and people that you'vebeen able to support and serve.
Both directly and indirectly.
And we're thinking about friends,family, colleagues, peers, here.
Play is about doing things thataren't work, that are fun, that are
hobbies or passion projects, or justhanging out or things that just don't
(07:08):
have any direct, functional purpose.
And projects is my catch-allfor all things work.
What you're paid to do or projects thatyou've chosen to take on for yourself
that contribute in some work-like way.
And the L's just by expanding a bit more.
(07:28):
Land is about what haveyou landed this year?
And we could think about thatin terms of what have you done?
What went well?
What are you proud of?
Love is standing back and reflectingon what you've landed and looking
at (07:42):
what are the high points?
When were you at your real best?
What did you particularly love doing?
When did you feel particularlyenergized in the flow and what patterns
do you see across those moments?
And similarly labor is reflecting onwhen did feel a little bit like hard
work or, you know, going through treacle.
(08:04):
What didn't you enjoy doing so much?
And what patterns do you see here?
And learn is pretty self-explanatory.
It's what did you learn?
And that could be, what did youlearn from what didn't work so well?
Or what did you learn fromyour mistakes or failures?
And what are those lessons for nexttime or what would you do differently?
(08:27):
And in particular, what didyou learn about yourself?
I found it really usefulbefore embarking on this.
Just to spend some time.
Going back and looking at my photosand looking across my calendar entries.
And skimming across the journal thatI've been keeping, surprisingly.
(08:48):
Because I haven't usually been ajournal keeper, but I found it really
useful just to have a commitment tomyself that I'll at least write a
phrase or a sentence every day.
Once you've done this what I want to donow is encourage us all just to stop.
And take a moment to stand back andreflect on how much you've done.
(09:14):
And how much you've achieved.
How much you've learned.
And to celebrate that.
Because it's pretty impressive.
It's pretty impressive.
And we're so quick to focuson what we haven't done.
Or what's still to door what we got wrong.
(09:36):
That we forget to take thatprecious moment to actually stop
and celebrate what we have done.
And it can also be useful totake a moment to think about.
What are we particularly grateful for?
And who might we beparticularly grateful for?
Geri (10:02):
I want to add in something else here.
When we think about whowe might be grateful for.
We so often underestimate thepower and value of expressing
our gratitude to people.
So I'd love to invite you as part of yourown reflections and celebrations here.
(10:25):
Is to take a couple of minutes to writea very personal note or email to that
person, being genuine, generous, andspecific, about what it is that they've
done that means so much for you or howmuch you've really valued their support.
(10:46):
And this could be to your line manager,to your boss, to your colleague,
to your partner, to your friends.
We cannot say thank you enough topeople, and we can think people
know that we appreciate them, butif we don't tell them they don't.
So this can be a gift that you can giveto someone at this time of gift giving
(11:11):
that can actually be more valuablethan anything you bought with money.
Geri Fitz (11:20):
It could also be useful to step back and think about.
What if you were your own best friend?
And you were looking at thereview that you've just captured.
What would that friend say to you?
And they're likely tobe pretty blown away.
Aren't they.
So I think we should just takea moment to pat ourselves on the
(11:43):
back and say, well done, you.
And also recognize the fact that we'rehuman and that we're on a learning
journey for the whole of our life.
And that we're never perfect.
So we can celebrate still what we havedone and what we have learned and the
impact that we have been able to have.
(12:07):
So now we come to lookingforward to our new year.
. I've continued playing with the LP.
So you might like todraw up another table.
And you can put the usual Ps on thecolumns, whatever your column labels are.
For me, they're personal peopleplay and projects and also podcast.
(12:31):
And the ELLs we're going to putfor our rows are going to cover.
Looking forward.
What are you looking forward to?
What are you going to let go of?
What are you going tolet grow and develop?
And what are you going to let be?
(12:56):
So again, I'm not going to gothrough all these in detail.
But I can just talk through thoseLs a little bit more to help
give some questions that mightframe your own reflections.
And for each of those Ls, you can considerthem again across each of your P areas
or whatever your columns are labeled.
(13:20):
The first L is looking forward.
So, what do you alreadyknow is on the horizon?
And what would you like to make happen andwhat are the opportunities and potentials?
The second L is let go.
(13:40):
And I think letting go is areally important one to consider.
And that's about what do you wantto leave behind or stop doing.
That isn't serving you well,
what do you want to do less of.
So that you can do more of something else.
(14:03):
What isn't the best use of your time andattention and energy for the difference
you can make when you are at your best.
For me, some of that is, I needto let go of feeling inadequate.
Measuring myself against others andrecognizing that they're in different
(14:25):
situations and stop doing that.
Also need to let go oftrying to do it all.
There are so many things on my listthat I would love to do or try out.
And I can't do it all.
Moving on the third, L is let grow.
(14:46):
What do you want to let grow?
What do you want to take forward?
What do you want to develop more?
What do you want to do more of.
How do you want to show up for yourself?
And what will help youdo that in the best way?
(15:06):
And our final L is let be.
What are the things that youjust need to be comfortable with?
And that can be about not knowingor not having all the answers.
And that also may be not ever havingall the answers or it could even
just be not just yet having theanswers or not just yet knowing.
(15:32):
So can you just let it be okay thatthings are open and uncertain for while.
What do you need to give spaceand time for them to work out.
And what do you need just toaccept that there are some things
that you can't change and haveabsolutely no control over.
(15:55):
So there's lots that you could thinkabout for each of your P areas.
And along those Ls, like what.
What are you looking forward to?
What are you letting go of?
What are you going tolet grow and develop?
What are you going to let be?
So wrapping up now.
(16:19):
What I've tried to share here is a littlebit of a template for reflecting on
your long play record that was this pastyear . And give some questions to think
about moving forward into this new year.
To summarize, we talked aboutthe P's in terms of personal
(16:41):
people play and projects.
And for reflecting on the past year.
I offered the L's of land,love, labor, and learn.
And looking forward to the nextyear across those same areas, it's,
as I said, what to look forwardto let, go of let grow, let be.
(17:09):
You could also play with the wholeLP record metaphor, if you wanted
to and think about if you're doing amixed music pop compilation for your
last year or for this coming year.
What would that be comprised of?
So, as I said at the beginning, There'sa template that you can download by
(17:33):
going to www.changingacademiclife.com.
And whether you use this template ornot, I just offer it in case it's useful.
I think it is really good just to takesome time at these transition points,
artificial as they are in lots of ways,just to put our head above all the details
(17:56):
and the messiness of work and life, andjust think about where have we come.
And to take the time,as I said to celebrate.
And then to think about where arewe going and how can we be a little
bit more intentional about that?
So that we can better connectto who we are at our best and
to what's important to us.
(18:17):
Because that's when we're goingto make our biggest and best
contributions by doing that.
And this may be a reflection that youdo just on your own, or it could be
something that you do with colleagues.
Or if you're in some sort of supervisoryor leadership relationship, it
could also frame a discussion thatyou have setting up the new year.
(18:45):
So I'm curious to hear from youif this works for you at all, and
thank you at this end for being withme on the journey this past year.
And I'm really looking forward towhat the next year brings us all.
As we work together to changeacademic life for the better,
both our own academic life.
And the collective academic lifethat we all co-create together.
(19:11):
And if you will allow me to endwith a little bit of self promotion.
If you're interested in exploringmore about any of the offerings that I
have through my consulting, training,speaking, coaching work, you can
go to www.geraldinefitzpatrick.com,
(19:32):
Geraldine Fitzpatrick, all one word.
And I would also ask a final favor of you.
That you share this podcastwith at least one other person.
Geri (19:52):
And that's the end of our LP replay.
I hope you enjoy reflecting back,celebrating, and embarking on
your new year with intention.
You can find an updated templateto download on the webpage for this
episode on www.changingacademiclife.com.
(20:17):
And I am going to take a break nowfor a few weeks, walking the talk,
and I look forward to being backwith you in the middle of January
with some great, new conversations.
See you then.
Geri Fitz (20:33):
You can find the summary notes, a transcript and related links for this
podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.
You can also subscribe to ChangingAcademic Life on iTunes, Spotify
and I'm really hoping that we canwiden the conversation about how
we can do academia differently.
(20:54):
And you can contribute to this by ratingthe podcast and also giving feedback.
And if something connected withyou, please consider sharing this
podcast with your colleagues.
Together we can make change happen.
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