Three questions to help you plan & flourish in 2021
2020… What a year it has been. Through the ups and downs, we have been resilient and found a way to keep moving forward. Our mental health, physical health, and human connections have been instrumental in navigating some of the challenges we faced. But here we are.
Since the end of 2019, I close out the year with a reflective exercise which I want to share with you. I call it an ‘Annual Review’ and you can have a look at mine for 2020 here. This is where I capture how the year has gone and what I plan to focus on in the following year. In this article, I will share my thoughts on the concept of the review itself and also the value to me of doing it.
The Annual Review requires a reflection of three questions:
- What has gone well?
- What didn’t go well?
- What am I working towards for next year?
In answering these questions, I consider how my experience was aligned with my key core values. What external events (outside my control) impacted it, and how I want the following year to shape for me. (I have included an online form here where you can take part in doing a similar exercise. The output will be immediately emailed to you on submission.)
So what has gone well?
The main value of this question is to ensure that I am able to recognise, celebrate and learn from the experience this year. While this year was difficult for most of us, we managed to get through it and come this far. That alone, I believe is a win!
Another value of this question is to ensure that I capture what behaviours have worked well and ensure that they flow with me into the new year. These behaviours include my mental and physical energy state, habit, and mindset strategies that I used.
To support you in answering the question, I want to prompt you with a few questions:
- How have the events this year positively impacted your career and working practices?
- What impact did this have on your time with your family? How has spending more time at home impacted your relationships?
- What more did you discover about yourself? This could include your approach to life in general, learning a new skill, focusing on new habits.
As you reflect on these questions, I will share something that went well for me. When I look at my values and I take into context the coaching side of things here at Energise & Grow, I made a commitment to obtaining my certification and officially launching Energise & Grow. I began working with a few new clients, began writing and sharing ideas that’ve been on my mind through my articles/posts on social media and my website. For more details of my 2020 annual review, please see here
Yeah, but not everything went well.
True, not everything went well and 2020 has been a struggle. But once again I want to remind you of your resilience through which you bore throughout the year and you have gotten this far. For this question, I consider what I can learn from the experience and if I can make changes (within my control) and implement them for the following year.
Again here, I want to prompt you with a few questions to support with carving out a response:
- What impact did spending a lot of time indoors have on you? Mental and physical health have been crucial areas that have been impacted.
- What impact did this have on your job and/or industry? As we are aware, some industries were severely impacted by the pandemic while remote working became the norm for many of us.
- If you are a parent, how did it impact your child/children? Home schooling became the norm at different times of the year…how did you cope with potentially combining working and home-schooling?
Once again, I want to encourage you to address these perhaps difficult questions with an example of my own. Due to the restriction in movement imposed as a result of lockdown measures, I was not able to regularly interact in person with family (outside my household), and close friends in the way I would like and normally do. This culminated with breaking a family tradition of meeting up for Christmas celebrations.
So, what am I working towards and more importantly, what am I looking forward to?
2020 was the year that no one would have asked for (i.e., Covid-19 pandemic), however we can look forward with hope that 2021 may be filled with everything we want it to be. I want you to be encouraged and I am here to offer you my support if you want a little extra encouragement or motivation. I encourage you not to be dispirited, but to work towards a plan for 2021 with vigour and enthusiasm.
A few questions to consider:
- Looking back at what has worked well for you and what hasn’t, what learning can you bring into your plans for 2021.
- How can you ensure that your core values show up in your plans?
- What are the things you are grateful for in your life? How can you be more attentive and ‘be in the moment’ to fully experience its value to you?
I for one have begun making plans for a holiday, well when it is safe for us all to do so! While I have been fortunate enough to work from home even pre-pandemic and have been enjoying my time at home with my family, I think it’s fair to say that a holiday will do all of us a world of good!
I want to close with a few thoughts. 2021 has happened. It might have not been a good year, or perhaps it worked out well, but it has happened and now we are looking forward to 2021. For me one of the most important things we can do is to start planning for 2021, especially to plan for things that are within our control. I also want to use this opportunity to thank all of you for reading this and also for supporting me on the journey that I have chosen to embark on. I believe 2021 will present us with more opportunities and I look forward to engaging with you more in the coming year. Until then, I wish you more energy, consistent habits, & great health as we explore 2021!
