Don’t we all want an amazing 2017? Wouldn’t you love 2017 to be your best year ever?
But before you start creating exciting plans for 2017, let’s get clear on how you did in 2016. You know how I’m always saying that clarity is the first step to confidence? Well that goes for setting your 2017 goals too.
Take time to focus and reflect
After all, if you never take time to reflect on what’s gone well, what hasn’t, and what you have learned from it, well then quite frankly, you’re never going to figure out what you need to do more of, what you need to do less of, and what you need to stop doing altogether!
We all make mistakes; mistakes are easy. What’s difficult is learning from those mistakes.
The power of the group
Today I spent time with an amazing group of women, the Fab 5. The Fab 5 is my business mastermind group. These are like-minded ambitious women who share the same values. Over time they have become lifelong friends. They know my business really well. They know me really well. There is something special about working with a group of women who are there to support you, encourage you, and challenge you. Try it out, you’ll love it. [Sorry, went off at a tangent].
Focus ON work not IN work
Because it’s the end of the year, today’s session was different. We took time to focus and reflect on ourselves and our work. Like many women, we juggle busy lives and sometimes it’s hard to be confident that you’ve got the work-life balance thing spot on. And in fact, I’m pretty sure that none of us feels like we’ve got it just right all the time. But it does mean that we rarely take time to focus ON our work rather than being busy IN work. If that makes sense.
5 questions to ask yourself
I’m going to share the 5 questions we asked each other. I would love you to take time to ask yourself these same questions. (In a next post, I’ll share my very personal answers. A couple of which took me by surprise, and will surprise you too).
Take each question (below in bold) one at a time. Don’t worry, it only needs a few minutes per question. Do it at a time and in a space where you will be undisturbed. Answer spontaneously. Write down the thoughts that pop into your mind. Don’t edit your answers.
Now take your notebook and pen and ask yourself:
1 – What did I do or create or experience that I’m really proud of?
Take time to reflect on your achievements – both work and personal – the things that you’re proud of. The small things and the big wins.
2 – What mistakes have you made and what lessons have you learned as a result?
Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve made mistakes but what about things you did that you would do differently if given the time again. What hasn’t gone so well during 2016? What’s been challenging? What has happened unexpectedly and how did you deal with that? How will that help you in the future?
3 – Who or what are you grateful for?
Take the time to acknowledge who you are, who supports you, who helps you, what resources you have, your skills, your talents and your strengths. I love Gosia Gorna’s take on this too. Gosnia encourages you to thank those who have touched your life by sending a hand-written card, or email, or even better call them.
4 – What’s holding you back?
As you think about what’s happened in the past year, what holds you back? What gets in your way? What stops you from doing what you want to do? What can you get rid of or let go of?
5 – When you say yes, what are you saying no to?
Every time we say yes to something, it means you are saying no to something else. Nobody is superwoman. Everybody has 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week. You can’t do everything. Therefore whenever you say yes, what are you saying no to?
Once you have spent time reflecting on 2016, you are ready to start preparing your goals for 2017. And we’ll do that in a next post.
Quick favour please
In the meantime … a favour if you please! I was delighted and excited to see that my blog was nominated in the UK Blog Awards! It’s one of those “please vote for me” awards. Now I’m a cynic and suspect it’s one big PR exercise however … I don’t want to be the Blog with no votes. If you like this post, or any of my posts, please vote for me here in the Lifestyle & Parenting category.
Thank you.
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