Rolling in the New Year
1. What have I accomplished this year? Be specific. Write it all down. Your accomplishments may include surviving Covid-19! Whatever you accomplished, schedule some time to celebrate it all.
2. What have I learned this year? What skills did you pick up, personally? Professionally? What emotional lessons? What did you learn was most important?
3. What got in my way? This is what you will want to focus on in 2021. Was it fear or depression? Was it having to homeschool your children? You could say it was the global pandemic but be honest if it was your own attitude about things beyond your control that got in the way.
4. Who contributed to my successes? Who in your circle of family and friends? Who in your business world? How have you let the people who helped you know that they made a difference?
5. What mistakes did I make, and what did I learn from them? Writing these down is a good refresher for what not to do next year. Even if you might dismiss them as specific to this unprecedented 2020, if you dig a little, you may see how they could continue to affect you in 2021.
6. Where did I not take responsibility? There was a lot in 2020 that we could blame for problems we encountered. For me, the problem was lack of structure for months, I kept thinking that I would get the important things done without any structure. But truthfully, where I spend my time is in my control. I had 10 months to really work on my business and home projects and I don’t have 10 months of work to show for it.
7. How did my performance rate? Give yourself a letter grade or a 1-10 score. I don’t really want to share mine, but I will. I’d say a 7 because the lack of productivity was compensated by the time I spent reaching out and connecting with others. How was yours?
8. What do I need to let go of? I think this was a big year for letting go -- some of it forced, some of it by choice. Take stock of what you let go of in 2020 (and what you still might need to let go). It can help you move much more lightly into the new year.
9. What was missing for me this year? This may seem easy to answer (Me: movies in a theater, seeing people’s smiles, concerts and theater.) But think deeper. Were you missing support in your business? Were you missing courage to do something new? How can you incorporate these into next year?
You did it!
We did it!
We may not want to do it again, but it was a year we will never forget. If we chose to look for them, the year was full of opportunities. Let’s all pause and be intentional about the good we take from this year!