New Years prompts and plans
Setting up the new year…
The end of another year, and moving into 2020. I still remember vividly being a kid in the 80’s thinking how far away that seemed. Now it is here.
So what is to become of the coming year. What hopes and dreams do I have for this fresh start? If nothing else, the transition provides and opportunity to take stock of my current space and decide where to move to next. There are some excellent questions I have gathered over time to work through this:
- What bright spots do I have in my personal and professional life — what should I celebrate and double down on?
- “What is broken”? What small action might we take to make it less broken
- What needs to change to create an environment to do my best work
- Am I clear and coherent about what needs to get done and why?
- How can I see things for what they are, instead of what I want them to be?
- “People like us, do things like this” — what are these things and am I deliberate about doing them? What to I need to start or stop doing?
- Pre mortem exercise to identify roadblocks — “It is the end of the year and I have not delivered against any of my goals, what has gone wrong and why”
- Or another positive frame version version “It is the end of the year and we are looking back, What has to be true, personally and professionally, for me to feel happy about my progress? Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated, what opportunities need to be captured, and what strengths need to be maximized?”
- Challenge question — What would I do differently to reach my goals for this entire year in the next 6 weeks, without working more?
- You don’t rise to the level of your goals, but fall to the level of your systems — what systems do I need to work on?
My favourite blogpost on the subject is one by Tim Ferriss, the author of 4-Hour Workweek. His post on the 17 Questions that Changed his life is full of great prompts to make you pause and think through a different lens. Some of these include:
- #1 — what if I did the opposite for 48hrs?
- #11 — What if I could only subtract to solve problems
- #15 — What would this look like if it where easy
James Clear is another author I like. His talk 1% better everyday contains many gems as does this blogpost on focusing on systems not goals. By committing to a process, not a goal you are far more likely to succeed through the compounding impact of every day improvement. That was Seinfeld’s focus — never break the chain.
Get in touch… — linktr.ee/Tomconnor
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