We have now embarked upon a new decade — welcome to 2020! Over the past decade, we saw numerous advances in technology, viral videos influencing millions of people all over the world to attempt new dance moves among many other things, and two new generations entering the workforce.
Here are a few notable items:
1. The first iPad came out in 2010 and Apple became the world’s first $1 trillion dollar company (Market Value — Trillion, with a T)
2. $115,000,000 was raised for the ALS in the Summer of 2014 by a viral ice-bucket challenge
3. The Harlem Shake transformed from a meme into countless viral videos of people dancing everywhere in 2013
4. ‘The Big Cat’, Tiger Woods, rose back from what many saw as a career ending decade to capture the 2019 Masters Championship
5. Significant progress was made on the Red Planet, Mars, as NASA completed its 8th successful touchdown in 2018
As the world experienced many changes, so did each of us. It’s important to reflect on the progress that you made against your annual goals in order to become the best version of yourself possible.
My annual goal review is one of the days that I look forward to most each year as it’s fun to reflect on progress made and identify opportunities for growth.
Time to dig in and learn more!
Reviewing Your Goals
While making a new goals list is exciting because it’s fresh and provides a renewed sense of energy, reviewing your prior year goals list can be just as invigorating! Taking a step back to really see what you accomplished is an amazing feeling, and provides great energy that can be carried forward into the new year.
Further, there will be areas where you fall short and do not accomplish your goals. Consider these as opportunities, and utilize them as motivation to carry you forward and grow.
As we’ve previously learned how to form goals, it’s important that goal reviews are a part of your system.
Year End Goal Review System
Over the years, I have built a review system in which I conduct a self analysis of my performance against my goals, and ask for feedback from select mentors and accountability partners.
1. Perform a Self Analysis / Overall Assessment
Write a quick paragraph about how you believe you performed against your plan. Within this, highlight areas where you did well along with opportunities to grow in the future.
As you can see below, 2019 was a strong year (But I still haven’t even gotten started yet)! The point is that although the year went very well to plan, there are still always opportunities to grow. Having a growth mindset is key! Haven’t heard of a growth mindset? Dig into this great explanation by the Harvard Business Review!
In 2020, you will see a much sharper focus on fewer subjects as my greatest opportunity for growth lies in depth. One of my key themes for the year.
2. Rate your performance to each goal
Now that you have completed your assessment, it’s time to review your performance to your goals.
Remember, accomplishing goals is a great feeling, and not accomplishing them only means that an opportunity is lingering. Mindset shifts are vital in this process. Do not beat yourself up over failures, learn from them.Easier said than done sometimes.
I prefer to use a simple rating system to evaluate my goals. This rating scale is one that I incorporated from my employer and one which many organizations utilize.
EE: Exceeds Expectations
ME: Met Expectations
MSE: Met Some Expectations
DNME: Did Not Meet Expectations
Be honest with yourself on your ratings, it’s the only way to grow and learn. Although I did not meet every goal, I still learned a ton and will make adjustments based off of this.
Next to each goal, especially the goals that I did not meet, I wrote a quick explanation as to why it did not happen.
3. Share with mentors / accountability partners
I cannot stress this enough. These are the people that are in your life to help you grow. Share this information with them, they will help you move forward!
Once you’ve completed this exercise, utilize it to feed into your goals list for 2020. If you have already made your list and not reflected on 2019, I strongly recommend doing so by following this method. You may identify an opportunity to grow!
Create a binder and archive all of your goals and goal reviews. Documenting your growth will do nothing but amaze you and remind you of your journey to where you are today.
Win Today!