I’m a big advocate for measuring and reporting when it comes to achieving goals. More importantly I advise measuring backwards to see how far you’ve come, to see where you might have fallen short, what didn’t work and what did so that you can adjust your future course in such a way that you are always improving. Rather than measuring forward and where you wish you were and potentially feeling bad about yourself. Life is about progress and not perfection. Self-reflection is necessary for change. I used to only do these check ins at the end of a 90 day block of goals that I set for myself and at the end of the year. But after much reading, especially from my favourite psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy I know I can benefit from daily, weekly, quarterly AND yearly reviews of my progress. It may seem like a lot but it needn’t take a lot of time. It’s simply a way of holding myself accountable and always figuring out how I can do things better. The more frequent reviews are going to be necessary given my lofty goals of 2022.
Right now I give myself 1-3 important tasks towards my goals every day and at the end of everyday I take the time to acknowledge what got done and if something didn’t get done I figure out why not? Was there an energy leak in my day that needs to be shored up for next time perhaps? I do the same again at the end of my week. Those few minutes a day serve to show me where I’ve potentially procrastinated and it holds me accountable to do better in the coming days and weeks. And if I’m consistently getting things done then the daily review serves as a confidence boost and reminder that I AM capable. Either way it’s a win win situation.
At the end of a block of 90 day goals the self reflection is a little bit deeper because I have to see what goals I set at the beginning of the 90 days got completed or not. Even if something didn’t get completed this is not a time to be down on myself. I do the review without judgement. But it’s hard to make good (and fast) progress if you aren’t measuring yourself often. Pearson’s Law states: “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”
The end of year review is the biggest and takes a little more time but is well worth it. Maya Angelou once said: ” If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”
You’ll get a lot more out of your life if you’re more conscious about what you’re creating and asking the right questions can bring a lot of clarity and direction into your life. So you can close the last chapter and start the new one with a fresh slate. I invite everyone to take the time to review the last year and set your goals for 2022. Here are the questions I’ve used this year’s reviews with my answers.
2021 A Year in Review:
1. What did I accomplish? I became self-employed, I moved to Mexico which was something I said I wanted to do right before I became self-employed, I got in the best shape of my life
2. What did I want to accomplish that I did not accomplish? Getting my savings account back up and making investments (Do I still want to do this? Yes!)
3. What did I say I would do that I didn’t do? Write a book (Do I still want to do this? Yes but it’s less of a priority, I’d rather focus on educational video content and writing articles for now)
4. What were my biggest disappointments? I stopped being as disciplined when I arrived in Mexico. I had a great time living a great life, but I missed out on many months of putting in real hard work and I know I’d be further along had I been more disciplined.
5. What did I learn? – List 3 lessons which will make the most difference if you remember them this year? (See them as guidelines for next year)
To be more judicious with my time and focus
To live in the gain and not the gap
To accept and love myself always
Changing patterns:
1. How do you limit yourself and how can you transform these actions to be powerful?
I limit myself when I try to avoid things that make me uncomfortable. I now understand that those moments of discomfort are when its time to grow and do the work. I have always known that and for the most part am good at recognizing it, but there were a few areas of my life that I still actively avoided difficult situations and until I faced them I would keep getting stuck in the same scenarios without solutions. I now see the areas of discomfort or resistance as things to pursue in terms of self-development. This mindset change makes me feel more powerful and in control of my own life.
2. What do you say to yourself to explain your failures? (These false beliefs are your limiting paradigm). Generally I have a really great life (by my standards) but I sometimes use the excuse that I was busy enjoying life as my “reason” for not accomplishing everything on my to do lists. While it is true that I did enjoy 2021 I can see that I overdid my “stopping to smell the roses” and it cost me a lot of useable time to accomplish more. There is nothing wrong with reaping the rewards of a life you have created but it shouldn’t derail important plans. I now see my that my very enjoyable R&R is can easily turn into another form of self-sabotage. My journey is not over.
3. List any other limiting paradigms you might have.
Because health coaching or fitness training is a very visual profession with a lot of competition I have at times felt like I am not pretty enough to make it big time in this field
That I don’t have the money and resources to grow as I would like (I would LOVE to just pay a full time marketer and someone who could handle ALL social media but I’m not there……yet)
4. List your new paradigm which must be personal, positive, present tense, powerfully and simply stated, pointing to an exciting future. I’m an excellent coach with a lot of valuable knowledge that I can use to improve not only my own life but the lives of others which is my mission!
5. If you don’t have a personal vision or mission statement than simply read your new paradigm out loud when you awake and before going to sleep each day. Teach your subconscious that this is your paradigm.
Looking ahead:
1. What are your goals for 2022?
Make a million dollars from valuable content in the form of articles, video content, educational material on health, mindset and habit change, coaching, speaking engagements. I want to make a million not for the dollar amount itself as I’ve never been very motivated by money, but for the person I will have to become to be able to get it.
2. What values and identity will you need to embody to achieve those goals?
Disciplined
Commitment
Perseverance
I suppose those first three fall under the same category but it’s obviously very important if I brought it up 3x
Courage
Self-confidence (I am generally a confident person but at times I am burdened by caring about what others will think of me and allow it to influence my behaviours which is a form of lacking self-confidence which I am committed to working on)
3. Where is your life out of balance? If you could put one problem behind you, once and for all, what would it be? Social media usage eats away my time and I am becoming more aware that when I’m faced with a task I don’t want to do, or if I am doing something that I don’t necessarily like or find challenging I will take break social media breaks. I can easily scroll social media for entire transportation rides (in busses and taxis), and before bed and I respond to every notification ding instantly. I have now acknowledged this as energy leak in my day and as an addiction.
4. What is your intention for 2022? To have more FOCUS on the things that are important to me.
5. What relationships do you want to strengthen? Mine and my son’s. We have drifted apart and barely talk since I moved to Mexico. Actually, even when I was still in Montreal we didn’t spend that much time together and I just chalked it up to him being young and having his own life, and him being exactly like me personality wise because I also was never overly close in terms of speaking and seeing my family regularly, even though I love them to death and we are all on good terms. But lately I’ve been thinking I’d like to change that, even if it just starts with one Facetime a month. I plan on proposing that to him.
6. What will you do to step out of your comfort zone in 2022? I will promote coaching more. In Montreal I didn’t have to do much work to get clients (which I am very grateful for) but this reinforced my fear of putting myself out there. I feel a lot of resistance towards self-promotion (that’s the old “being afraid of what people will think of me” issue) but this allows me to work on being comfortable with discomfort 🙂
7. How will you take care of yourself in 2022? I would like to implement tech detox days into my life a little more. Where I go 24 hours without my phone or logging onto any social media. Even if its just once a month. It’s a great way to reset.
I hope you all find this process as therapeutic, rewarding and clarifying as I do. I also hope it makes you feel like you are TRULY having a fresh start for 2022!
