Well for many of us it has been a challenging year. Some of us have struggled, some have thrived, but every year we learn a lot from what we have experienced.
One of the most important things we should be doing is sitting back and reflecting on all that we have actually accomplished in the last 12 months.
Set aside some time to reflect
It’s nearly the end of the year. This is a great time to reflect, but also to plan and plot what you want next year to look like.
What did you achieve and what WILL you do differently moving forward?
Recently my fellow mental toughness partner, David Charlton mapped out these 15 steps to follow. While working through these exercises consider using a pen and paper. It is a comprehensive guide so if you’re serious about the new year I’d advise you to switch your phone off and give yourself a good 2 hours to work your way through this guide. It will be well worth it and help you get VERY clear on where you are going.
Reviewing Your Year
1.Flourishing
Make a note of your small wins throughout the year. And then consider, what are your really big wins (your BHAGs- Big Hairy Audacious Goals)- what were they? What are you most proud about from your achievements? What times during the year were you playing to your maximum?
2. Feeling Great
What did it feel like when you succeeded? What would people on the side lines have noticed about you when you were in top form? How did you celebrate your wins?
3. Enjoyment
What did you enjoy the most in your sport last year? Was it the day to day training? The banter or learning new skills? The relationships that you’ve formed and built? How about competing or overcoming some challenges that you had? Enjoying your journey is essential for you to thrive at a high level for a long period of time.
4. Failure (well actually – your “learns”)
Many people will skip this part because it isn’t nice to think about your failures. But believe me this is an essential exercise if you want to kick on next year. If you want to achieve your potential, you MUST be honest with yourself. When did you fail? When did you not give 100%? When did you give up? When did you say that you would do something but didn’t?
5. Regrets
Do you have any regrets about the way you went about things last year? Did you wish you had tried something else? Did you wish that you had stuck with something that may have come off if you’d have given it more time? If you’d spent more time doing…………. would your chance of success have been better? Did you pass up any opportunities? Did you address some mental blocks? Again, this isn’t likely to be a pleasant experience answering these questions however it can help you learn from your mistakes.
6. Learning
Assuming that you’ve got this far, I’d imagine that you now have learned some lessons. The most successful people with mental toughness are skilled at learning lessons and not repeating them – be one of them. So, what did last year teach you in your work and play? Answer this question, tell someone you trust about your answers and ensure that they keep you to account so that you don’t go on to repeat these mistakes next year.
7. Different
Controlling the controllables is a phrase which is often used. This is what we’re trying to teach you here. Not to play the blame game - attributing issues or problems to other people or circumstances. What are you going to take control of and do differently next year? Will this be your attitude? Your focus? How you communicate with yourself and others?
8. Continue
There will be some good stuff in the last year. Even for those who have had a torrid year. You’ll simply need to look a little bit harder. What worked well for you? What are you going to continue doing?
9. More
Are there some additional things that you need to be doing with your time? Are you doing enough extra’s to make sure that you succeed? Or do you need to be doing more with your downtime to recharge your batteries and get away from your role sometimes?
10. Stop
What things WILL you stop doing next year? What bad habits have you got yourself into?
11. Start
When you consider the bad habits that you’ve got yourself into. And you will have, we all do! How are you going to step in?
What are you going to start doing to replace unhelpful habits with more positive processes and routines?
12. Position
When you reviewed last year’s ”big” goals (BHAGs) how did you do? What is the position of these goals NOW? Are you still hoping to achieve your BHAG? Or did you reach those goals, perhaps over exceeding your expectations? Do you need to do a compete reset of last year’s goals?
13. New
So now that you’ve spent a good hour or so working through these exercises, consider placing yourself one year ahead and think seriously about what you’d like to tell people that you achieved in the previous year? These goals could be completely new or a modification of old ones. What would be wins for you when you compete? What about in your role? Would you like to achieve more of? Do you want your lifestyle to change? Do you need to shake things up with your mentor, coach etc?
14. Emotions
To help you visualise the new year being a success consider making a note of what emotions that you WILL feel when you achieve some of the different goals. How will you feel? How will you celebrate? What type of conversations will you be having with coaches, team-mates, friends, family? Who will you thank for helping you achieve your goals for the year?
15. Vision
To go one step further, you could even get yourself a large sheet of paper or card and make a vision board. Drawing pictures, sticking photos of key achievements. Writing key words, inspiring quotes or phrases. Cutting out newspapers or magazine titles to add to the experience.
If you’re reading this bit after setting the time aside, I applaud you for taking the time to reflect on the previous year and to plan for a successful new year. Not many people will take this amount of time and work through things so strategically. The majority will set new year resolutions and forget about them by the end of January – don’t be one of them – give yourself the best possible chance of making the next year your best year!
By working alongside a great coach, the exercise will be much more powerful so feel free to get in touch if you’d like some support.
Best of luck too for the new year! I really look forward to hearing about some of the changes that you’ve now made and to hear about some of your successes in the future.
Want to know more about developing your goals for 2021? Send me an email at michelle@bakjacconsulting.com to enquire about coaching to build your strategies.
Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, leadership, behaviour and wellbeing. You can find her at www.bakjacconsulting.com or michelle@bakjacconsulting.com
