How to reflect forward

It’s a whole new month, new year, new decade. That blank book in front of you that’s 2020 can be overwhelming to make some sense of.  That’s why I had Lindsey Rogers do a workshop on Reflecting Forward: Learning from Last Year to Create the Vision for Your Best Year Yet, at my January Learning and Development Roundtable. Let’s dive in.

Too often we’re too quick out of the gate to plan forward without reflecting on what happened last year.  We don’t take a look at our foundation before we continue to build forward and up. 

It’s like planning for a second floor to your home, without having a solid foundation.

That’s a recipe for disaster.

In the Roundtable workshop, Lindsey guided us through a process to reflect on last year in order to set ourselves up for a custom-tailored 2020 (a process that included her resource guide (available below).  She made sure our foundation for going forward was strong.   

Here’s the steps she guided us through and which you can do yourself:

What actually happened in 2019?

• Go through each month of 2019 and do a quick recap.

Hardest moments

• Of those events, identify the tough stuff, the hardest moments
• Identify what was so difficult about them AND the  hard-earned jewels of wisdom you gained from them

Peak experiences 

• Of those events from 2019, figure out what the best moments were, the peak experiences
• What did they feel like, what was the “essence of their amazingness,” what did you learn?
• Identify what contributed to the peaks including, what habits, practices, people etc. were involved

Progress points

• Write down what you made progress on

Not so much

• Figure out what you’d hoped to make progress on but didn’t 

Time to pack

• Now put all those things together from 1-5 and figure out what you want to bring forward into 2020 and pack them into a figurative suitcase 

Leave behind

• Annnnd be clear about what doesn’t make the cut, what doesn’t get brought forward into 2020.  What are you leaving behind because it doesn’t deserve a space in your suitcase; it no longer serves you, is useful or is a priority?

Hot pen

• Now write your vision.  Pick a time in the future and write from that perspective.  For example, if you pick January 1, 2021, then write as if it was January 1, 2021.  
• Write your heart out, pretending that if you stop your pen will get hot and burn you. 
• Write without judgment about how you’re feeling, what milestones you’ve achieved.  Write about how you’re feeling, the milestones you’ve achieved and what’s compelling you.

Mine for gold

• Put it all together and mine your hot pen vision for goals you can set as a result of it. 
• What are the skills/knowledge you’ll need to achieve it, how will that learning take place, who are the key people you need to connect with.
• What habits and systems will you need to create, what professional and personal development goals do you want to set as a result etc.

Concrete next step

• Now that you’ve been thinking big, broad and expansively, it’s time to get really, really concrete.
• Create a specific, clear, action step that will bring you one small step closer to your vision and that you’ll complete in the next six hours.  Yes, six hours.

Now that you’ve got the hang of it, keep going towards that big, bold, compelling vision of yours.  Keep your eyes on two things: 1) your vision or milestone and 2) your keystones/things you need to support your vision.  And speaking of which, make sure you complete the concrete next step within six hours from now.

Now go on and learn, laugh and lead.

Learn

• Watch the session recording or listen to the audio recording
• See the PowerPoint
• Get Lindsey’s resource manual

Laugh

• Without spending time proactively reflecting so you can build a solid foundation for 2020, you might just feel like this chameleon, grasping at something that can’t be caught.

Lead

• Lindsey did a great job of setting us for February’s Learning and Development Roundtable which will be on how to create a learning plan for yourself and/or your team that rocks.  Watch this space for how to join us online or in-person, February 21, 2020.

P.S.

Want to get invitations to my monthly (in person at the UN and online) Roundtables? Easy peasy. Sign up here.