It’s that time of year when I reflect on what has happened and plan forward for what is to come. I’ve started doing this in a more structured fashion over the last couple of years and found it helpful in terms of where I want to be from a zoomed out perspective. This then informs what I want to do month to month, day to day. I listened to someone some time ago talking about how life is like a large clock, hour (longer term), minute (medium term) and second hands (short term), where we find it challenging to manage our priorities. I found that journalling along the following lines helps mitigate this.
Beginning of the year I write down specific / abstract / general priorities for the year ahead – like the hour hand for longer term goals
Each month I then write down priorities fort that month, some taken from the year priorities, some taken from what is pertinent for that month, or a step towards that longer term goal – minute hand or medium term goals
Every day I write down what I am grateful for that day and what I want to achieve that day, which may be informed by my monthly goals, or just what is on my mind at that point I am writing my journal – like a second hand or short term goals.
I’ve been talking about this with a couple of friends recently, as they’ve asked me about the new year and what they might be planning to do. One of the main benefits I see from this is how it focuses the mind on both the far away outcome and then the more process driven elements that help reach that outcome. It’s not a magic bullet – whereby you write something down and it suddenly happens, equally I have felt so much more successful over the last couple or years in reaching my goals. Writing something down begins the process of getting there. I don’t see it as any coincidence that successful people see what they physically state happen – be that verbally or in written form. There is real power in seeing your goals written down and then figuring out how to get to them. Things will go wrong, not everything will work out, but I know a lot more will come to pass by doing this than not.
On another note some of the books that I have bought to read this year:
BreatheToMove 