2019 Year Review & 2020 Goal Setting
As part of my annual transition from one year to another, I love to review my year gone by.
I’ve done them several ways over the years and no matter the style, always find them beneficial.
But like most things in my life, I’m always trying to optimize the process to make my life work harder for ME because I deserve it and only get this one shot at it, as far as we know…
♡
Last year I did Tim Ferriss’ calendar review process where you create two columns - Positive & Negative - and drop your people, activities and commitments into a column.
After you go through each month, you can bubble up “power points” to do more of in the upcoming year and weed out those things or people that brought life down.
It was a nice snapshot review, but hard to keep these items top of mind as the year went along.
So this year I tried Chalene Johnson’s review process - The Chalene Show Podcast #508.
Knowing what a podcast junkie I am, my Leah & Lamb partner introduced me to Charlene’s “Build Your Tribe” podcast which she hosts with her son and talks business tips - think lots of social channel strategy ideas, stories about what her business paths have been like over the decades and what she’s learned, etc.
That led me to Chalene’s “lifestyle” show where she talks personal improvement across all life categories, from eating and exercise to mental health and parenting.
Below is her process, which David and I both did individually. These are her categories, but my summary of what to think about them as you decide where they fall on a scale from 1-10, 1 being just utterly horrible + 10 being as close to perfection as you can imagine.
YES! My husband even listened to her and took the time to do this, so we could be on the same page with our life goals in 2020 - whoop!!! Yes, there is a step after this review to help plan in 90-day increments for the upcoming year, and we are doing that together too!
♡ 10 Categories to Consider ♡
Physical Health - Do you feel good in your physical body or are things bothering you that you could change? Think exercise - do you make time for workouts and shift them up to challenge your strong physical being we call a body? Or do you make excuses why you can’t fit in regular exercise? Were you sick much this year or did you somehow avoid most the sniffles and tummy bugs your family was passing around? Do you have one too many glasses of wine or save your alcohol for special moments? Do you look like you want to look - taking time for facials and nail care - whatever little self care elements that make you feel amazing from the inside out? Are you getting enough sleep and eating healthy? Or are you staying up too late looking at instagram and just grabbing carb snacks in between meetings and carpool rounds?
Mental Health & Wellbeing - How do you handle stress? Do the smallest shifts in your day send you off the ledge or can you weather them like a gentle storm that you know will pass? Do you get fixated on things and lose precious time to mental spirals without any action to change anything or do you have a problem and make changes to alleviate it? Can you forgive others and yourself easily? Have you been meditating or journaling to get your head clear?
Environment - How does your living space make you feel? Your office, your home, your car? When you are in them do you get recharged and inspired or are the dirty and messy all the time with only hand-me-down furniture you never loved and wall colors that drain you? Or did you save money and redo your bedroom or buy a piece of art for your office wall?
Hobbies & Restoration - Do you make time to do things that make your energy radiate positivity? (As I’m writing this my husband just said, “I can feel you beaming positivity.” - This is ME doing something I love while being thankful my kids are all being entertained somewhere else so I CAN write!!) Do you even know what makes you beam positivity anymore? Is there something you used to love to do and now just feel too busy?
Romantic - How is your love life? Do you have one and appreciate it? Are you and your partner on the same page with what YOU need to feel loved and appreciated? Is there something missing from your relationship that makes connecting hard these days? Do you nurture your intimacy with your partner or do you even remember how to after serving the needs of the kids and the job and all the other commitments you have? Does it even matter any more? Or do you make space for one-to-one time doing things you fell in love doing and finding new ones to spark it again? Do you give human touch as much as possible and compliment one another in genuine ways that encourage you and remind you why you are together?
Friends & Family - How do you spend time connecting with the people who matter most to you? Do you plan one-to-one activities with your kids, so you can get to know them as individuals? Do you make sure your friends know what’s going on - really going on in your mind? Or do you just like a pic on social media and leave a comment instead of picking up the phone or sending a Marco Polo video message?
Finances - Did you make the amount of money you wanted to live the life you desire? Did you get a raise or let go? Did you stay the course and save for a summer trip or spend it all on Starbucks treats you’ve already forgotten? Did you put money in the kids’ 529 plans or your 401k? Did you start a new business that is scary and amazing all at once?
Life Purpose - Do you know what you stand for and find meaning in all you do? Do you know what really matters to you during this brief blip of mortality on this earth? Do you put energy toward figuring out yourself and how you fit into this world? Do you know your why?
Spirituality - Do you make time and space for a spiritual life? Do you have rituals that bring you hope and comfort? Do you pray to whatever higher light you choose to follow and know you are cared for from some other higher being? Or do you feel alone and lost even amongst others you should be comforted by?
Personal Growth - Do you constantly seek to learn more and become the best version of you? Do you share your learnings with others so your knowledge and life experiences, especially the hard ones, have a way to help you continue to evolve? Or do you just feel like it’s all winding down and why even try?
♡ Write Them & Rank Them ♡
Now that you’ve read through these categories, turn them into yours….
Write down what the year has been like in each of these life spaces. I ended up reviewing and kinda goal noting at the same time. But it really went pretty quick.
I’d recommend grabbing an hour by yourself, which can be hard for full-life people like us. I always lean into the wee early morning hours while my house is quiet and the other 5 humans and puppy sleep - yes, like 4amish. But I know friends who find that space in the “after kiddos bedtime” slot, too.
Start with the ideas I noted, but add whatever comes to your mind.
If it comes to mind - it matters. The above is just to get you started thinking.
♡ Lowest Score Focus ♡
Now it’s time to figure out what category had the lowest score and create some goals around it, so you bring that score up and improve that part or parts of your life.
When I did mine for 2019, I had three areas with the same lowest score. I looked at them, and asked myself how they may correlate in my life?
Then create some sort of filter that you can run your day to day life through that keeps this low category in focus.
For me, Hobbies & Restoration, Romantics & Spirituality tied for lowest rankings. So my filter when I look at everything I do,
“How will ________ bring me closer to God, help David and me find space or appreciation for our romantic relationship and rejuvenate me?”
Then I did a braindump of ideas for each of the categories that would plus up my category score.
And now I am working to incorporate them in my next 30-60-90 days.
♡ Create A Plan ♡
It’s amazing how many businesses don’t have plans, much less people’s personal lives. I help companies all the time take a step back and review their business, define their dreams and put plans in place to help them achieve goals.
But there is no question, when it comes to my own life - I can lose track of my personal plan and wonder. So, time to try something new!
Chalene sells Push Planners for her goal setting system. She explains that most people want to achieve so much, but can’t prioritize and then lose focus. She has people create a “Push Goal” which makes all the other goals happen - she recommends 10 goals per 90 days. with one Push Goal. You take a look at these goals, which should be real goals you don’t have in your life already, but REALLY REALLY desire and see which is needed to achieve most of these things:
Time
Money
Discipline
Skills
Chalene says, “Your Push Goal isn't necessarily the goal that's most important to you, but it IS the one that makes the others possible. It's like a domino effect. Achieving that one goal will help you "push through" the others. “
Then you take a look at your 10 goals, decide which one, if achieved, would make others happen, and focus on that as your 90-day Push Goal.
SO I decided to make David and myself a customized Golden Coil planner for 2020 and we are going to incorporate our quarterly push goals.
Since David and I are working hard to be a team for work and our family, but also have personal goals, I picked a week by week full page that breaks into three segments, thinking we can have a daily section for work/ personal/ family. It could also be used for morning/ afternoon/ evening, if we want to try that.
I added “Idea” pages to his and would have added to mine, but didn’t realize they were an option my first round through the purchase process.
One negative about the process was that I couldn’t customize the cover or each starter page with our names and notes if I increased my print quantity to two. So I had to do the whole process twice, but on the second go round it was faster and I added a page - so I learned something and will take that!! Clearly he was the one who needed a place for his ideas and I’ll make space for mine!
♡ Salutations ♡
Holy moly that was quite an entry. I started early and 200 kids interruptions later, it’s now 11:47am. This mama needs a run and to get off the computer.
But golly does it feel good to write and share. Even if only one person takes a peek at this and tries to create a plan for their 2020, it’s worth it to me. And well - if none do, it’s still worth it because this was an amazing reminder of what this new year has in store for me and how thankful I am for each year that has come before it.
Hope you take a moment to appreciate your life, too!
Lotsa love,
Leah
