Want to join my Reflection Revolution in 2020? You, me, the Alyceum Community, once a month for 90 minutes for reflection, inspiration and connection. Join us here for a free taster (FIRST TIME GUESTS ONLY) on the 28 January using the coupon bemyguest. Or better yet, commit to growing your reflection muscle by registering for all the 2020 Alyceum Live gatherings here.
A fresh new year to dream, visualise and plan. But how do you get started? Journalling is a great tool to develop our insight, connect with our inner voice and start to develop clarity about the life you want to lead.
I think we can under-estimate what can be achieved in a year but we have to take the time to contemplate what we will actually want to achieve and break it down into your first bite sized piece of this. So what do you want to be different in a year’s time?
In December I posted 10 Questions to Fuel Your Reflection of 2019. Because we have to look back first!
It’s a great practice to….
- reflect back over the whole year (it gives you a sense of what can be achieved in a year),
- visualise what you did with your time (consider the projects you worked on and how you spent your time), and
- really consider on the key learnings you have taken from the year – seriously, what did you learn?
Most often, we sleep walk through life without taking the time to reflect, grow and stretch into the future. Just as useful as it is to look back, now it’s time to look forward.
10 Questions to help your planning in 2020
So where to start!
Take these 10 journaling questions to planning for 2020. They are simple questions but they will take some time to consider. Put yourself first – before work, Netflix or social media, and make it a priority to immerse yourself in these questions.
1. How will you step into the highest version of yourself this year?
If you practiced all the habits you wanted, lived your core strengths and you were totally aligned with values – this would be your highest version of you. Visualise who and what this person would look like, what choices they would make, how they would talk and interact with others and what they would focus on in life. The game is – how do you edge closer and closer to this person every moment. Think small steps.
Your highest version of you can be your greatest mentor, guide and inspiration – ask her for advice as life’s challenges arise. Tap into the inner wisdom you possess. The clearer your highest version is to you, the better she can guide you through life’s ups and downs.
2. Describe your ideal day, week and year?
How you live your days is how you live your life!
It’s a big statement but it’s true. Our daily habits form the foundations for how you live your life. What is one habit you want to focus on this year and one habit you want to let go of?
Take some time to craft your ideal day, week and year. What does an ideal 24 hours look like to you? Take into consideration all the realities of life and craft what it could look like.
What about a week? What do the ultimate 7 days look like? Break the rules, and see what you come up with. What energises you? Who do you want to spend time with? What goals do you want to dedicate your life to?
3. How will you use your strengths?
Want to enjoy life to the fullest? Put your strengths to work!
Professor Martin Seligman, Director of the University of Penn Positive Psychology Centre found that a key part of flourishing in life and work is using your strengths. So first you have to know them – do you know them? Inside out and back to front? How much of your day do you get to use your strengths currently?
How can you increase the dial on this and use them more and more in your life. Again, you can be creative with this, perhaps you haven’t come across ways that you could be using them more and more in your life.
4. How will you take care of yourself? What’s your health and wellbeing plan?
Without your health it’s very hard to achieve anything of significance over the long term. Think physical, mental and spiritual. This means you have to actively plan for sleep, rest, nutrition, movement, mental clarity and fun! How could you step up your health? How can you make it fun?
I read an article this year that so aptly described self care as not a day in the day spa but the everyday looking after yourself – cooking healthy meals, moving your body and doing something that enriches your spirit – this is real self care.
Don’t wait until your health is threatened to make health a priority. Do it now.
5. What is holding you back?
Otto Scharmer, author of the books Theory U and Leading from the Emerging Future talks about the three voices that hold you back…
- the voice of judgement (shutting down your open mind instead of being inquiring and curious),
- the voice of cynicism (shutting down your open heart instead of connecting and relating) and
- the voice of fear (shutting down your open will instead of letting go).
How powerful!
Do you ever listen to the stories you tell yourself or others about what’s happening in your life? I often try to listen in to what I say automatically to friends and colleagues about what’s happening in my life.
Journalling is another great opportunity to tap into your stories.
These stories are your beliefs – but you know what, you don’t have to believe them? What? Yes, your beliefs can hold you back and sometimes you need to actively change them.
What beliefs do you need to say goodbye to and what beliefs will you try out in 2020?
6. How will you give back to the community? And how can you be of service to others?
If you know me at all, you know I see this as an integral piece in life. Life is energised by using our greatest strengths in service to the world. If you haven’t felt this through your giving before, you probably haven’t tapped into the right giving for you yet.
How can you focus on giving to others this year? Often this can provide great energy in our lives. If you were to focus on one area to give back in, what’s it going to be this year? Commit as deeply to this as the other areas in your life.
Maybe it could be to join a Not-For-Profit board?
7. What do you want to learn?
The most extraordinary leaders I know are people who never stop learning. They are humble and understand the world is changing at an extraordinary pace.
First define the what. Where do you want to grow, stretch and learn this year? If you could develop your own learning curriculum this year, what would it be?
Then think about the how. How will you learn what you want to learn? What books can you read? Are there any courses you can take? What conferences can you learn from? Which key skills do you want to learn and foster this year?
Get excited about what you can learn and how you can grow as a person and leader.
8. What relationships do you want to foster?
Relationships feed you – they can lift you up, inspire you, challenge you and support you. Yet, we are increasingly living in a lonely world. In today’s world, we’ve forgotten how to foster friendships with others.
Lately I’ve become really intentional about the relationships I’ve wanted to foster. Which ones energise me? Provide great insights? Challenge me? Nurture me?
Think about who makes up your community? Family, friends, networks, work colleagues and neighbours.
Be focused on the key relationships you would like to develop this year. Who can help you be the person you want to be? Will you reach out to a new mentor, create a mastermind group, attend a new conference to expand your networks. Foster your friendships?
This will take time. Devote time, energy, ideas and resources to develop these friendships. Make them fun. Make them meaningful. And they will create a life worth living.
9. How will you be inspired?
Inspire – the original latin definition means to breathe into. How do you breathe life into your existence?
What are the inspiration sources that help you stay energised and refreshed for the ups and downs for the year. How can you operationalise your inspiration sources so you can perform at an optimal level?
Inspiration is required on a consistent basis so think about the sources that energise you in life. What gives you energy and what drains your energy?
10. What amazing life adventures do you want to do this year?
Ok – now it’s time for a bit of fun.
Forget work, think about what is going to bring you joy and fun into your life. What life adventures could you have this year?
Think about what you’ve never done before! What’s something you could do for the very first time? It could be a new place to visit, a new hobby, a new friendship to cultivate?
Think about your fears – what are you avoiding? What gets the heart rate going? Life adventures can be a mental challenge as well as a physical one. What is one fear to conquer this year? What training and preparation could you do? Who could you enlist to help you? Give yourself a challenge.
Think about what brings you joy!
Let’s continue the conversation here. I’d love to know what 2020 will bring you!
My Grandma has not been so well this year (this is a photo of her with my daughter a few years ago now) and so being there to support her and my mum has been important to me. It’s in these tough moments, which all of us go through, you tend to ask those existential questions – what’s the purpose of my life?, how will I measure the success of my life when I’m laying on my deathbed?, what happens after life? and what’s important to me?.
