I ask questions for a living; here are the 5 questions I ask myself at the start of the new year.

Although tempting, we can’t look forward without looking back. Like a project retrospective, it’s important to take stock of what we did well, could do better and maybe shouldn’t do at all. As a solo-preneur, I’ve been running annual “offsites” for myself at the start and middle of each year to ensure I am stretching, learning and taking stock of my progress and as an Executive coach, my job is to ask the right questions to help my clients clarify the actions they need to take to progress on their goals. My clients come to me for many reasons but the most common are: 

• I want to have more impact with my leadership style so I can help my team reach its full potential 

• I recognize I need to change my role and I’m not clear on how to start making the shift

• I am leading a huge transformation and I’d like someone to ensure I lead it effectively  

No matter the reason, everyone and anyone can benefit from doing an annual review to uncover what holds you back so that you can move forward. Here are the top 5 questions I ask myself in the new year. 

**We are going to go back in time for this so if you’re like me and November 2021 already feels like a lifetime ago, then I’d recommend you grab your calendar and start going back to that mind-numbing meeting you said you would never go to again last February.**

1. What got in my way last year that was in my control?

We can often be the masters of our own demise without realising it. I often ask myself and clients to reflect on areas where we hold ourselves back from reaching our goals. Ques to look for are when we drift into our comfort zones over doing something that will stretch us but move us forward in our goals. One of the HARDEST but simplest goals I’ve been trying to achieve is a morning routine that doesn’t involve doom-scrolling first thing in the morning. It tested my self-control to the point that it only doesn’t happen if I remove my phone from my bedside (in fact bedroom) completely and I ended up having to buy an alarm clock. 

Some of my examples: 

• Mindlessly scrolling tabs/emails/notifications 

• Interrupting my focus time to check and respond to emails 

• Telling myself I will workout in the afternoon 

2. What gave me the most energy and/or value last year?

The following two questions are so simple yet SO effective when done properly. Don’t rush them. Really take the time to go through your calendar and pinpoint specific, even granular, moments where you were thriving! What were you doing? Who were you with? How did you feel? By “give energy” I mean anything that literally fuelled you, like a good hike, a meeting that had you buzzing  and saying to yourself “I love what I do!”. As well as an action that stretched you and brought you towards some big goals (like, delivering a talk, or filming an online course). Some of these things might have taken work to achieve but fuelled you with fire when you did them, others came naturally to you but had a huge impact. 

Some of my examples: 

• Winning a business defining project that the team worked SO hard on pulling together

• Meeting people IRL and getting out of the house. 

• Working out in the morning!

• Building up the OTL team and partnership network. 

3. What took my energy away?

Now do the reverse of the previous question. In the same level of detail and granularity as before. It is so easy to skip over the brain drain activities and when we do, they continue to show up year on year. Ques for taking away energy are: things you procrastinated, the activities you dreaded, the meetings that drained you (“why do I work here?!”) etc. 

Some of my examples: 

• Project set up, management and administration.

• Hosting my own webinars! 

• Not having a structure to my days and getting lost in idle time. 

After completing 2 and 3, add a “therefore…” moment to help identify patterns in both columns. Ask yourself what you can start doing more or less that's in your control. Anything that I can delegate on the low energy side get’s delegated where possible. Even though I run my own business, there are still things I have to do or people I have to meet that don’t give me energy, but with a higher level of awareness, I can cap the time spent and don’t let that drag me down as much. 

4. What patterns continue to show up for me?

“Why does this always happen to me!” might be an indication that there is a lesson life is trying to teach you that you might not be willing to hear at the moment. This question can be hard to answer because we don’t want to accept the reality but if you’re seeing patterns show up, the change is on you to shift your actions. It’s easy and comfortable to point fingers at others to explain why we aren’t where we want to be. This isn't about letting them off the hook, but ensuring we take a good look at our own behaviors to see where we are contributing to that cycle and starting a hard, but empowering journey to end it. 

5. What will I be most proud of achieving one year from today? 

Now that we are clear on the past, it’s time to look forward into the future. We want goals to stretch us but not be so unattainable that we fail as we step off the mark. This is a balance only you can find as it’s different for each of us. You want your goal to be sustainable, meaning something you can commit to throughout the year. Once you have the high-level outcome plan out the small and “easy” steps you can make today to move forward on it. Big change happens through lots of small and considered actions. Celebrate every time you make a choice that moves you towards your goal, even if it’s as simple as not waking up next to your phone :) 

*A word to the wise*. Just like individuals, companies fall into bad patterns too. Here are the typical patterns I see in my corporate clients that you can plan to work around: 

• Jan-Mar: we often start the year with a high-level of optimism and go-getter attitude and the perception that we have a lot of time. 

• Apr-Jun: We are moving and shaking and implementing the big plans we designed at the start of the year.

• Jul-Aug: Summer Holidays even if you don’t go on holiday.

• Sept: Back at it, back to school vibes with “oh sh*t” we only have 4 months left of the year and so much to get through but let’s get it done “by the end of the year”.

• Oct-Nov: Budgets, annual reviews, and back to back meetings. 

• Dec: Holiday parties, burn out and the start of “next year will be different”.

This year can be different if we choose to not repeat the patterns of the past. 

You got this. 

G

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