Your Year in Review
I recently attended a Boost with Facebook event in Oakland and almost every session mentioned the need for SMART goals. Everyone who has been through a fiscal year planning process should know that these goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, and time-based. However, in being so focused on setting new goals for 2020, I forgot to think about assessing the current year.
We are often rushing through life, be it at work or at home, that we don’t always take the time to look back and reflect. I was reminded of this during a walk with a friend who talked about how he is approaching processing the year personally and professionally. I followed up with him to get more insights into his assessment process and here are some key takeaways which you might also find useful:
Set time aside to sit down, write and categorize
Develop some buckets for your assessment for your personal and work life (ex. work, family, health, outside commitments, etc.)
Develop categories for each bucket to get down to specific people and projects in your life and prioritize them based on needs or commitment levels
Once you have your categories, begin listing what you had set out to do and what has been accomplished. Did you spend enough time on your health goals? What about your family and work goals?
Based on your answers, you can determine what you will do differently or better as you think about setting goals for the following year
Be brutally honest with your assessment. An honest assessment will help you understand how much your plans varied from your original goals and how to move forward
What do you need to get this done?
Time, a journal, and a writing device
You don’t need to do this in front of a computer, unless you are glued to your laptop/iPad or if you plan to rely on apps that help you track your goals
Your annual assessment will allow you to determine if you were focused on the right goals. It should also take into consideration any life or work changes that you encountered along the way. As you go through this process, make sure that you are very honest but also practice self compassion.
Finally, keep in mind that measuring success can be subjective, so clearly identifying what you value will be important in your annual assessment. I value happiness, productivity, relationships, and meaningful impact, so my assessment might look different from yours, but at the end of the day we might both feel successful.
For some inspiration, listen to Manuel Maqueda’s episode on social entrepreneurship and be on the lookout for his upcoming book The Meaning Economy where he shares how success in this type of economy is based on meaningful engagement and co-creative practices around values shared by community members.