In this blog, I revisit a game-changing hack to focus your energy on in the year ahead. I have coined the term retrospective reality to describe this powerful exercise.
Pull out your calendar from last year in retrospect.
Review your projects, work blocks, commitments, activities and meetings. Remember to include both business and personal areas of your life from last year.
Review last year and separate your activities into 2 simple categories.
1. Activities, commitments or actions that motivated you or provided positive energy.
2. Activities, commitments or actions that demotivated you or provided negative energy.
Within each of these two categories, note the ‘Wins, Neutral or Negative’ outcomes in retrospect to your resultant feelings.
In making this retrospective assessment, your initial thought is your purest.
Now analyze these sub-sets with a view to what activities you wish to increase, maintain, reduce, or eliminate.
Increase/Maintain
These would include activities that motivate you and create energy. These are your Wins for the year.
On a personal level, they might include time spent on family, friends, personal/professional development, fitness, hobbies or travel.
On a business level, these might include successful client activities, marketing, business growth or positive staff outcomes.
Successful investment, creative pursuits or special projects often land here too.
You want to increase the scheduling of these activities in the year ahead through proactive focus. Ensure these are key priorities.
Maintain/Reduce
These include activities that are neutral or potentially negative.
On a personal level, these might include a re-set in certain family or personal relationships. You may decide to set new boundaries with people for the year ahead. Consider a reduction in time spent with people that are toxic or take energy from you.
Life admin can be overwhelming too. Assess whether you need more support from people around you or is there an opportunity to outsource activities.
On a business level, these might include problematic clients that demotivate you sucking energy away. You may want to change the scope of your working relationship or create boundaries. Staff members that hijack your focus or create problems need to be reviewed. And finally, business administration can take your breath away. Assess the areas within business administration that can be outsourced internally or externally.
Of course, there are always activities in both your personal and business life that just suck.
You must do them. I recommend scheduling these at times when your biorhythms are best suited to dealing with them.
It’s a zero-sum game. Increase your ability to schedule activities that motivate and energize you by being more efficient in reducing time dedicated to activities within this zone.
Reduce/Eliminate
These include all activities that are demotivating and negative.
On a personal level, these again include people that are toxic or strip your energy. Severely reduce or eliminate time spent with these people. Non-core personal activities that are net negatives must also be cut down or eliminated. Lean into this process.
On a business level, stop tolerating bad clients and commit to sacking them where possible. Do not take on new clients that you have major concerns with upfront. Trust your instincts. Assess weak areas of the business and commit to ceasing or eliminating these products or services. Stop tolerating problematic employees and commit to moving them on.
The ‘reduce/eliminate’ bucket should be self-evident in your honest assessment of last year.
There is important life-changing capacity to reclaim. The exciting news is that all the gains simply get allocated back to your ‘increase/maintain’ bucket.
Have fun and play with this exercise.
Last year’s diary doesn’t lie.
And neither does your gut, heart or head.
Trust yourself.
There are many hidden diamonds to be found in this process, to repeat and grow. But there are also dirty lumps of coal to reduce or dispose.
But don’t trick yourself.
You deserve your best life.
Be honest.
Be daring.
Reset.
Reinvigorate.
Relaunch.
It is going to be a momentous year ahead.
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