As we are already part of the way through January and the time for creating New Year Resolutions may have passed us by, it doesn’t mean that we should not take some time out to reflect on what we want in 2022, a year that brings yet more uncertainty.
A good kickstart to get motivated and begin this year’s growth journey is to contemplate five simple yet thoughtful considerations. These five considerations will help you reflect on your development from last year and will set you up for what you intend to accomplish over the next 12 months.
The methodology behind this exercise is based on Graham Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle, a tried and tested model which looks at both retrospective and prospective reflection.
This process can help us assess our 2021 achievements and get us motivated as we venture into a new year of learning and development. I hope you enjoy the post.
Wishing you a productive, successful and (most important of all) healthy 2022.
-Bev
Looking Back – Retrospective Reflection for 2021
Description
What and why? What did you do in the last year, and why did you do it?
This will challenge you to consider the actions you have taken as well as the thoughts behind them and how they aligned with your values and goals. You will be able to identify the reasoning behind positive outcomes and stressful situations.
Ask yourself ‘How did I do this?’
This will help you establish what worked and what didn’t so you can continue with the methods that made you successful and change the ones that caused any negative issues.
Feelings
How did you feel during the year? How do you feel now? What do you think other people feel about where they are now, and where you are now?
Evaluate
Ask yourself how you will evaluate your success. Are you simply looking at financial measures? Career measures? Or others? Have you included the impact you may have had to grow other team members? And what measures will this help you craft for the next phase?
Conclusions
As you look back at 2021, what themes or patterns can you identify which contributed to your success? This thought process will help you discover if you are on your right path, or if you need to make any adjustments to move towards your goals for you and your team, and ultimately the organisation.
Here you will start to transition from retrospective to prospective reflection and you will start to think about what you want the next year to look like. Actions
Looking Forward – Prospective Reflection for 2022
What do you think a good year will look like? What do YOU want to do and why?
Keeping the ‘why’ question in mind, paint a picture of what you want the year to look like and how it will align with your goals and values. This is a good time to start thinking about crafting a vision and capturing it in whatever form works for you. This might be in words, figures or more creative media such as images or drawings.
Consider the following:
What do you want to achieve?
How do you want to be viewed by others?
What do you want to learn?
How do you plan to do this?
This presents an opportunity for each of us to brainstorm all the different ways in which we can achieve our goals and to try new ways of working. Here, we can have a serious think about methodology and what will work best to achieve results.
And finally…
Keep your “vision” and plan of action under review. Once crafted, make sure you revisit it at least quarterly. How’s it coming along and what’s next? Is it on track? If not, what needs to be modified?
By reflecting on these five considerations throughout the year to re-evaluate progress we can constantly grow and improve.
Would you like to attend a complimentary webinar on creating your 2022 vision and beyond? If the answer is yes or if you would like a PDF summary of this blog vision, please send me an email or give me a call via the contact details below. 👇
(e) bevcouzens@executiveedgecoaching.co.uk
(m) 07802 798080