I love December, not just because there’s a ton of sparkle and spirit – but it’s also the time when I start to sketch my plan for the year ahead. It started in my corporate goal setting days: reflecting how the year had gone for me and my team, preparing for our end of year review meetings, and thinking what we wanted to do in the next financial year.
Now, I’ve translated it into something I do purely for myself: How has 2023 gone, and what am I going to hold myself accountable for in 2024? There are no managers required to review and sign off this one – it’s just me, being 100% in charge of me.
In my work experience there are generally two camps for annual goal setting:
Camp one thinks it’s largely a waste of time, a box-ticking exercise unlikely to move themselves or their organisation forward in any significant way. You can feel the collective eye-rolls as soon as the conversations begin.
Camp two gets really behind the process and see it as a framework to genuinely develop themselves, contribute to the team moving forward, and the company achieving its high-level goals. This camp actively looks forward to their end of year review meeting.
No real surprise I was most often in camp two, but now I’m doing it just for me.
No-one else reads it, I don’t really talk about it, but it drives me over the next year. It’s my personal anti-procrastination plan. I start with two questions:
“How has this year panned out, and what do I want to get done next year?”
It’s not a vision board and I don’t consider it manifesting.
They’re not New Year’s resolutions.
They’re not dreams.
I don’t even call them goals.
They are things that are bothering me.
Things I’m excited about.
Things I’ve been putting off.
Things that I need to stop thinking or worrying about and start acting on.
They begin as high-level thoughts on an A5 notebook page. Each one can start really high level and might be as few as four words. ‘Worry less about pension’ has been one previously. Four words that I can then break down into actionable steps. No strategy, no solution at that point. I’ve then got a whole year to figure out the steps I can take to tackle each one.
I periodically revisit it and develop ideas on the how:
- Book the appointment
- Have the conversation
- Research the thing
- Learn and apply the new skill
- Take some kind of action
- Change my own behaviour.
Resolving these things builds my confidence because I know I am moving forward, which in turn always makes me feel good about myself. Ceasing those annoying scripts in my brain and the negative self-talk that I know comes along when I fail to deal with something.
I keep the old plans in the notebook too. I find it rewarding to go back to previous years and check the things that were bothering me. Did I really conquer them? It feels good when I can say yes, I can be proud that I moved past them, and even better when I’ve moved so far past them that I can’t believe that ‘little’ thing was ever holding me back.
If you fancy a go yourself, here are some categories to inspire you to start to sketch or note down. What’s niggling you, what have you been putting off, how can you hold yourself accountable to get it done and get it out of your head over the next 12 months?
- Work – a new skill to learn, a task you’ve been avoiding, a promotion to plan for, a total career change
- Business owners – planning for growth, recruitment, creating something new
- Health – something causing you pain, something you’ve been ignoring, something you felt fobbed off about that you want to revisit, trying a new form of exercise
- Travel – trying out a new place or revisiting an old favourite
- Home – a project you started but never got finished, or maybe a move
- Finance – sorting debt, strategies for savings, pension planning
- Relationships – having a difficult conversation, widening your network, reconnecting with old acquaintances, sorting a family issue
- Self – learning a new skill, approaching a life milestone, joining a group or a club.
I’m pretty sure everyone reading this will have at least one item that they resonate with, or maybe it’s even something I’ve not listed that has been niggling you.
Why don’t you give it a go, take just one hour out of December to do your own personal review. Just write a couple of words for each one. I’d love to know if you’re going to try, and what kind of things you’re aiming for. Leave a comment or send in some feedback!
I’m a list person and make a list at the start of the year of what I want to achieve but don’t look at how I can do it and inevitably don’t follow it through….it invatiably just becomes yet another list. This time I’m going to take a leaf out of your book Kelly and adopt the PDP approach in my personal life. I like what Richard said above and will focus on 2 or 3 which are the most important for me. I’ll focus on what and then how. I have had many a PDP in my time & although I was at times one of those who rolled my eyes, reviewing and seeing my progress was always an achievement and sense of pride. I have never thought of applying this to my personal life so looking forward to seeing how I progress…watch this space ☺️
I’ve enjoyed all of the stories so far, and i am not someone who regularly reads blogs. Looking forward to more.
I’ve not set work type goals and objectives for my personal life, but now that i plan to start working less i know i need something to provide more structure so i don’t only focus on riding my bike as much as possible. I’m going to give this a go, but with a small difference. I’ll pick the two or three things that matter the most and focus on those. i may have a few other things i want do achieve but those will be secondary. This is specific for me and may not be the same for everyone, but i know that if i set too many goals life can descend into a self-improvement mission and i’ll not achieve the most important thing of all – enjoying what i am doing.
Incidentally, i think many corporations set too many goals and objectives and then have the wrong attitude to supporting them. if i was in charge i would have a very short list, rank them with the most important thing at the top, and commit all the resources (out of those available) the top one needs to provide a very high probability of success, them move to the next…and keep going till all the resources were gone. I’ve seen too many organizations divide their resources to give some support to every item on a long list of objectives even though it compromises the chances of being successful in what is really important.
Hi Richard, welcome along and thanks for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found it useful and are going to give it a try. I’d love it if you checked back in to share how it’s going for you in the New Year.
I hear what you are saying on company goal setting, I have a blog part drafted on it, so watch this space.