I am lucky enough to be part of a wonderful collaborative group, as a Director of Sage Room Co-op. Every year, we take time together as a group, including other close business collaborative connection, to reflect on our year. We are even luckier to have the amazing Amy Jackson from Nurturing Confidence to facilitate this workshop for us. It can be so hard to really evaluate what kind of year you’ve had without taking time out to write down where you were compared to where you are now.
So often, when we sit down to do this late November or early December, I’m feeling a combination of exhausted and in need of a holiday, alongside excited about ‘all the things’ I’m planning to do next year. Once I start to write down the key moments that have happened in my year, I start to realise that it’s no wonder I’m exhausted and in need of a holiday, and also how unrealistic I can sometimes be about all I’m ‘going to achieve’ next year.
When we set goals, we know all the acronyms – they should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). But when it’s in the moment and we are feeling enthusiastic and excited about all the possibilities, it’s easy to be a teensy bit unreasonable in my expectations!
There are so many unknowns and curveballs and things that are outside of our control that can upend your plans. And you need to be prepared for those possibilities. Not expecting the worst, but also not expecting a clear playing field. Plan for those hurdles, be ready for the curveballs, be flexible in your thinking about what is achievable.
Set realistic goals. They don’t need to be small – I encourage you to stretch yourself. But maybe break them down, with a bigger end goal, so that if one stage doesn’t go to plan, that’s totally ok, you can build another path. And make sure those goals fit with the flexibility you need in your work and life.
Back to the reflections of my 2024.
Meaningful Work
It’s been a big year in so many ways. I had a fantastic opportunity to work with Cameron Costello, a First Nations Consultant, Speaker and Facilitator. I had done some smaller pieces of work with him last year, and when the chance came up for me to continue the work on a bigger scale, I was delighted. I’ve been helping him to manage the business operations, to free him up to facilitate, MC, or attend workshops, awards events, meetings, and run multiple projects. To be able to support him to do meaningful work in his community, all around the country, and beyond, is a privilege, and I look forward to seeing all the projects come to fruition to fulfil his own business mission of connecting countries, cultures and communities. As an extra bonus, I am watching his daughter, an emerging artist (Jandakil Designs), do some amazing work, and can’t wait to see what she does with her very bright future!
I am so grateful to be able to do this work and to get to learn so much about First Nations culture during the process.
Learning
Education and learning have always been of huge importance to me, and this year I took on the challenge of a Diploma in Leadership & Management. Given my career history, I was able to demonstrate prior learning and experience for some of the units, and then finally completed the last subject in August to gain the qualification. I’m sure I’ll keep learning in the future, but I still have about 120 sections to complete of a Counselling course that I started a (long) while ago that thankfully I have lifetime access to, so I’m trying not to sign up for anything else too much ‘til that’s done!
Flexibility
Flexibility in my work has always been of great importance to me, allowing me to be clear with clients when I will be available, and to give me time to spend with family. I have one son who is in 2nd year at university, so I know there is limited time before he will be spending less time around me, so I made sure to take opportunities to have a sneaky lunch together sometimes, and he even comes and uses a spare desk at my work to study when he is struggling to focus at home. My other son no longer needs lifts home from school in the afternoon, but he unfortunately still needs me to get him out the door in the mornings for school, so I try not to have any meetings until 9.30 so I have time to get into the office and get myself set up for the day first!
Self-care
One personal learning experience I’ve had this year was the importance of taking care of myself, especially my health. I’ve suffered for many years with migraines and fibromyalgia, and tried so many different paths for a solution, as they were becoming more and more debilitating. Thankfully, I took the time this year to really stop and take notice of how I was feeling day to day, instead of ‘pushing through’, and from this insight I’ve been able to get significant improvements. Long way to go yet, but it was so much of a relief once I made the effort to be more conscious of whether there might be patterns I’d been missing. I felt as though I was back in more control of my health again, instead of purely relying on others to figure it all out for me. I am lucky to have amazing practitioners who have supported me, and am grateful for all who work in healthcare!
Family
I took a solo trip back to Scotland this year to spend time with my Mum. Don’t think we have spent that much one on one time together since before I was a teenager! It was really lovely to get to have such quality time with her and my sister and catch up with a few others in the area. Having been brought up in a fairly remote area, I’d forgotten how hard it is to get around without a car, so I just enjoyed some local walks and had some great long-overdue chats with Mum! The weather was beautiful while I was there, although I somehow managed to miss the Northern Lights as I was sound asleep – woke up to all the photos everyone had taken and frantically spent the next 3 nights running outside hopeful of catching something, but no – can’t tick that one off the bucket list yet!
Ending the year on a high
My work with some of my other regular clients changed this year, for the best kind of reasons! Much of the work we have been doing for a few years has paid off, and the growth they have had in their business, and as business owners and leaders, means we have shifted my support to more of a strategic role and less of an operational one. Loving seeing all of our businesses grow through some incredible collaborations and connections.
I’ll be heading into my End of Year Reflection workshop this year more prepared than ever having written this (I’ve been doing these reflection workshops with Amy for 8 years now!) – feel like I’ve given myself a head start!
I recommend the process highly to help you clearly understand what progress you’ve made, so you can re-establish your goals for the coming year, as well as celebrate all of your achievements, including many you will likely forget if you don’t reflect in this way! If you’d like to do this work yourself, Amy has turned it into an online workshop you can make your way through in your own time, or even go through with a colleague. And you can return to the course each year and do it again, and once you do it for the first time, you will look forward to the process each year! You can find out more and sign up for the waitlist here.
