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Personal Inventory: Setting Up for Success in the New Year (and Decade)

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The holiday season is also the end of the year, which makes it a great time to reflect—to review our progress from the past year and set ourselves up for success in the New Year. I don’t know about you, but this year-end seems especially significant to me because it’s not just the end of a year—it’s the end of a decade. For some, it’s just the turning of the calendar, but it actually provides us an opportunity to “re-set” on a major level—to think not just about what we want for 2020, but for the next ten years, and how we might pursue those goals.

So whatever your particular holiday traditions are, I’d like to encourage you to take a little time for some “personal inventory” between now and the end of the year—take stock of your situation and where you are with your own goals in preparation for the new year and decade. I call it “personal inventory” because that’s really what it’s about. It’s taking stock of where you are, what you have, and what you still want to do, so by the time the calendar turns, you’ve taken a deep breath and you’re now mentally and emotionally prepared to jump into the next season with both feet.

What does taking personal inventory look like? It might be different for everyone, but let me just share a step-by-step example of what it might look like for you.

Take Stock of Your Goals from the Past Year

Hopefully, you set at least a few goals or milestones for 2019. How did you do with them? How many of those goals did you reach? Did some of them get forgotten or fall by the wayside? This isn’t a time to self-judge, but simply to give an honest accounting of how this past year played out for you, and what you were able to achieve. Specifically, try writing down the following:

  • List your successes from the past year. (You might be surprised at how many there are when you actually count them.)
  • List your disappointments. Again, without self-judgment, list the things that perhaps didn’t go your way this year. (Remember, this is just inventory—taking stock of your own assets and liabilities, so to speak.)
  • List your unmet goals from the year. Try to recount what happened in each situation. Did something go haywire? Did you lose focus? Did you just not give yourself enough time?
  • Re-evaluate your goals. Are there any unmet goals you’d like to take into the new year? Are there any that are no longer important to you?

Put the Year to Rest

Once you’ve taken time to reflect on the past year, it’s time to close the chapter. Imagine yourself packing up all the events of the year—successes as well as failures—into an imaginary box that represents 2019. As you do, I recommend taking the following steps in your mind:

  • Take a moment to savor the successes. (Go ahead—you deserve it!)
  • Take a moment to mourn the losses (including any failures).  Give yourself permission to grieve, to feel sorry for yourself, just for a moment or two…then pack them in the box and move on. This is especially important if you’ve had a difficult year or faced some additional challenges.
  • If you identified any goals you’d like to carry over into 2020, pull those out of the box for next year.
  • Close the box, lock it and put it away.

Look to the Next Year

Now that you’ve put the past to rest, it’s time to look toward the future with a clean slate and the burdens lifted. Whatever goal-setting habits you have personally, it’s time to put those to use. (If you don’t have a goal-setting routine, check out this blog for some guidance.) Write down your goals, then set up some milestones and check points through the year to track your progress. Just as you closed the box on last year, you’re opening the box on a new one.

Establish Successful Habits

Once you’ve identified your goals, you can begin making plans for how you’re going to stay on track during the next year and beyond. If you haven’t yet started practicing my 5 Steps to a Successful Day, the New Year is a great time to hit the start button on it!

Whether you’ve had a good year or a disappointing one…regardless if you’re ending 2019 strong or if you would have preferred a different ending to the year…if you will take the time to conduct a personal inventory like I’ve described, I’m confident you can find at least a bit of internal closure so you can face the next year with hope and anticipation. If you are ending 2019 between jobs or careers and you want some help getting on track for 2020, I’m always here to help you reach those goals. Let’s have a free half-hour consultation together to take an inventory together. Email me at terrylynn@giraffesconsulting.com, or call me at 646-320-1126.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

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How Do You Define Success?

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“All successful people have a goal.”

Norman Vincent Peale

In my previous post, I shared my 5 steps to take to have a successful day. (If you haven’t read it yet—please go and read it.) But there’s actually more to the story. You can’t really declare a day to be “successful” if you haven’t yet defined success. Without that understanding, how will you know if you’ve had a successful day—or in fact, whether you’re achieving long-term success at all?

Wrong Assumptions About Success

When we talk about this or that person being “successful,” what are we usually referring to? For most people, a successful person is one who makes a lot of money, has a big house and a nice car, has a rewarding career, and so on. But these aren’t markers of success in and of themselves—they are only status symbols. They’re just things. If you’re chatting at a party with a wealthy, high-powered attorney who flies to Europe every other weekend with a Victoria’s Secret model on his arm, you might be inclined to assume he is successful. But what if he really wanted to be a ballet dancer and he went to law school only to satisfy the demands of his parents? Is he truly successful?

Think about that for a moment…

Probably not.

See what I mean? Part of why we have a hard time defining success is that we’re measuring it by symbols, rather than understanding what success really means.

Success Is Much Simpler than We Think

This might seem like oversimplifying or even being too obvious, but out of curiosity I decided to go to a respected source to find a definition for “success:” the dictionary. Here are a couple of definitions I found that make a lot of sense:

From dictionary.com: “the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals.” (emphasis mine)

From Merriam-Webster: “favorable or desired outcome.”

To me, these definitions reveal the heart behind any success: When you set a goal and you achieve that goal, you have succeeded. It’s really that simple. That’s why one of the five steps to a successful day is to write down your goals for the day. If you don’t set a destination, how will you know when you’ve arrived? Likewise, if you don’t set a goal, how will you know if you succeeded?

I really like boiling down success to its basic element. To me, a successful day is one in which I accomplish at least some of what I set out to do that day. And because big successes are built on lots of small ones, if I set daily goals that are in line with my larger goals, every successful day adds to the momentum so that I have ongoing success. Does that make sense?

Now, does that mean wealth is not a measure of success? (Some of you clicked through and read the other dictionary definitions…didn’t you?) Yes, I believe success can involve wealth—especially IF achieving wealth was your goal. But sometimes we want and need other things that are just as important, and even more so. If a person doesn’t have wealth or status but is happy and fulfilled in everyday life, to me, that person is more successful than the high-powered lawyer with the Victoria’s Secret model who secretly wishes he were a ballet dancer.

Of course, these are just my ideas about success, and they are how I approach my daily practice of the five steps. What’s more important is how YOU define success. Do you have clearly defined goals for what you want, both short-term and long-term? If you are currently seeking a new job or a career change, are you looking for a job that is in line with your goals?

Part of my job as a career coach is to help my clients understand what their own picture of success looks like, and to help them craft goals to help them get there. I’m not interested in just helping people become gainfully employed—I’m interested in helping them be fulfilled in the process, based on what success means for them. If you need help clarifying your career goals, I can certainly help. Shoot me an email at terrylynn@giraffesconsulting.com, or call me at 646-320-1126 to set up a free 30-minute consultation.