How do we reflect on a year like 2020?
I think maybe, just maybe, 2020 has given us all something to think about! I can add in all the clichés of a year of change, unprecedented, unpredictable and just out-and-out crazy – but we get that! What is perhaps harder to get our heads around is how to finish the year with meaningful reflection when the year looked so vastly different to our plans as Big Ben last struck midnight back in December.
The first thing I believe we should do is throw away any guilt around not hitting goals set this time last year. Goal setting is powerful but now is not the time to measure our performance based on decisions made on a totally different backdrop. We can dwell on lost opportunities, lack of progress and even losses made in 2020. It is far more powerful to acknowledge these as the results of a tumultuous year and move forward without a feeling of failure.
This is different though to totally ignoring the goals set. I’m sure they had been set for good reasons and with every intention of making progress. So rather than dismiss them and start from an entirely blank canvas you can reflect by asking yourself some new questions:
· Did I make progress against this goal?
o This is psychologically very different to “Did I achieve this goal?” and more likely to generate positive thinking about your achievements this last year
· Is this goal still relevant?
o Covid has changed our lives so much that 2019 goals may simply feel a world away from our current reality. If the goal is no longer relevant, we can choose to let it go altogether rather than spend time and energy analysing it
· Was achieving this goal within my control?
o This helps reflect through an objective lens. We may neglect any personal responsibility for our goals blaming Covid for all our lack of achievement. Or we might absorb too much blame for something we could do nothing about. Answering this question honestly will help us be better reflectors
The main reason we reflect is to learn. Learn about what we could do better if we face similar circumstances again. And for this, I don’t mean another global pandemic! Covid is a unique backdrop to 2020 but we are likely to face similar parts of the experience again. How do we cope with isolation? How do we manage stress? How do we stay motivated when the world around us keeps changing? These are experiences we may well face again and can learn lessons from. With this in mind, you might choose to write down three things that you learnt about yourself in 2020. For me I’ve discovered a daily walk reduces my feelings of stress, that sharing what I’m working on with other people makes me work quicker (& better!) and that I have to really work hard to carve out time for creativity. These now fall into my little survival tool-kit for the future.
So as we head into 2021 my last tip is to think about next year’s goals. But we know that the world is still not a settled place. So I am starting by looking at 2019 goals and considered what I want to pursue on an uncertain backdrop and what I want to postpone for the future. ‘Pursue or postpone?’ brings back some of my control. And given the uncertainty, I’m scrapping annual goals! I’m working 3 months at a time allowing myself the opportunity to reflect more regularly (& therefore learn more regularly too)
2020 has been tough. So reflect and learn, but also be kind to yourself. We have never faced a year like this, and had we known in advance what was ahead our goal may have been to simply ‘get through it’
