In a word.

I have never been the type for setting New Years resolutions. In honesty, I’ve never been the type for setting personal goals. Goals seems like work, and life seems to have enough of that already.

My goal setting had always been reserved for the work environment. Projects, programmes, managed change, deliverables, aims, outcomes, visions, were my bread and butter. Transferring them in to my personal life felt like removing the joy of happenstance.

I was that person who took opportunities presented, made the most of ones that were, but did not go seeking them.

That can work for some, and for some it can work for a while, but sometimes your personal and work life cross (hello self employment) and you have to re-think your approach.

I’ve read and reviewed countless planners and goal setting documents in the last month and had the opportunity to complete them for myself, but the spaces have always been left ominously blank as my interest suddenly began to wane and other tasks drew my attention away. Then two things happened.

I attended an online anti-goals workshop from Ray Dodd where there was a beautiful focus on giving yourself permission to use your own personal methods of success. You don’t have to be a career professional and aiming for renowned excellence in your field. You don’t have to be self employed and aiming for market or financial growth. You can if you want, but you are also perfectly entitled to focus on what matters to you, what you need, and what impact you want to make. Furthermore, if you’re daunted by setting a big goal, there’s nothing stopping you focusing on ‘incremental wins’. This was more attractive to me. It sounded more like a quick fun exercise than a lengthy dry task.

Separately, I was also recently reminded of the idea of the ‘word of the year’ challenge. If you haven’t heard of it, a quick google search of the ‘one word challenge’ will give you plenty of guidance and detail, but for me it was simply taking some time to think about the last year and what mindset could have improved it.

If drilling it down to one word begins to feel like a chore, and starts to turn you off, think of it as a theme. You are not tied to it, this is to help you not hinder you, but if it’s really what you want then it can become your heart led mission statement for the coming year - something you can use as a yardstick to compare what you’re doing (both personal and professional) against.

With the word of the year, I‘m drawn to the fact that it’s not something you overthink. It’s simply what you feel you need, what you feel you’re missing, or what you think could help enhance or balance your life. It’s an instinctive response, a gut reaction and qualitative, not quantitative.

I decided to take a little time reflect on my last year and thought about what mindset could have improved it. if 2020 and 2021have taught us anything it’s that can’t always control external influences, but you can control how you react to them.

I‘m still finalising my theme for the year but, whilst I’m enjoying playing around with the words, it’s felt good to know what direction I want to head in And I don’t feel daunted about contemplating the ways in which I might want to get there. So, in a word, or maybe a few, what do you want for yourself in 2022?

As always, if something is troubling you, please consider whether you think you would benefit from getting relevant support. https://helplines.org/helplines/

Notes: There are no paid advertisements in this piece. Any references to any products or services are made for information purposes only and not as a result of an agreed arrangement.

© Highcroft Writing 2021