Tag Archives: Goals

Get SERIOUS about your Intentions & Goals for 2022

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Following on from my previous blog post ‘5 Steps to Your Annual Review’, 

Step 5 is getting SERIOUS about your INTENTIONS & GOALS  for 2022.  

Getting SERIOUS about your INTENTIONS & GOALS sets you up for success for 2022 and beyond.

This is my favourite part of the Annual Review as it is where you take everything you learned from the first 4 steps and turn them into GORGEOUS, DREAM DRIVEN GOALS!

So how do you set GORGEOUS, DREAM DRIVEN GOALS for 2022?

Go through every area of your life in your Wheel of Life (or use mine below) and think about what success in each area look & feel like for you in 2022?  Then go back through all of the questions from the first 4 steps of your Annual Review and use your answers to set your intentions & goals for 2022. 

The first step to success to is writing down your goals, I highly recommend buying a notebook/journal specifically for your goals and revisiting this regularly to check progress. You can also document them online but I find they can get lost with everything else that we have online, emails, documents etc.

When I am setting intentions & goals I use the acronym SERIOUS, I hope this supports you to set goals for 2022  in all of the key areas of your life.

Go through your Wheel of Life (or use mine) and ask yourself the following questions,

S = STOP 

What will you stop doing that is not serving you in 2022?

Do you have habits that you want to stop? 

Do you have behaviours that you want to stop?

 

E = ENGAGE

 Who do you need to engage with in 2022?

Are there relationships you need to give more time to?

Are there relationships you need to give less time to?

Do you need to find a coach and/or mentor to support you?

Do you need to offer support to someone?

Do you need to receive support from someone?

Is there someone you want to learn from?

 

R = REMOVE 

What do you need to remove from your life in 2022?

What do you physically need to remove from your life/work/business?

What do you mentally/emotionally need to remove like beliefs & stories you tell yourself?

What do you need to remove electronically – electronic space also takes up mental headspace!

If your life is full, there is no room for anything else to enter! 

 

I = INTENTION & IMPROVE

What is your intention in each area of your life in 2022?  

What will you improve in each area of your life in 2022?

What is working for you that you want to build on?

What parts of your life do you love that you want more of?

 

O = OPEN YOUR MIND 

How will you open your mind and move out of your comfort zone?

Your comfort zone is exactly that – comfortable.

There is no growth there, you will only grow by moving outside of your comfort zone. 

What do you need to learn about to move you out of your comfort zone? 

What passions do you have in life that you want to learn more about? 

How will you grow & evolve in each area of your life?

 

U = UNDERSTAND 

How will you understand more about each area of your life in 2022? 

How will you understand more about yourself? 

How will you understand more about others?

You are the key to your own success in life and so understanding and nurturing your relationship with yourself is time very well spent.

 

S = START

What will you start? 

We usually take on way too much and so ‘Start’ is the last thing to do.

Our lives are already overflowing with busy and so to start something new, we need to create the precious time to do so. 

It’s better to focus on everything else (especially STOP & REMOVE) so you can create the physical, mental and emotional time and space to start something new!

 

That’s it, answer these quick and easy questions to get SERIOUS about INTENTION & GOAL setting in every area of your life for 2022 and beyond. 

 

Whether this was your first time setting intentions & goals for the year or you have been doing this for many years, I hope you learned something new.

More importantly, I hope you TAKE ACTION!

Intention & goal setting is only as good as the ACTION YOU TAKE to plan for 2022, I’d love to hear how your intention & goal setting went and what ACTIONS you will be taking?

I wish you happiness, joy, success and purposeful, positive change in 2022 and beyond. 

You can download your free resource, the ANNUAL REVIEW WORKBOOK below, 

Thanks for reading, 

Siobhain

xx

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My 12 Week Review

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Firstly wherever you are I hope you are safe and well. Covid 19 has had a devastating impact on some people’s lives and and we are not yet in control of it. Here’s hoping the next 12 weeks bring more hopeful and positive times. 

Going into lockdown straight after Christmas here in Ireland, we thought the time would never pass by, but it did and our restrictions are easing and beautiful spring is in the air. I love the spring, there is a real sense of renewal and of awakening from the winter that can be dark, dreary and filled with somewhat low energy. Even the thoughts of summer is enough to brighten up my day!

Following my previous blog post ‘7 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review’, this post is my 12 Week Review, it’s pretty high level but I hope it gives you an insight into how powerful reflection can be and also how reflection makes it so easy to know what improvements are needed in your life going forward. 

Have you taken the time to sit with yourself and reflect on the past 12 weeks, I hope so. Reflection is one of the most powerful tools you can use to understand more about yourself, your life, where you want to be and how you are going to get there. 

I’m a big fan of reflection and have been reflecting through writing in journals since I was very young and have brought this love of reflection with me throughout my life and career. In my humble opinion I think reflection is one of the most underrated and underutilised tools for success. Like most incredible tools for success, reflection is completely free and available to everyone!

At the beginning of every year, I use the ‘Wheel of Life’ to categorise areas of my life and set annual goals for these areas which filter down into quarterly, monthly, weekly & daily goals. This makes reflecting on the past 12 weeks a relatively easy exercise as I have already reflected on progress daily, weekly & monthly.

Here’s my 12 Week Review on what the past 12 weeks have brought to me in the areas of my ‘Wheel of Life’,

Relationships: 

I would normally have plans to visit my family regularly, have nights out with Mike, catch ups with friends, weekends away, holidays etc but lockdown put an end to all that. Instead it was cosy nights in and phone/video calls with loved ones. As I’m sure was the case for everyone, it has been hard not spending time with my family & friends and I am so glad restrictions have lifted slightly. On a positive note, I think the restrictions and the global pandemic in general has given me an even deeper appreciation for how precious time with our loved ones is. 

On another positive note, what the pandemic also brought is loads of new friendships from around the world due to everything now being online. 

As always, my relationship with myself and understanding more about who I am and why I do what I do underpins the quality of all of my relationships.

I’m looking forward to the next 12 weeks and beyond being more social – in the real world!

Health is Wealth:

Health to me is Mind, Body & Soul which is all about what I feed my mind, what I feed my body and what I feed my soul. 

Pick up your phone, choose any social media platform and you will see a stream of people telling you what’s good for your health, how to get fit, how to eat healthily, what to read etc. Most of this is really good advice and people who share their personal stories have got some really good results from what works for them. I am a huge advocate of learning from those who have achieved the results we want to achieve but first we must know what we want for ourselves and why!

In terms of our Mind, Body & Soul we must find out what is best for us as individuals, what keeps us stable and what improves the health of our Mind, Body & Soul. This is different for everyone and so before we go chasing the latest fad, it’s a really good idea to check in and see does it align with what we want for ourselves. What works for someone else may not work for us! This also means not comparing our journey to anyone else’s, especially in terms of what we see on social media which we all know isn’t the full story of people’s lives. 

Over the years, I have learned what keeps my Mind, Body & Soul stable, aligned, happy & healthy. The following are critical to my health – precious time with loved ones, healthy eating, exercise, reading, learning, personal growth, journaling, solitude, rest/relaxation & meditation. 

These should be my highest priority as they enable me to bring the best version of myself to the world and to those I love. Unfortunately over the past 12 weeks, I didn’t prioritise these and so didn’t reach any of my goals in terms of Mind, Body & Soul! We reflect to learn so we can make better judgements going forward and so over the next 12 weeks Mind, Body & Soul will become my first priority. 

Health is Wealth and if we don’t prioritise it now, we will for sure pay for it later! 

Personal Development/Growth: 

I’m not a typical academic and was never top of the class, I’m more of a curious, creative learner and like learning about many different topics instead of being master at just one. Marie Forleo calls this being ‘multi passionate’ which describes me very well. Learning more about many different topics helps me learn more about myself which is the prerequisite to success of any kind. My favourite way to learn is reading/listening to books, if I could get paid to read all day every day, this would be my dream job! #DreamBig

I also love to learn from podcasts, videos and from people on social media and in the real world. If we are connected in some way, chances are I learn from you!

One of my goals from last year was to up my game in terms of learning about online business which I did through taking my very first online course, Natalie Sisson’s ‘Launch Your Damn Course’ and also by signing up to Natalie’s 10K Club for female entrepreneurs – I love being a part of both of these groups and am learning a huge amount from Natalie and all the other amazing course creators & female entrepreneurs. If you want to learn how to create an online course and also learn how to create an online business I suggest you connect with Natalie (or drop me a DM and I can connect you with Natalie personally). 

This year my goal is to increase my learning even further in topics I am passionate about and so I have signed up to the following courses that have been on my ‘to do’ list for ages. Now all I need is time to go through them!

  1. The Copy Cure by Marie Forleo
  2. List Builder’s Society by Amy Porterfield
  3. Beyond Flexibility by Karin Dimitrivova
  4. Business & Executive Coaching Certificate with Career Decisions/Skillnet

Personal Development/Growth ties in with Health is Wealth in that if you are continuously learning you are continuously nurturing your Mind, Body & Soul. Similar to Health is Wealth, on reflection I didn’t prioritise this area of my life, I signed up to many courses but haven’t even started some of them. This is a priority area for the next 12 weeks and a part of this priority is learning something that doesn’t involve being online – I need to get away from my computer! 

Finance:

My philosophy around finance is very simple & my goals revolve around having an abundance mindset, the flow of money in and out of my life and learning more about financial freedom. 

I have learned a huge amount about financial freedom and what it means to me from Tony Robbins excellent book ‘Money, Master the Game’. Chapter 3 goes into the details of financial freedom and how you determine what that means to you and how you reach it. This is not rocket science and Tony breaks it down into really simple, easy to understand, easy to implement steps. The rest of this book is heavy and isn’t the type of book I’d normally read but it’s worth buying it for chapter 3 alone. 

Over the past 12 weeks I would call my finances stable –  my day job earnings were down as we were on reduced hours but I created income from my business which was very exciting and I moved another few steps towards my version of financial freedom!! 

As important as money is and we need it to live, where I am in my life right now, time is a more valuable currency to me, I read this quote from Jim Rohn every day to remind me of the importance of valuing my time, 

“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” 

Something to ponder on! 

Work/Purpose: 

I divide work and purpose in two as for me they are two very separate entities. Work is what I do for a living, in other words, my day job. I love my day job & the amazing team I work with and I count my blessings for both each and every day. However, my day job is not my purpose. Yes, for sure, my day job and purpose are aligned but they are not the same thing. 

Our purpose in life is our reason for being, the reason we are here, the reason we get up in the morning and the reason we strive to be a better version of ourselves every day. When I think of purpose I think of Mark Twain’s beautiful quote ‘The most two important days in your life are the day your born and the day you find out why’. 

Finding our WHY is an ongoing journey that is a work in progress for our entire lives. The first step to understanding our purpose is knowing we have one! Have you thought about your purpose in life? Is it your day job? If not, what might it be? My advice for finding your purpose in life is to follow what you love to do and then contribute this gift to the world.

As mentioned above, my purpose is aligned to my day job as I have immense passion for Lean Strategy & Culture however my purpose is more closely aligned to what I do outside of work which over many years has evolved from Travel Photography, Blogging & Writing to more recently Online Course Creation, Writing & Business (Travel Photography is on hold for he moment for obvious reasons!). My purpose is very much a work in progress and I am loving the journey of exploring it all.

The past 12 weeks was incredibly busy and I made huge progress in Online Course Creation, Business & Writing. This was so exciting and brought me immense joy & happiness. 

In saying that, there was a cost! I totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to deliver all of the below which meant I made much progress in this area of my life but created little to no progress in other areas. This led to being unbalanced which is what I felt numerous times during the past 12 weeks – the next 12 weeks will be all about bringing balance back into my life and ensuring all areas of my life are prioritised equally!

Here are the milestones I reached over the past 12 weeks that I’m most proud of, 

My first self hosted free webinar – I am used to hosting presentations/webinars online through my day job, however hosting my own webinar is another story altogether. From handling all the tech to promotion, communication, content creation, hosting the webinar, sharing the recording and follow up on all the communication (emails & social media) – I loved every minute of this webinar but it did move me way outside of my comfort zone which is great for personal growth but oh so uncomfortable! Following this webinar, I worked with Shannon Chamber to run the webinar again which has brought many exciting opportunities.  

My first 6 Week Online Course – Moving even further outside of my comfort zone I created, launched, promoted and delivered my very first 6 Week Online Course. This was so much work, so nerve wracking and so enjoyable in equal amounts. Five beautiful souls (you know who you are) trusted me with guiding them through the steps to create their Personal Strategy and I am so grateful for this. I loved delivering the course content and I equally loved learning from the group through the deep, honest and open discussions we had. We are all unique and we all have a story to tell and a message to share, we can learn so much from each other if we are open to this learning. 

My first podcast interviews – I was interviewed on Natalie Sisson’s ‘Untapped’ podcast which was my very first podcast interview. In terms of my comfort zone – this brought nerves to a whole new level! I have been following Natalie online for many years and being part of her LYDC & 10K Club has been amazing but getting to be a guest on her podcast was just brilliant! Recording the podcast was so much fun, however listening back to my own voice was a bit surreal!

I was also interviewed for Sharon Singh Sidhu’s podcast ‘The Financially Free Woman’ podcast. I love Sharon’s philosophy around financial freedom and really align with her teachings in terms of our mindset around money.

All of the above opened up many doors of opportunity that I am currently working on and looking forward to sharing with you.

 Social Life:

As we have been I lockdown since Christmas my social life has been very much based at home and not really what I would normally refer to as a social life.

I’m looking forward to our social lives returning to some level of normality over the next 12 weeks and beyond!

Environment:

My goals for this pillar of my Personal Strategy include decorating our home and being more aware of and kinder to our beautiful planet. 

After over a year of working from home on our kitchen table, I have finally moved into my new home office. We have turned our spare room downstairs into my home office and I love it, I can finally separate work and home life! I’m looking forward to decorating my new home office and creating a really chilled yet productive space to work. 

As part of being more aware of an kinder to our planet, I am reducing the amount of plastic I use and looking at using more eco friendly products. This is a work in progress but it’s really inspiring to see how many Irish companies support eco friendly and sustainable products. 

Contribution:

There are so many charities who do incredible work for those less fortunate and I am very grateful that I can afford to support some of these charities. I have a few favourite charities that are personal to me and year on year I try to give more to them. Charities have been hit really hard during the Covid 19 pandemic and so they can do with all of the help and support we can give them.  

That’s the past 12 weeks for me – albeit at a very high level. 

How has the past 12 weeks been for you?

I’m hoping happy, successful and full of optimism for the next 12 weeks. 

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 12 weeks and beyond!

Siobhain

x x

To support you with your 12 Week Review, I have created a free resource, the ‘12 Week Review Workbook’ that will walk you through the 5 steps to carry out your 12 Week Review. You can download it below. I hope you find time for some quiet reflection and find this workbook useful.

 

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5 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

When you start doing quarterly reviews you start to realise just how fast 3 months go by.

The end of each quarter is a super time to look back and reflect on how things went in the past quarter and plan for the quarter ahead.

Having a personal strategy is all about creating an amazing, fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. Your personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

When personal strategy and the goals you have set, the quarterly review can be the most important. It certainly is my favourite review because it’s a deep dive into progress of goals and there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating.

As humans we are wired to perform better when we are making progress which is why reflection & reviews are so important. You may not think you are making progress in your life & work but you are probably making way more progress than you think! 

On reflection, this will become very clear!

BUT FIRST – WHY! 

WHY should you carry out a 12 Week Review?

Simon Sinek is famous for his brilliant TED Talk ‘How great leaders inspire action’ with over 13 million views on YouTube. In this video, Simon talks about the importance of knowing your ‘WHY’ in terms of everything you do.

When it comes to everything in your life, your WHY is the first step to success! 

Here are 5 reasons WHY I think your 12 Week Review deserves to be your priority, 

1. It slows you down and gives you time & space to think

We live in an extremely fast paced world and we seem to be so busy all the time. 

Reflection of any kind allows us to stop moving forward, to be still in the present moment and to give the necessary time and space required to learn from the past. 

Not to dwell on or judge the past, but to take the learnings from it to move forward with more knowledge, focus, intention, purpose, motivation & understanding of what our priorities are.

When was the last time you took a few hours to look back and reflect on your life & work?

Do you give yourself the gift of sufficient time & space to reflect regularly and learn from reflection?

 

2. It allows you to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate your successes

Do you celebrate all your wins & successes or do you move through life at the speed of light, not acknowledging, appreciating and celebrating your success?

 We make progress in our lives & work all day EVERY SINGLE DAY yet we are sometimes so busy & focused on getting things done that we don’t see all of these wins and successes.

 Carrying out your 12 Week Review gives you the time and space to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the progress you have made in the past 12 weeks. 

This in turn will get you thinking about all of the amazing wins and successes you have EVERY SINGLE DAY of which we all have so many.

 

3. It allows you to understand what contributes to your success and take action to create more

There are many reasons why we are successful at some things and not so successful at others. 

Have you ever sat down and reflected on your successes and really thought about how they happened. 

  • Was it something you did? 
  • Was it something you got support with?  
  • Was it something that happened quickly or something that took a long time? 
  • Was it a bit of pot luck or did you plan meticulously for it?  

When we understand what contributes to our success, we can replicate & build on this to bring us more success. 

Success has a different meaning for everyone as we all live different lives, are at different stages and have different priorities. 

Reflecting on success supports you to learn more about exactly what success means to you so you can create an action plan that will build on the success you already enjoy! 

 

4. It allows you to acknowledge challenges that got in the way of your success

Things don’t always work out how we plan or how we want them to. 

Even the best plans don’t work out, this is a normal part of life and work. 

Acknowledging your challenges/obstacles is the first step to learning about them and overcoming them. 

This in turn ensures you don’t come up against them again and if you do, you are better prepared. 

Sometimes we don’t want to face our challenges/obstacles let alone reflect on and review them, however it is from our challenges/obstacles that we can learn so much and grow and evolve as human beings!

 

5. It allows you to understand what contributed to these challenges and turn these into successes

Challenges and obstacles are a normal part of life and work, it is how we deal with them that determines our ability to overcome them. 

Understanding what caused the challenges and obstacles goes a long way to dealing with and overcoming them in a healthy way.

Challenges/obstacles are a constant companion on the road to your goals and are your stepping stones to success. Llearning from them makes stepping over those stones that bit easier! 

Taking action from what you learn will turn challenges/obstacles into opportunities!

What can you learn from the challenges you experienced over the past 12 weeks? 

What action can you take to turn your challenges into successes? 

That’s it, the 5 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review. 

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 12 weeks.

Want to join my weekly newsletter?

If so download my free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below and you are all signed up! 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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6 Steps to Your Q3 Review (with an insight into mine)

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Photo Credit: Markus Winkler on Unsplash

It’s hard to believe another quarter has gone by, I say this every quarter and it feels like time is actually speeding up!

Firstly I hope you and your loved ones are safe and you have used the time at home with family/in solitude/self isolation/social distancing etc to enrich your life in whatever way benefits you best.

This post is 6 simple steps to review your strategy for Q3, whether you have a a business or personal strategy or both, the principles are the same. 

Your personal/business strategy should support you to create a sustainable business and/or creating a fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. In saying that your business and personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

The quarterly review is my favourite review because there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating. As humans we are wired to perform better when we are making progress which is why strategy reviews are so important. 

You may not think you are making progress in your life/business but you are probably making much more progress than you think!

There is only about 90 DAYS left in this year. 

This is the time to decide what really needs to get done in terms of your goals for 2020 and what goes on the ‘Not To Do’ list. 

90 DAYS go by so fast, what do you really want to finish this year?

Below are 6 simple steps to carry out your personal/business Q3 review and an insight into mine. 

6 simple steps to carry out your personal/business quarterly review:

1. Review your goals & metrics 

  • Are the goals you set at the beginning of 2020 still meaningful to you and/or your business? 
  • Are the goals you set at the beginning of 2020 still achievable this year (in the next 90 DAYS)? 
  • Do your goals still align with your personal/business vision and your values? 
  • Are your metrics and targets at the right level? 
  • Do your metrics highlight progress towards your goals and also highlight obstacles to progress?
  • Have you enjoyed the progress made or has it been an uphill struggle? 
  • Have you over stretched or under stretched yourself?
  • Have you been overwhelmed or underwhelmed with your life/work during Q3?

My 2020 goals changed dramatically in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic as I’m sure all of yours did. I was due to travel to Japan in May to join Katie Anderson and other Lean enthusiasts on Katie’s Lean Study Trip. This was disappointing but health and safety are the most important things and so Japan will be go into my future plans. There is always a silver lining and the time/money I saved from the trip to Japan was put to good use, see below.  

2. Evaluate what worked in terms of your goals, how were you successful?

  • What worked well for you in the past 3 months?
  • What did you do that supported this success?
  • What goals/targets did you reach?
  • What brought you joy and happiness?

In Q3 I launched my e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ which I am so happy with. You can download your free copy here or at the end of this post.

I also used the time at home to learn more, I signed up to my first online course – Natalie Sisson’s ‘Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator’. I loved this course so much that I am taking it for a second time and loving every minute of it! 

Q3 saw restrictions in Ireland reducing which has been great. We are still very much monitoring Covid 19 case numbers and being very careful but it has been so amazing to be able to see family and friends again in and spend precious time with them. I spent 2 weeks on a working staycation at my parents house which was the most precious time and the best holiday/staycation of my entire life. I had loads of time with my parents and my family, these times are the true joys in life. In Q3, my family and I celebrated birthdays, a communion and a confirmation together, the simple joys.

In Q3 I also spent days on beaches with my friends and went for lunches/days out with my Mom, niece and aunt. I met some of my work mates after not seeing them for months! 

I have always been grateful for the people I love in my life but the Covid 19 pandemic and time away from them has made that gratitude even more deeply felt.

May we never lose sight of all the the true blessings we have in our lives. 

I hope, wherever you are that you are getting to spend precious time with those you love.  

3. Evaluate what didn’t work in terms of your goals, what got in the way of success?

  • What didn’t work for you in the past 3 months?
  • What obstacles got in the way of your goals in the past 3 months?
  • How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?
  • What didn’t bring you joy and happiness?

I find some areas of my strategy are successful and some aren’t. 

Things I really like doing always seem to get done and I continue to struggle with things I know I need to do but maybe can find excuses/reasons/ways to not do them! 

I am very susceptible to taking on too much, having too much on my plate and then getting overwhelmed. Because of this I review my personal strategy every day to ensure I am focusing on the tasks and activities that move me towards my vision and goals. 

There are areas of my strategy that need much improvement, looking forward to this in Q4.

4. Make informed decisions about what your key focus areas for the next quarter

  • What are your 1st priority goals for the next 3 months?
  • Are there goals that no longer serve you that you can remove from your strategy?
  • What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your life/business
  • What will you do to learn from unsuccessful areas of your life/business?
  • What metrics will you change?

There are just 90 DAYS left in this year! 

What action will you take for the next 3 months? 

My key focus areas for Q4 are to spend as much time as possible with loved ones and hope we, as a planet, get some sort of control over Covid 19. 

Another key focus is to launch my first online course. I have been working on this since June and the thoughts of the launch fills me with equal amounts of anxiety and excitement!

I will be sharing information on the course with you very soon. If you want to be the first to hear about my course sign up to my mailing list by downloading my free ebook at the end of this blog post. 

5. Document your goals, metrics and strategy reviews somewhere

It’s really important to capture progress of your goals somewhere. Whether you prefer physically putting pen to paper or to use something electronic there are so many options. The science behind why writing things down to enable success is outlined in Henriette Anne Klauser’s amazing book, ‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’.

Basically the message is what get’s written down gets done! 

My tools of choice are both physical and electronic,

Physical – I love Moleskine journals for writing & tracking progress of goals. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. They can be a little pricey but for me they are worth it! I also use regular notebooks that you can get in any book shop/supermarket for note taking and ideas. It doesn’t really matter what you use from once you write your goals down and track progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly that will, at the end of the year, result in you smashing your goals and creating your Annual Review.

Electronic – My tools of choice online are 

 1. Google Docs (similar to Microsoft Word)  – super easy to use & free and accessible on all devices 

 2. Google Sheets (similar to Microsoft Excel) – super easy to use & free and accessible on all devices 

 3. Asana (excellent online Project Management tool) – super easy to use. You can upgrade to a free version but I have been using the free version for many years and it suit my needs. Natalie Sisson who introduced me to Asana has created an excellent comprehensive guide on ‘How To Use Asana’

These 3 tools are all free, easy to use and are all you need to set and track business or personal goals/metrics/projects/strategy. 

6. Learn more about personal & business strategy 

There is always another level of strategy to move into and there is always so much to learn.

  • One of my favourite thought leaders in the area of personal strategy and development is Brendon Burchard. There is no end to the amount of resources Brendon has online. If you want to learn more about personal strategy and personal development, I highly recommend signing up to Brendon’s mailing list. Below are some excellent videos from Brendon on goal setting for success. Other influencers I follow in this area are my friend and mentor Natalie Sisson and Marie Forleo, Robin Sharma & Michael Hyatt.  

New Year Goals for Winning in Life in 2020

Power of Monthly Goals (How to Schedule Your Year)

  • If you are looking for a book on Lean business strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and any other books by Pascal Dennis. Getting The Right Things Done is an incredible book that can be visited again and again as you move deeper and deeper into the world of business strategy and success.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at Q3 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the last 90 DAYS in 2020, let’s make these 90 DAYS the best 90 DAYS ever! 

Sign up for my free ebook below if you want to read about how to bring more positive change into your life and want to be the first to hear about my very first online course that I am launching very soon!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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The 2020 Q2 Review

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Photo Credit: Isaac Smith on Unsplash

It’s hard to believe another quarter has gone by. This year has been like no other for the entire world. Firstly I hope you and your loved ones are safe and you have used the time at home with family/in solitude/self isolation/social distancing etc to enrich your life in whatever way benefits you best.

Your personal/business strategy should support you to create a sustainable business and/or creating a fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. In saying that your business and personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

The quarterly review is my favourite review because there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating. As humans we are wired to perform better when we are making progress which is why strategy reviews are so important. You may not think you are making progress in your life/business but you are probably making much more progress than you think!

Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your personal/business quarterly review:

1. Review your goals & the metrics you use to indicate progress towards your goals

  • Are the goals you set at the beginning of 2020 still meaningful and achievable? This has never been more important given the changes that have happened in the world since the start of 2020. 
  • Do your goals still align with your personal/business vision and your values? 
  • Are your metrics and targets at the right level? Do they highlight progress towards your goals and also highlight obstacles to progress?
  • Have you enjoyed the progress made or has it been an uphill struggle? Have you over stretched or under stretched yourself?

My 2020 goals changed dramatically in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic as I’m sure all of yours did. I was due to travel to Japan in May to join Katie Anderson and other Lean enthusiasts on Katie’s Lean Study Trip. This was disappointing but health and safety are the most important things and so Japan will be go into my future plans. This had an inevitable knock on effect to my plans for the Summer. I had intended to spend the Summer edited images of Japan, writing blog posts and creating my Japan Travel Photography Book.There is always a silver lining and the time/money I saved from the trip to Japan was put to good use, see below.  

2. Evaluate what worked in terms of your goals, how were you successful?

  • What worked well for you in the past 3 months?
  • What did you do that enabled this success?
  • What goals/targets did you reach?
  • What brought you joy and happiness?

As mentioned above I put the time/money saved from my trip to Japan to good use. I finished writing my e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. I had planned to work on this e-book in Q3 with a view to launching it in Q4 but ended up launching it this week! Sign up at the end of this blog post for your free copy!  

I also used the time at home to learn more, I signed up to my first online course – Natalie Sisson’s ‘Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator’. This is a really steep learning curve for me and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have also got to read more physical books (I usually listen to books on audible) which is a real joy, listen to more podcasts and exercise more – all of these not only make me happy but are also critical to my physical and mental well being.

3. Evaluate what didn’t work in terms of your goals, what got in the way of success?

  • What didn’t work for you in the past 3 months?
  • What obstacles got in the way of your goals in the past 3 months?
  • How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?
  • What didn’t bring you joy and happiness?

I find some areas of my strategy are successful and some aren’t. Things I really like doing always seem to get done and I continue to struggle with things I know I need to do but maybe can find excuses/reasons/ways to not do them! Over the past 3 months I have faced similar challenges to many people – uncertainty with my job/income, isolation from my family, loss of freedom. I could complain but I won’t, my family, Mike and I are all well and I still have a job I love, albeit on reduced hours, I feel very blessed and very grateful. There are ares of my strategy that need much improvement, looking forward to this in Q3.

4. Make informed decisions about what your key focus areas for the next quarter

Based on the answers to all of the above, what action will you take for the next 3 months? My key focus areas for Q3 are to launch my new e-book and continue to write my 2nd e-book. These goals fill me with equal amounts of excitement and anxiety! I plan to continue writing blog posts and to start creating content on my favourite subject ‘Personal Strategy’. The following questions will help you prepare for the next 3 months. 

  • What are your 1st priority goals for the next 3 months?
  • Are there goals that no longer serve you that you can remove from your strategy?
  • What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your life/business
  • What will you do to learn from and turn around unsuccessful areas of your life/business?
  • What metrics will you change and how often will you update these metrics?

5. Capture all of the above somewhere

It’s really important to capture progress of your goals somewhere. Whether you prefer physically putting pen to paper or to use something electronic there are so many options. The science behind why writing things down to enable success is outlined in Henriette Anne Klauser’s amazing book, ‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’. Basically the message is what get’s written down gets done! 

My tools of choice are both physical and electronic,

Physical – I love Moleskine journals for writing & tracking progress of goals. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. They can be a little pricey but for me they are worth it! I also use regular notebooks that you can get in any book shop/supermarket for note taking and ideas. It doesn’t really matter what you use from once you write your goals down and track progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly that will, at the end of the year, result in you smashing your goals and creating your Annual Review.

Electronic – My tools of choice online are 

 – Google Docs (similar to Microsoft Word)  

 – Google Sheets (similar to Microsoft Excel)

 – Asana (excellent online Project Management tool). 

These 3 tools are all free and very easy to use and are all you need to set and track goals/projects/strategy. Natalie Sisson who introduced me to Asana has created an excellent comprehensive guide on ‘How To Use Asana’. 

6. Learn more about personal & business strategy 

The more I learn about personal/business strategy the less I feel I know! There is always another level of strategy to move into and there is always so much to learn.

  • If you are looking for a book on Lean business strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and any other books by Pascal Dennis. Getting The Right Things Done is an incredible book that can be visited again and again as you move deeper and deeper into the world of business strategy and success
  • One of my favourite thought leaders in the area of personal strategy and development is Brendon Burchard. There is no end to the amount of resources Brendon has online. If you want to learn more about personal strategy and personal development, I highly recommend signing up to Brendon’s mailing list. Below are some excellent videos from Brendon on goal setting for success. Other influencers I follow in this area are Natalie Sisson, Marie Forleo, Robin Sharma & Michael Hyatt.  

New Year Goals for Winning in Life in 2020

Power of Monthly Goals (How to Schedule Your Year)

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at Q2 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to Q3,

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x x

 

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Annual Review 2018

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It’s that time of year again, time to reflect on what the year has brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review. In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 6th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

Annual Review 2013  Annual Review 2014  Annual Review 2015  

Annual Review 2016  Annual Review 2017

2018 wasn’t a bad year but I did find it very challenging for many different reasons. In turn these challenges had a counterproductive impact on the goals I set in all areas of my life. I reached very few targets and 2018 was probably my least productive year in many years. In saying that I learned more lessons this year than many previous years and so it was more of a learning year than a productive year!  In his amazing book ‘The Power of Now’, Eckhart Tolle talks about cycles of low and high energy that we all go through. 2018 was for me definitely a year of low energy, which if I look on the bright side means 2019 will most certainly be a year of high energy!

In the Lean world when things don’t work out as planned (as they often don’t) we always evaluate why things didn’t work out, what lessons we can take and how we can do things better. I will keep this Lean philosophy very much in mind as i set goals for 2019.

But for now, here is my Annual Review for 2018 – as always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of much of my happiness. 

I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa implementing Lean Strategy & Culture. As with my personal life, my professional life seemed to be about learning lots of lessons this year. The highlight of my year was traveling to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to train Riyadh Airport colleagues on the principles of Lean and Project Management. This was an incredible opportunity & trip thanks to my amazing friend Debbie Kearns. I loved every minute of my time in Riyadh and hold dear memories of the people I met, the food, the culture and the 42C heat!

In 2018 I became even more convinced of the power and necessity of Lean Culture in business. Respect for and development of people is truly the only way to grow and sustain  businesses to what they are capable of becoming. Lacking these people focused elements and treating people poorly will ensure your company is one that people cannot wait to leave and are in no hurry to join, leaving your company moral on a downward spiral with your profits following closely behind.

In terms of personal goals, 2018 was my second year using the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) to set, monitor, action and review personal goals and objectives. These systems and structure give me more visibility into progress of goals and in 2018 highlighted so many areas of my life that need focus, attention and/or change.

This blog is where I share thoughts, information and resources on Lean and Positive Change. One of my goals for 2018 was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total).  I didn’t reach this goal as I completely underestimated how much time it takes to create, edit and publish blog posts. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is the same number as last year and the most I have published in any year. Better luck next year!

I continued to work with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford who creates the cartoons of ‘Pinky the Positive Pig’ who is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts in this series here ‘The Complete A-Z Of Effective Change’. Andy, Pinky and I are currently working on a new writing project which will be launched early in 2019!

In terms of travel, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away around Ireland during the year and a fabulous week in Rome at the end of November. I dusted off my skiing skills and joined my mates Karin and Paula for a fun few days on the German slopes in February. In June my fabulous sister in law, Aoife turned 40 and we celebrated with a family holiday in Lanzarote. As mentioned above I travelled to Saudi Arabia with work and loved every minute of my trip. 

I’m way behind with editing images from trips in 2018 and 2017. This is another area that needs more focus in 2019. A little later than planned I published ‘The Top 5 Things To Do In Dubai’ following my trip to Dubal with my Mom in 2017.

 I enjoyed working with my gorgeous family and friends on photo shoots this year and have a few already booked in for 2019. It is always a joy to work with those you love.

If you are new to my Travel Photography work you can view my  images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn. 

As mentioned above I published 24 blog posts this year which helped moved my social media metrics in the right direction. I’m not a professional writer nor do I have any formal training as a writer. What i have learned over the past couple of years is that not only do you need to build skills to write content but you also need to find the time to think, write, edit, publish and market content. Finding the time to write, edit , publish and market is where I struggled last year and is a real focus area for me in 2019.

Throughout most of 2018 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media. 

Social media and online tools are constantly changing and it is a job in itself to keep up with these changes. It’s as challenging as it is fascinating and I look forward to learning and sharing more in 2019. 

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’. Knowing what nurtures or challenges my physical & mental health allows me to make decisions to protect both.

I try to eat healthy and exercise regularly but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. We all know that eating healthy and exercising is all we need to do to be fit and  healthy – if it were as simple as this I’d be size 8 with abs of steel! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2019.

To keep my mind/spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can. My goal was to read a new book every 2 weeks this year (26 in total) but I didn’t get near this goal reading just 13 new books. I did however read some books many times. Ironically my favourite book this year was ‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed. This book highlights the inevitability of failure and subsequent learnings from failure on the path to success. Matthew’s writing is genius as he explores learning from failure that ultimately leads to success in the Aviation, Healthcare and Criminal Justice worlds. 

In 2018 even though I didn’t reach many of my personal goals in this area I am much more aware of what actions are required to reach these goals and the discipline needed to consistently take this action.

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal & business finance.  In this quest every year I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’.  Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of wealth which is why I like it so much.

This year I monitored income, spending and savings much more closely than I have done in previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

 

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2019.

That’s it, 2018 in review. When I look back on 2018 I do so with gratitude. Gratitude for all the amazing people in my life and gratitude for the lessons 2018 has taught me no matter how hard some of these lessons were to learn. I look forward to ringing in the New Year and seeing what 2019 has in store!

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a had a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for everything – you are the reason for it all.

 Here’s to a super 2019 – may the New Year bring you health, happiness and prosperity.

Thanks for reading, with love,

Siobhain

x x x

 

Note: The system I use for my annual review is still a work in progress and evolves year on year as my own life evolves. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template shared and used by Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris Guillebeau’s How To Conduct your own Annual Review. This is a great read and highlights how powerful planning and reviewing can be.

Chris’s updated annual review template can be found here – Annual Review Template, I used this initially then changed and modified it over the years.  Chris is a very inspirational guy which is why I follow him on social media and I travelled all the way to Oslo a few years ago to attend his celebration of visiting every country in the world.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2017

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It’s that time of year again, time to look back reflecting on what last year brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review.

In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 5th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

Annual Review 2013  Annual Review 2014  Annual Review 2015  Annual Review 2016

As always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. By far the most exciting thing that happened to my family this year was my younger brother Declan and his beautiful wife Aoife welcomed my gorgeous niece Ayla Danaher to the world, a wonderful addition to our ever-growing family.

Here goes, in no particular order, my Annual Review for 2017.

2017 was a big year for me in the world of Lean. I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa. This year saw us implement Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) for the first time which brought new learnings every day in terms of our Lean journey.

For my personal goals it was also the first year I used the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri to set and monitor goals and objectives. In terms of planning, organising and changing direction when required this brought the process of goal setting to a whole new level.

One of my goals was to share information and learnings from the world of Lean. I did this by designing, creating and launching my new website ‘‘The Art Of Positive Change’ in March. This took way longer than I had anticipated but it was worth the wait as I now have somewhere dedicated to sharing information on Lean, Simplicity and Positive Change and the immense benefits they bring to our businesses and personal lives.

Another goal was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total). I didn’t reach this, completely underestimating how much time it takes to create blog posts and edit them. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is more than I have published in any previous year. So while I didn’t reach my goal I’m definitely improving in this space.

Also in March I started working with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford creating a new character called Pinky, aptly named by my 7 year old niece Miah. Pinky is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts here.

The Complete A-Z of Effective Change

This year I was reminded how much I love Travel Photography and so I will be working more on this in 2018. If you are new to my work you can view my Travel Photography images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

In terms of travel near and far, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away in Edinburgh, Killarney and Kilkenny, my parents and I spent a few days in London and later in the year my Mom and I spent 10 days in the amazing city of Dubai. Earlier in the year I dusted off my skiing skills and joined one of my best mates Karin Hennessy for a few days skiing in fabulous Pila in the Italian Alps.

Following a trip to Abu Dhabi with Mike in 2016 I created and published my 8th Travel Photography book ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Abu Dhabi’ in September complimenting the blog post I wrote on this beautiful city ‘The Top 5 things To Do in Abu Dhabi’.

I worked with some of my family and friends on photo shoots this year which I enjoyed immensely. It’s always a joy to shoot images of family and friends,

My Travel Photography Fine Art prints and my Fine Art Catalogue are now displayed at my friend Michelle Quilty’s newly opened business, The Tea Cosy in Ardpatrick. This makes me very proud and gives me itchy feet to do more Travel Photography exhibitions – watch this space!

Social media continues to provide a steep learning curve for me that twists and turns at an exponential rate.

I have been using social media for online marketing for many years, however 2017 was the first year I created a social media strategy as part of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment). This allowed me to focus on clear goals and objectives and ensured I tracked the correct metrics and used these metrics to change direction when required.

Just like the world of Lean and Continuous Improvement, the only way to definitively know if you are improving is to have ‘fact based’ metrics. I currently track 13 metrics across 9 social media platforms. Each one of these metrics increased in 2017 which means I’m moving in the right direction!!! In saying that, growth is slow –  slow but steady!

Tracking and evaluating metrics may sound like a lot of work but just like metrics in business, when you get used to setting, tracking and using valuable information from the metrics, they can become quiet addictive and it really is the only way to measure improvement accurately!

If you’re not using metrics to measure performance in your business maybe 2018 is the year that you start, they really are a game changer!

Throughout most of 2017 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn.

In terms of health I welcomed 2017 with open arms as 2016 saw my Dad go through his second heart surgery. As I wrote in my annual review last year – there is no greater pain than watching someone you love and adore battling an illness. My Dad’s surgery and subsequent recovery has made me intensely aware of and grateful for every breath I take and every day my family and I spend illness free.

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’.

Knowing what nurtures my mental health and knowing what challenges it allows me to make decisions to protect it.

To keep my mind and spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can (see my Top 10 Books of 2017 here), meditate (not as much as I would like) and journal (again not as much as I would like).

I try to eat healthy but do have a rubber arm that can be twisted quiet easily when it comes to biscuits and savoury treats. Exercise has always been part of my life but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. With this comes an immense respect for what the human body can achieve when we put the work in! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2018. 

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal finance.  In this quest, I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of wealth which is why I liked it so much.

I have always known this but 2016 made me more acutely aware that no matter how much you earn or how much is in your bank account it doesn’t make you happy, make you a good person or heal you when you are ill and I continued to be very aware of th throughout 2017.

Just like my social media stats I monitored income, spending and savings much more than I have done in any previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. I continued to support these charities in 2017 and also found new charities to support. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2018.

That’s it, 2017 was like most years, full of ups and downs, twists and turns.

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a made a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for making each year better than the last, you are the reason for it all.

May 2018 bring you health, happiness and prosperity,

With love,

Siobhain

x x x

Note: The system I use for my annual review is still a work in progress and evolves year on year as my own life evolves. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template shared and used by Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris Guillebeau’s How To Conduct your own Annual Review. This is a great read and highlights how powerful planning and reviewing can be.

Chris’s updated annual review template can be found here – Annual Review Template, I used this initially then changed and modified it over the years.  Chris is a very inspirational guy which is why I follow him on social media and I travelled all the way to Oslo a few years ago to attend his celebration of visiting every country in the world.

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