Tag Archives: Learning

Annual Review 2022

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In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese for Self Reflection. Self Reflection allows us to reflect on what has worked so we can celebrate & build on the successes and also reflect on what didn’t work so we can adjust & change direction.  

I have been carrying out an Annual Review (Self Reflection) for many years and find it hard to believe this is the 10th year I have published this review online. (See end of this post for previous year’s reviews).

2022 was a strange year in that so many things I planned didn’t work out and so many things I didn’t plan did work out! 

I reached very few of my annual goals and 2022 was full of immense unplanned & challenging change (similar to 2020 & 2021). I have realised that no matter how much we plan, the path that is meant for us will always be the path we travel which is not necessarily the path we plan. 

Whatever 2022 brought you, I hope you find time to reflect on your year, leave behind what doesn’t serve you and bring into 2023 everything that supports & nurtures you. 

Below is my Annual Review for the year that was 2022.

I use the Wheel of Life to categorise my life, you can use this or your own version for reflecting on 2022. 

Relationships:  

Our greatest and most important relationship is with ourselves. I truly believe that how we feel about ourselves and how much we know & learn about ourselves dictates our level of success in every area of our lives.

This is why it is so important to prioritise understanding, trusting, accepting and loving ourselves. In 2022 I continued to learn more about & build my relationship with myself. I found 2022 to be a very challenging year and so my learnings were mostly about how I deal with adversity & challenges. 

As always, Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything and the source of much of my happiness. 

As I’m not working at the moment, I have the precious gift of lots of spare time. This gift given me so much time to spend with my loved ones. I see more of my boyfriend Mike as I’m home every evening when he gets home and I’m off on his days off. This has been blissful and a welcome change to when we were like passing ships pre Covid! 

I see my parents & family more than I have ever done which brings me so much joy. Before I left the workplace I would only see my parents & family at weekends and even at that it wasn’t every weekend – now I see them every week and for a few days most weeks. 

I cannot tell you how precious a gift this time is, no amount of money can buy it and no amount of time can replace it. 

In 2022 I made up for not travelling the previous 2 years and had 4 trips abroad. 

In January I went skiing in the Italian Alps with my friend Paula. In May Paula and I joined our friend Karin for a week in Santorini, Greece which was amazing – you can read about that here.

My Top 5 Reasons to Visit Santorini

In August, my friends Aine, Eileen and Therese and I went to VillaMoura, Portugal for a few days. I stayed longer and Paula joined me with her friends to enjoy another few days in the sun. This was such a relaxing trip with a dash of nightlife thrown in! 

Mike and I went to Edinburgh for a long weekend in November for the Scotland & All Blacks rugby game. Edinburgh is such a beautiful place and we had a super weekend.  

I am immensely grateful for my love Mike, my wonderful family and friends and I look forward to more adventures together in 2023.

Health is Wealth: 

There is no truer saying than health is wealth, our health is by far our greatest asset.

The quality of every area of our lives is totally dependant on our health.

I have always been aware of the importance of physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health and over the past few years, for many reasons, this awareness has been brought to a deeper level. 

In 2022 I watched loved ones deal with ill health which was really challenging and reinforces the importance of dedicating time & energy to learning about and improving our physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health. 

2022 was also challenging for me in all areas of my own health and I didn’t reach any of the goals I set for myself.

Improving our health is a journey and just like any other journey, it’s important to keep learning & moving forward no matter the pace!!

Here’s to a healthy 2023 for us all! 

Work:

I started 2022 with no day job but with big dreams of setting up my own business but decided against it after watching a Ted Talk on ‘The Power of Time Off’. 

I decided to do just that and take TIME OFF from working. 

You can read about my decision here, The Importance of Time Off

I did continue with some work in that I was still writing my weekly emails to my community, writing blog posts, sharing these blog posts on social media and co-hosting a Personal Strategy table with the Women in Lean network. 

As the year went on, I realised I needed to be true to myself and take real ‘TIME OFF’ from work and so I stopped writing blog posts and took a break from social media & the Women in Lean Personal Strategy table. 

The only work I now do is send my weekly email to my community to whom I am so grateful. 

It’s actually really difficult to completely take ‘TIME OFF’ from working as our human minds are wired to DO! It takes much focus and discipline to allow ourselves to just BE! 

This ‘TIME OFF’ work has been the most freeing time of my entire life and I am enjoying it so much I will continue it into 2023.

I still want to work for myself and set up my own business, just not yet! 😊

Finance: 

The more I learn about personal finance the more I wish personal finance was a subject I learned in school, it certainly would have saved me much trial and error. Just like health – finance is a journey of which learning & understanding are constant companions. 

In 2022 I continued to learn about personal finance and my relationship with money.

For the first time in 25 years I didn’t have a salary which taught me more than having a big salary ever could! Here are my top 3 financial learnings of 2022.

  1. One of the most important elements of finance is MINDSET – one person can receive €100 and feel rich and another could receive €1,000,000 and feel it’s not enough. The difference has nothing to do with numbers, it’s MONEY MINDSET. There are 2 types of MONEY MINDSET – abundance and scarcity – both will dictate your relationship with money and how freely it flows in and out of your life and also how much you enjoy earning and spending money. 

2. Abundance is not just about money – when I left my day job in October 2021 my income  dramatically reduced but I felt more abundant in so many other areas of my life. Abundance is not just about money – abundance is also about love, time, health, freedom and everything else that money cannot buy. This abundance of love, time, health & freedom brings me more joy than any amount of money ever will! 

3. Time is more important than money – this is not a learning but a teaching from Jim Rohn. His quote about time and money is one of my all time favourites. 

‘Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time’.

Every day I am learning the true essence of this quote. Now that I no longer trade my time for money, I see the true value of time which is priceless – absolutely priceless. 

Pre Covid, I felt I was on a hamster wheel! I was so busy working (inside and outside of my day job), there was very little time in my week for anything else. Stepping off this hamster wheel has been without a doubt  the single best thing I have ever done for myself. 

Time seems to have slowed down. Time seems to be more enjoyable.

I’m no longer crazy busy, some days I’m not busy at all. 

Busyness has been replaced with bliss. Bliss in that I can now enjoy the time I have and not wonder where it has gone or if I’ll have enough time to get through my to do list!

In saying all of the above, I do know we all need money to live. 

I’m lucky to have worked in large companies for 25 years, I made some investments and have built a certain amount of wealth that now allows me to take this precious time away from work. When I left my day job I made a decision to spend some of this money and not worry about it. This might reduce my overall ‘financial value’ but what’s the point of earning money if we don’t spend it and enjoy every minute of that spending?

At some stage I will need to think seriously about how to balance this precious time off with my vision for financial freedom but for the moment I’m just going to enjoy it! 😊

Personal Development:

I have always loved and dedicated much time to personal development. 

Just like everything in my life, personal development changed immensely for me over the past 2 years. 

Every year, I used to read many physical books, listen to many audiobooks & podcasts and watch loads of Youtube videos & social media posts. I used to take online courses and learn as much as I could from mentors & coaches that I admired who were doing what I wanted to do.

This all changed in 2022.

I still read physical books as reading is one of my favourite things to do but I no longer consume so much information from others. 

My personal development is now more personal. My personal development is no longer about what I learn from others, it’s all about what I learn from myself.

My personal development now comes from awareness of me – who I am, who I am not, who I want to be, who I do not want to be, my thoughts, my actions, my reactions, my beliefs, my decisions, my likes and dislikes.

My personal development now comes from observation of my life at a cellular level – why I do what I do, why I think what I think, why I behave how I behave, what is driving me forward and what is holding me back.

This consistent awareness & observation of myself has been life changing.

We can spend way too much time wondering why our outside world isn’t suiting us yet spend very little time on why our inner world even cares! 

If you want to learn about how you can focus more on your inner world and less on the noisy, disruptive, all consuming outer world I highly recommend Anthony De Mello’s life changing book ‘Awareness’

If this is the only book you read in 2023 and you follow it’s teachings, it will transform your world! 😊

 Social Life/Fun:

This category could be combined with relationships as it is with those I love that I have the most fun times. No-one makes me laugh out loud more than those I love and those who love me – they are food for my soul! 

Globally our social lives took a hit in 2020 & 2021, thankfully all that changed in 2022. We started meeting people again and enjoying the social side of life. This was a slow process for me and I’m probably not as social as I was pre Covid. 

In saying that, in 2022 I enjoyed loads of meals out, days out, nights away, holidays and saw my loved ones way more than I ever have which brought me immense joy. 

Just like everything in life, you don’t have to be doing much to enjoy yourself and have fun. Mike and i share the same sense of humour and so our home is always filled with much laughter of which I am immensely grateful for. 

Environment:

For me, environment is about our planet on a global scale and our beautiful home on a personal level.

In terms of the planet, I reduced my plastic usage but the more I reduced, the more I realised I used. This is a work in progress. Global warming is a very real thing and small steps taken by many can really make a difference. 

This year I re-read Marie Kondo’s ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ and started implementing it in our home. This has taken way longer than I had thought and will continue well into 2023. In saying that, I have enjoyed this process immensely. I’m a minimalist in that I don’t have or need much stuff but I only realised how much stuff I have when I started to declutter it! 

I have wanted to hire an interior designer to design our home for a long time. I know what I love in terms of interior design when I see it on Instagram & Pinterest but transferring that to our home is not a skill I possess.

I have started working with Wioleta Kelly who is a very skilled interior designer and I’m so excited to finally get this process started. 

Contribution: 

I have been supporting four charities for many years but this year I stopped all my direct debits to charities. This was a very difficult decision as these charities mean a lot to me and they do excellent life changing work. In saying that, I continued to give to charity, just not at the level I would have when I was working.

I became more aware of the contribution I make to the world in terms of my time & skills and which isn’t monetary. We all contribute to the world in so many ways that we don’t even notice, this has been an unexpected education!  

That’s it, my 2022 in review.

As with all Annual Reviews, looking back and reviewing my year brings pride in what I have achieved but also many lessons learned and things I would like to do differently that I will bring into 2023. 

Thank you for reading my blog posts and your kind words during 2022, I really appreciate your support. I hope whatever 2022 brought you that you can build on & learn from it to make 2023 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER.

May 2023 bring you and your loved ones health, happiness, peace & prosperity.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x x

If you want to carry out your own Annual Review, below is a list of blog posts to support you. 

5 Reasons To Prioritise Your Annual Review​​

​4 Steps To Your Annual Review​ 

My previous Annual Reviews can be found here,

2013   2014   2015   2016   2017   2018   2019   2020  2021

 

 

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A Guide to Your Business Mid Year Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

When it comes to business strategy and the goals you have set, the Mid Year Review is the most important as there is way more progress in 6 months than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly or even quarterly which is highly motivating. 

Ideally you are reviewing progress of your business goals daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly which makes your Mid Year Review easier, more streamlined and more effective,

Your Mid Year Business Review is carried out as you approach the end of June so your action plan is in place for July or shortly after. 

Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your Business Mid Year Review:

Step 1 – Review your business goals, the metrics you use to measure progress and the progress itself

Are your goals still relevant? 

Ensuring the goals you set at the beginning of the year are still relevant is critical to the success of your business. Having irrelevant goals means you are traveling in the wrong direction which is almost worse than having no goals!

 Are the goals you set at the start of 2022 still relevant to you and your business?

Do your goals still align with your Business Vision, Mission, True North and Values? 

Your Vision is your direction. 

No Vision, no direction, no progress! 

Are you regularly communicating your Vision, Mission, True North & Values to your people?

Are you regularly making decisions aligned with your Vision, Mission, True North & Values?

If not, your direction exists only on paper which is not the best place to have it! 

Note: If you don’t have a Vision, Mission, True North & Values, now would be a good time to start thinking about creating these. No matter where you are in terms of your business, it is never too late to make positive change and that change starts with Vision, Mission, True North & Values. 

Do you have the correct metrics in place? 

Your metrics should highlight progress towards your goals and should also highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals.

Do your metrics highlight progress towards your goals?

Do your metrics highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals?

When do you review these metrics? 

Are your metrics at the right level?

Are you improving your processes?

If you are not improving your processes, chances are your metrics are standing still or going backwards!

Process improvements = metrics moving in the right direction = goals achieved

Step 2 – Evaluate what worked for you, how were you successful?

What worked for you in the past quarter?

 What did you do that enabled this success?

 What areas of your business were successful?

 What parts of your business did you enjoy?

What parts of your business brought you happiness and joy?

Step 3 – Evaluate what didn’t work for you, what got in the way of success?

 What didn’t work for you and got in the way of your goals?

 How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?

 What areas of your business were unsuccessful?

 What parts of your business did you not enjoy?

What parts of your business did not bring you happiness and joy?

Step 4 – Make informed decisions about your key focus areas for the next quarter/6 months

Based on the answers to all of the above, what ACTION will you take for the next quarter/6 months? 

Strategy reviews are only as good as the ACTIONS that are taken as a result of those reviews.

  • Are your 2022 goals still achievable based on progress made in the last 6 months?
  • Do you need more goals to stretch yourself?
  • Do you need less goals to stop over stretching yourself?
  • Are there goals that no longer serve you?
  • What are your priority goals for the next quarter/6 months?
  • What are your non priority goals for the next quarter/6 months?
  • What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your business?
  • What will you do to learn from and turn around unsuccessful areas of your business?
  • How will you measure progress of your goals in the next quarter/6 months?
  • What metrics will you update, add, remove?
  • How often will you update these metrics?
  • Where will you document your goals, metrics, progress?
  • How will you communicate your plans to your team?

Step 5 – Document and share your strategy, goals, metrics & progress

It’s really important to capture your goals, metrics & progress on your goals somewhere.  

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 your Annual Review.

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 the amazing book ‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’. 

My favourite tools for documenting are,

Physical – I love Moleskine journals for tracking progress of goals & journalling. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. 

Online – My tools of choice online are Google Docs & Google Sheets and Google Slides. These are almost identical to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. 

I use Asana for Project Management and absolutely love it. Asana has an app which is super simple to use and keeps everything in the one place and all super organised. 

These tools are all ABSOLUTELY FREE, are very easy to use and are all you need to set and track progress in your business. 

When you have completed your Business Mid Year Review it’s critical that you share the outcome of your review and your plans for the next quarter/6 months with your team. 

There is no greater way to show respect to your people than sharing the progress they have made and the plans you have for them in the future. 

Step 6 – Learn more about Lean Business Strategy

The longer I work in Lean Business Strategy the more I learn.

There is always another level of Lean Business Strategy to move into and learn about.

If you are looking for a book on Lean Business Strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and really 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 & deeper into the world of Lean Business Strategy and success.

This is my bible in terms of Lean Business Strategy and Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean mentors.

The best place to learn about your business is from your people. Ensuring your people are your primary source of learning will not only sky rocket your business but will also deliver a Lean culture where people are deeply respected. 

Take the time to listen to your team and prioritise their development. There is no end to what your talented people can teach you if you give the time to listen and learn!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the last 6 months and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 6 months.

If you liked this post, you might like like my post on the 

‘A Guide to Your Personal Mid Year Review’

Want to read more about Positive Change in life & business?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ and sign up to my Weekly Newsletter below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain 

x x

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A Guide To Your Mid Year Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

It’s time for your Mid Year Review 😊

The first 6 months of the year have gone so fast! 

How has the first 6 months of 2023 been for you?

Below are the 4 Steps to your Mid Year Review that will help you answer that question. 

As you answer the questions in each step, refer to your Wheel of Life that contain the key areas of your life. If you haven’t created a Wheel of Life, you can use mine below. 

The areas of my Wheel of Life are Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Recreation, Environment & Contribution. 

It’s important that you document your review somewhere so you can refer to it and hold yourself accountable to the actions that come out of your review. 

Step 1 is all about what went well over the past 6 months

i. What worked well for you in the past 6 months? 

What did you do that you enjoyed?

What worked out exactly how you wanted or better than you wanted? 

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day, sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a closer look to find them.

You may see that life goes your way more than you may realise.

Using a daily gratitude journal can really help answering this question. 

If you don’t have a daily gratitude journal maybe it’s something you could start for the next 12 weeks. Even just one gratitude a day over 12 weeks is about 90 things to be grateful for over 12 weeks, wouldn’t that be something really lovely to look back and reflect on?

ii. What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life?

How did you contribute to the things that worked well for you?

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

Did you make sacrifices to improve your life?

When we reflect on how we are successful in areas of our life, we underestimate the part we played in that success.

YOU are successful and YOU are the creator of that success. YOU have brought all of your happiness, joy and success into your life. 

Knowing how you contribute to your own success means you can build on this to bring so much more success into your life.

iii.  What brought you joy and happiness in the past 6 months?

When were you at your happiest over the past 6 months?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you? 

Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to create more time to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

Knowing who brings you happiness means you can create more time to spend with these very special people.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

iv. Are you happy with where you spent your time over the past 6 months?

Time goes by so fast and as we get older I think time seems to speed up that little bit more.

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have. This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go over the past 6 months?

Are you happy with where your time was spent over the past 6 months?

Are you fully enjoying every minute of your days, weeks, months?

 

Step 2 of your Mid Year Review is all about what didn’t work well for you in the past 6 months.

i. What didn’t go well over the past 6 months

What didn’t go your way in the past 6 months?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

What didn’t go to according to plan?

What is holding you back from living your best life?

Challenges, obstacles and plans not working out are a normal part of life.

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way. Acknowledgment and acceptance of this fact is the first step to turning challenges & obstacles into opportunities.

In his new book ‘Green Lights’, Matthew Mc Connaughey talks about the fact that if we only had green lights in life, if there were no amber or red lights, then life would be very boring and we would never grow and evolve. Such truth and wisdom in that.

How can you acknowledge and accept what doesn’t work out for you and understand this is all part of your path?

ii. What obstacles got in your way?

Looking back at the past 6 months, were there obstacles that got in your way? 

Obstacles & challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

The question to ask here is what can you do to eliminate these obstacles & challenges and if you can’t eliminate them how can you think about them differently? 

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn obstacles & challenges into opportunities for success.

Dr Wayne Dyer’s book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ teaches us that all we have to do to change what is not going well in our lives is to think differently about it. A most profound book, I highly recommend it.

iii. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in the past 6 months?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand. No human life is devoid of unhappiness just like no human life is devoid of happiness. Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest over the past 6 months? 

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

There is no such thing as the perfect life that is happy all the time, however there is a level of contentment and inner peace that can be reached by understanding what takes our happiness & joy away and working to avoid, eliminate or understand more about this.

iv. Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 6 months

We all know time is precious.

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life. 

Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 6 months?

Did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others? 

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

 

Step 3 of your Mid Year Review is all about what you learned in each of the key areas of your life over the past 6 months. 

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward. 

Going through each of the areas of your Wheel of Life (or using mine below) reflect on the questions below to understand what you learned over the past 6 months in all of the key areas of your life. 

Sense of Self What did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Have you dedicated time to personal development? What did you learn about your relationship with yourself, has your relationship with yourself improved?

Relationships – What did you learn about your relationship with others, has your relationship with others improved? Are there relationships you want but don’t have? Are there relationships you have but don’t want?

Health – What did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve?

Work – What did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work? Has your work moved forward and improved?

Finance – What did you learn about personal finance? Did your personal finance improve?

Recreation – What did you learn about socialising and recreation? How can you bring more fun into your life?

Environment – What did you learn about your environment? Did your environment improve? For me environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – What did you learn about contribution?  Did you make the world a better place by giving your time, money or skills? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

 

Step 4 of your Mid Year Review is about creating actions that will support you to live your best life every day and move you closer and closer to your goals

i. What can you build on in terms of your success?

Reflect on all your answers in Step 1.

What actions can you take over the next 6 months to ensure you build on the successes of the past 6 months?

ii. What can you build on in terms of the challenges you experienced?

Reflect on all your answers in Step 2.

What actions can you take over the next 6 months to ensure you build on the challenges from the past 6 months?

iii. What can you build on in terms of what you learned over the past 6 months?

Reflect on all your answers in Step 3.

What actions can you take over the next 6 months to ensure you build on and take advantage of the learnings from the past 6 months?

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 6 months and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 6 months.

Happy reflection 😊

Siobhain 

x x

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21 Lessons Learned in 2021

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I love looking back, reflecting on and learning from what has gone by, then using these learnings to create positive change in my life. 2021 was a year of many lessons learned, some harder than previous years but all very valuable. 

When you start to treat both wins & challenges as lessons learned, life’s ups and downs become wondrous and exciting and even the challenging times seem to have a sparkly silver lining! 

Here is 21 of my favourite lessons learned from 2021, 

  1. Time with loved ones is the most precious gift
  2. Our most important relationship is with ourselves
  3. The only person who defines our value & our worth is ourselves
  4. People are amazing, that includes YOU!
  5. Health is wealth
  6. Money cannot buy health but health is required to make money (read that again)
  7. Abundance is not just about money – it is about love, health, time, freedom and everything else important that money can’t buy 
  8. You need a vision to give you direction in life & business – no vision, no direction, no progress
  9. Where & with who we spend our time & energy directly impacts our mental, physical, emotional & spiritual health
  10. Everyone needs support and everyone deserves to be supported 
  11. Loving who you are and loving what you do is the key to inner happiness & contentment 
  12.  Burnout and boreout are very real & very damaging
  13. To create a new version of ourselves, we need to let go of the old version
  14. For introverts, solitude is just as important as oxygen
  15.  We are the authors of our own story – no-one else holds the pen
  16.  How we spend our energy is just as important as how we spend our time
  17.  No growth occurs in the comfort of our comfort zones
  18.  Everyone has challenges that most people know nothing about
  19.  Acceptance of challenging times goes a long way to overcoming them
  20.  Everything is on time and in perfect time
  21. Florence & The Machine were spot on – ‘It’s always darkest before the dawn’!

What lessons did you learn in 2021? 

How will these learnings support you in 2022? 

I’d love to know what you learned in 2021, comment below or share with me on social. 

I hope that whatever 2021 brought you, you can build on & learn from it to make 2022 your best year ever.

May 2022 bring you and your loved ones health, happiness, peace & prosperity.

Thanks for reading, stay safe,

Siobhain

x x

Below is a list of blog posts designed to support you with your Annual Review, you can download your ‘Annual Review Workbook’ below also. ​​

5 Steps To Your Annual Review

Get SERIOUS about your Intentions and Goals for 2022

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3 Steps To Your Annual Review

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Another year has whizzed by and it’s time for your Annual Review – how fast did that year go?

That’s the thing with time, it literally flies by which is why it’s so important to live and love every single minute you have.

How do you make the most out of every single minute?

You plan for it which you can do by setting intentions & goals.

What else can you do?

You can look back and review your progress to learn what works for you & what doesn’t work for you and change your direction accordingly.

It is through PERSONAL REFLECTION that we LEARN THE MOST. 

We are our OWN GREATEST TEACHERS and so reflecting on our experiences brings us so much wisdom. 

The ‘3 Steps to Your Annual Review’ is easy to follow – no jargon, no fancy words and will take as much time as you want to dedicate to it.

Here’s a few tips on preparing for your Annual Review.

  • Print your Annual Review Workbook (you can download it at the end of this blog post) – you can also use a journal/notebook or an online document. I document my Annual Review in Moleskine journals and use Google Suite tools for online documentation throughout the year.
  • Schedule time in your busy calendar – I usually take about 2 days to do this. That may sound like a lot of time but it is time well spent when you think of the amount you will learn. No matter how long this takes you, the most important thing is that you schedule and take this time for yourself. 
  • Refer to your Wheel of Life as you answer each question – keep in mind the key areas of your life in your Wheel of Life. If you haven’t created a Wheel of Life, you can use mine below. The areas of my Wheel of Life are Sense of Self, Health, Relationships, Work, Finance, Social Life, Environment & Contribution.

Step 1 of your Annual Review is reflecting on what went well in 2023

1: What worked well for you in 2023? 

What did you enjoy?

Did your plans work out how you wanted or better? 

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day.

If you focus on the small stuff first you may see that life goes your way more than you may realise – the small stuff really is the big stuff!

 2: What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life? 

There are so many things in our lives that we cannot control and so it’s best to just focus on what you can control.

The only person who has control over your life is YOU and the only life you can control is YOUR OWN. 

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

3. What brought you joy and happiness in 2023?

When were you at your happiest in 2023?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you? Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

4. Are you happy with where you spent your time in 2023?

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have!

This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go in 2023?

Are you happy with where your time was spent in 2023? 

Did you fully enjoy every minute of every day?

That’s Step 1 of your Annual Review done!

 

 Step 2 of your Annual Review is reflecting on what didn’t go well in 2023

1. What didn’t go well in 2023?

When did your plans not work out in 2023?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way. 

In his book ‘Green Lights’, Matthew Mc Conaughey talks about the fact that if we only had green lights in life, if there were no amber or red lights, then life would be very boring and we would never grow and evolve.

Such truth and wisdom in that.

  1. What challenges got in your way?

Were there challenges that got in your way in 2023?

Challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

What can you do to eliminate these challenges?

If you can’t eliminate the challenges, how can you think about them differently? 

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn challenges into opportunities for success.

3. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in 2023?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand – no human life is devoid of unhappiness.

Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest in 2023? 

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

What did you do to understand and alleviate your unhappiness?

4. Where would you have liked to have spent more time in 2023?

As mentioned above, we all know time is precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have.

Where would you have liked to have spent more time in 2023?

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life – did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others? 

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

That’s Step 2 of your Annual Review done! 

 

Step 3 of your Annual Review is reflecting on what you learned in all areas of your life in 2023

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward. 

Work through the categories of your life in your Wheel of life and ask yourself the following questions,

Sense of Self – what did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Did you dedicate enough time to personal development?

Relationships – what did you learn about your relationship with yourself? Has your relationship with yourself improved? What did you learn about your relationship with others? Has your relationship with others improved? 

Health – what did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve or decline?

Work – what did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work?  Does your work improve your life? Does your work disimprove your life?

Finance – what did you learn about finance? Did your financial situation improve? Did your financial situation disimprove?

Social Life/Recreation – what did you learn about socialising and recreation? Did you have enough fun & recreation?

Environment – what did you learn about your environment ? Did your environment improve or disimprove? For me, environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – what did you learn about contribution? Did you give more to the world in terms of your time, money or skills? Did you make the world a better place by giving more? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

That’s Step 3 of your Annual Review done!

I wish you SUCCESS, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS as you look back at 2023 and even more SUCCESS, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS as you look forward to 2024. 

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

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain 

x x

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My Top 10 Books of 2017

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 Photo Credit – Thanks to Janko Ferlič from Unsplash

Reading is one of my favourite things to do and one of my goals for 2017 was to read/listen to a book every 2 weeks – 26 books in total for the year. I have set this same goal for the past few years and have yet to meet it!!!  With all great goals, it’s a matter of ploughing on and trying harder next year. In saying that I did manage to read/listen to 22 books and enjoyed each and every one immensely.

Extreme Ownership  (How U.S Navy SEALs Lead and Win) – Jocko Willink and Lieber Babin

This was by far my favourite book of 2017 and the best book on leadership I have read in a long time.

This is a story about how war can teach us the most valuable leadership lessons and how these leadership lessons can be used in all areas of our personal and professional lives.

Most of us don’t work in the extreme conditions of war in Iraq where this book is based and so we may think that what Jocko and Leif learned on the battlefield wouldn’t apply to our daily lives. This is so far from the truth.

What I loved most about this book is the fact that the leadership lessons that Jocko and Leif share through their incredible experiences are so simple. With all the complications, complexities and dangers of war, the lessons shared are ones we can all learn from and apply.

The leadership basics of solid, clear and consistent communication, keeping everything simple, effective teamwork, planning, planning and more planning, prioritisation, accountability and courage are woven into all of the fascinating true-life stories that Jocko and Leif tell.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough and if you’re a fan of audiobooks it’s narrated by the authors which is always a treat!

 

I Had To Survive (How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives) – Roberto Canessa

An incredible true story of survival, leadership, the strength of the human spirit and the will to live in the most difficult circumstances. A plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team with friends and family crashes in the Andes in 1972. After living for  two months in the wreckage of the plane the only hope of survival is to cross the Andes to find help. This story is told by Roberto Canessa, one of the rugby players who trekked for 10 days across the Andes to raise the alarm, saving himself, his trekking partner Nando Parrado and 14 of their friends. Roberto Canessa went on to become a paediatric cardiologist saving the lives of newborns with heart complications throughout his esteemed career. A true hero, an incredible story and a magnificent read.  

The film documenting this incredible story and book of the same name ‘Alive’ are equally as enjoyable as Roberto’s book. 

Start with Why (How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action) – Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek is one of my favourite thought leaders. Simon’s Ted Talk is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube. This book is an excellent follow on from this video as it dives deeper into the necessity and benefits from knowing your ‘WHY’ and starting with your ‘WHY. You can watch the video here,

The Personal MBA (Master The Art Of Business) – Josh Kaufman

In his remarkable book, Josh outlines everything you need to know to succeed in life and business in an easy to understand, simplistic approach. Josh’s understanding of business, psychology and systems ensures you have a lot more than the basics required to succeed on completing this book. 

 If you’re looking for more books of a similar calibre, here is Josh’s personal recommendation of the best 99 business books.

The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List: The 99 Best Business Books

The Remedy (Bringing Lean Thinking Out of the Factory to Transform the Entire Organization) – Pascal Dennis

Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean authors and Lean thought leaders.

Having read and loved the other 2 books in Pascal’s trilogy ‘Andy and Me’ and ‘Andy and me and the Hospital’ I knew I was in for a treat on reading ‘The Remedy’ and was not disappointed.

Keeping the two much loved characters of the other 2 books, Tom Pappas and Andy Saito and introducing us to Rachel Armstrong, this book tells an excellent story of how Lean can be implemented across an entire business and not just on the manufacturing floor.

A must read (as is ‘Andy and Me’ and ‘Andy and me and the Hospital’) for anyone in business and interested in Lean.

 

 Real Magic, The Power Of Intention, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life – Dr Wayne Dyer (RIP)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know this is 3 books but I have counted them as one as they are all from the same author. I am a huge fan of the late great Wayne Dyer and every single one of his books are as enjoyable as they are unique.

The following books also made it to my Top 10 in previous years, I have a habit of reading some great books time and time again, each reading bringing a deeper understanding of what the author is teaching,

Platform (Get Noticed In A Noisy World) – Michael Hyatt

I read ‘Platform’ a few times this year as I created, launched and marketed this new website. Platform is an extremely well written book on building and sustaining an audience online and jam packed with excellent advice from a man who really knows what he is talking about. Michael Hyatt has spent most of his career in the publishing world and now runs his highly successful blog where he shares his knowledge and wisdom generously.

If you are a blogger, writer or any type of business owner and want to know more about growing your blog, readership and business through social media, I highly recommend this book. It’s easy to read and the wisdom shared is easy to implement.

Money Master the Game (7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom) – Tony Robbins

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.  The spectrum of financial guidance goes from the simple advice of ‘spend less, save more’ to investment advice in stocks and shares and hiring a fiduciary to help you with same.

For anyone like me who doesn’t know much about stocks and shares, the steps to assist with ‘spending less and saving more’ are reason enough to buy and read this book.

 

10% Happier (How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works – A True Story) – Dan Harris  This is an insightful, uplifting and really funny book. In this book Dan Harris takes us through his journey to the top of his game in television and journalism which culminated in a nationally televised panic attack. The lifestyle changes Dan makes after this panic attack take him on a different journey, a more inward journey that leads him to a much happier place. Dan’s upbeat, honest and humorous personality is what makes this book such a pleasure to read.

 

 The Power of Now (A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment) – Eckhart Tolle

I have lost count of the number of times I have read ‘The Power Of Now’. The first time I read this book I didn’t really understand it, however what I did understand was that there was a very powerful message in the book. Each subsequent reading has brought a deeper understanding of the simple principle that Eckhart teaches. There is only the ‘Now’, there never was and never will be anything other than the ‘Now’. A deep and powerful book – if this book sounds interesting to you, be prepared to give it the time it deserves. One of the best and most powerful books I have ever read.

Other books I read/listened to and thoroughly enjoyed in 2017 are,

 Linchpin – Seth Godin

Tribes – Seth Godin

The Dip – Seth Godin

Purple Cow – Seth Godin

The Icarus Deception – Seth Godin

Life’s Golden Ticket – Brendon Burchard

7 Habits Of Highly Effective People – Steven Covey

The Third Alternative – Steven Covey

In Bound Marketing – Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting – Robert McKee

What were your favourite books of 2017?

What is on your reading list for 2018?

Keeping it Simple,

Siobhain

x x x

 

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Meeting Art and Understanding Lean

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Oprah calls it an ‘Aha’ moment – the moment when something falls into place, when the penny drops, when a lightbulb goes off in your brain and you understand something with an immense clarity that you previously didn’t have.

I experienced this ‘Aha’ moment over 6 years ago when Art Byrne delivered his keynote speech at the 2013 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit. As well as a great guy, Art is a powerhouse of Lean knowledge having lived Lean with it’s highs and lows for many decades. I have read Art’s wonderful book ‘The Lean Turnaround’ many times and knew I was in for something special as Art took to the stage.

My ‘Aha’ moment came in as short a time as 4 minutes into Art’s talk. I had always known that Lean enabled a better, more efficient, more inclusive way of working however after listening to and understanding Art’s simple explanation of Lean, the power of this methodology was finally clear to me. Key elements from these short 4 minutes of Art’s talk that helped me understand the power of Lean are as follows

  • Lean is not a bunch of tools
  • Lean is not a collection of projects or belts (Art in his fabulous honesty makes it clear that in running a business you are not running a karate class!!!)
  • Lean is ‘the biggest strategic business weapon you can ever have’  – a business being ‘a collection of people and processes trying to deliver value to a set of customers and always the best team wins’.
  • Lean is a growth strategy not a cost cutting strategy.

Art continued by explaining the key elements required to be successful at Lean which are having Lean and Operational Excellence are your core strategy, that Lean is led from the top and that people are transformed. Without these elements, Art explains very honestly,  failure will be the outcome!

As Art spoke about transforming people, he explained that people are the only asset you have that appreciates and you want them to keep appreciating, that you also need to respect your people because the best improvement ideas come from the people doing the work. To do this you need to create a learning environment where people are learning every day and are excited to come to work. This then becomes your culture, the way things are done around here – this is Lean.

Art summed up all of the above by simply saying –  Lean is a people thing!

[tweetthis]’Lean is a people thing’ Art Byrne[/tweetthis]

I met Art at one of the break out sessions. He was gracious, humble and generous with his time. I spoke with him around challenges I was having in implementing Lean in my role as I  did not have the influence of a CEO for Lean to ‘come from the top’. He smiled and gave me some of the best advice I have ever received. He said ‘be the CEO in your area’, excellent advice for anyone trying to make things better when it’s not coming from the top!

Art signed my copy of his book ‘The Lean Turnaround’ by using a popular phrase synonymous with Guinness – it was Art’s way of saying how much he loved Ireland and how much he respects Kaizen. And yes, I totally agree with him, Kaizen is good for you!!!!

I left the 2103 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit energetic, enthused and looking forward to the next steps on my Lean journey.

Over 6 years later my Lean journey continues to experience highs and lows, I’m happy to say more highs than lows these days and always, always learning lessons which is at the core of what Lean is about – continuous learning!

Thanks for reading,

Keeping it Simple,

Siobhain

x x x

 

 

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