Insights and learnings
Name the three things this year taught you, in order of impact. Each one marks ground you now stand on.
What do I know now that I did not know in January?
BeGenerative
Complete the Year
Gather what this year taught you and set your course for the next
A short, reflective exercise that gathers the year into three insights, three accomplishments and three commitments, then returns them to you in three months and again in six.
- 3 Insights What the year taught you, in order of impact
- 3 Accomplishments What you created, started or completed
- 3 Commitments What you carry into the year ahead
The practice
Close the year with intent
One of the most powerful things we can do to shape our future is to get clear on what has worked and define what we want next.
The end of the year offers a natural pause. A short written review gathers your thinking about progress, completion and direction, so you can decide what to carry forward, what to release and what to give more of.
It also lets you create the coming year on purpose. The exercise is brief, and the insight it surfaces stays with you well beyond the first week of January.
The ability to shift from reacting against the past to leaning into and presencing an emerging future is probably the single most important leadership capacity today.
Otto Scharmer
Three movements
Nine lines that carry the year
Each movement asks for three. Writing them down gives your thinking a form you can return to.
Accomplishments
Acknowledge three things you created, started or completed. Gratitude for what you have built consolidates it and shows the distance travelled.
What am I glad I did?
Commitments
Choose three commitments for the year ahead: what you will carry forward and what you will do more of. Written commitments turn intention into direction.
What will I give my attention to first?
Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.
Florence Scovel Shinn
What the research says
Writing it down shapes what follows
Two well-known studies point the same way. Putting goals and gratitude in writing changes what people go on to do and feel.
Goals in writing
Held goals in mind
4.3
Wrote goals, committed to actions and sent a weekly progress report to a friend
7.6
Psychologist Gail Matthews followed 149 people over four weeks and asked them to rate how far they had achieved their goals. Writing goals, committing to actions and being accountable to someone each added to the result.
Gratitude in practice
1 weekIn the original 2005 study by Martin Seligman and colleagues, writing down three things that went well each day for a week, and why they went well, raised happiness for the following six months. A 2012 replication found lasting gains in happiness too.
Acknowledging your accomplishments takes deliberate attention. This exercise gives that attention a place to land.
Sources: Matthews, G., Goals Research Summary, Dominican University of California (participants rated their own achievement after four weeks). Seligman, M., Steen, T., Park, N. and Peterson, C. (2005), Positive psychology progress, American Psychologist 60(5). Mongrain, M. and Anselmo-Matthews, T. (2012), Journal of Clinical Psychology 68(4).
In their words
What people take from completing the year
When I first started this process I asked myself what have I achieved? Now I completed it I can see that I have made a fundamental shift in who I am as a person and a leader within my organisation and my personal life. I feel confident, still and focused.
Cutting through the clutter and the noise gives me the clarity I need to be an effective leader. I am looking forward to a succinct and effective year ahead.
Taking these sections in smaller chunks has felt a lot more achievable than trying to work it out. It has helped me focus on a smaller, more refined list, which I believe will help me achieve more in the long run.
I look forward to another year of growth and evolution.
What a useful and simple, and profound process.
Good way to keep one on track.
Your turn
Complete your year
Nine short answers, written in your own words. We keep them safe and send them back when they will be most useful.
- 1 Today A copy of your responses arrives in your inbox. Keep it in a notebook, journal or playbook.
- 2 In three months Your words return to you, so you can check your course against what you chose.
- 3 In six months A second return, to recalibrate and keep moving with your best ideals and values.
A year from now you may wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb