Gathering my thoughts for what's next
I’m a big fan of Dorie Clark – writer, thought-leader, and consultant. In her book, The Long Game, she told a story about an exercise she took herself through in order to set her direction going forward.
She wrote out – in long hand – her answers to these questions:
What should I spend my time doing?
What are the 20% of my activities that will yield 80% of the results?
What can I stop doing?
How can I use constraints to my advantage?
What are my hypotheses about the future – and how do they inform my actions today?
I really like these prompts for thinking ahead to what’s next for me, both in my business and my personal life. The coming year is a big one for me. I’m turning 50 in April, my son is graduating with his bachelor’s degree in June, and I’m continuing to figure out how to balance my life in Calgary and my time on PEI.
As I look at these questions, the one extra query that comes to mind is “what results do you want?” Clarity on that point will help you answer what the 20% of your activities should be.
As we enter the liminal time between Christmas and New Years, and the energy slowly starts to rise for a fresh start in January, I invite you to consider your answers to these questions.
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws but for potential.”
Ellen Goodman
Thank you for reading my words every week this year. I wish you a holiday season full of all the things that you want the most. I’ll see you back here in January!