Let’s do a quick review of 2023 before we launch into planning for the new year 2024, I’ve got 4 questions for you.
In this week’s episode, we ask…
- How do you feel about the year overall?
- How do you feel about each of the priority areas that you’ve identified (or borrow my 5Ls with the assessment at onestepoutside.com/success
- What do you want to celebrate?
- What do you want to do differently next year?
Tune in for a guide through these questions and more.
*Resources mentioned during the episode*
5 L’s Assessment – Download this free assessment to consider what ‘success’ means to you across different areas of your life, evaluate where you are today, and prioritise the right goals to get you to where you want to be. onestepoutside.com/what-is-success/
Annual business review
Hello there, welcome back to the podcast, and we are into November. And that means yes, there’s just a couple of months left. In fact, there’s only really a few weeks left. If you’re like me, perhaps taking some time off in December if you do celebrate Christmas, and certainly if you have kids who have some time off school as well, this time of year. So basically, that means we just have a few more weeks left, which means aside from all the usual planning, Christmas presents, and who’s going to whose house and we’ve got all sorts of birthday parties, and parents, evenings and all that jazz, we also in our business want to be thinking about, okay, how has this year gone, wrapping up projects, tying up loose ends, closing contracts, getting things over the line, wrapping things up nicely with a bow, ideally, a nice little red and green, sparkly Christmas play perhaps. And then we also want to be thinking ahead to next year, because and I’m sure I’ve said this many times in the podcast, but I really am a big plan or a big plan. They go Freudian slip a big fan of a plan, because and take it from me I’m and you may have experienced this too. It’s the years when you don’t have much of a vision. And I’m gonna hold my hand up here, I think this year was one of those for me. And it’s it’s easy to feel a bit sort of near the end of the year.
And last year, I had a big goal, I wanted to write and publish my next book, which I did.
As a result, I had a bit of a slow start in January, it wasn’t very well, I had sort of the hangover of the book, launch, and so on. And that was all happening. And then, of course, the year after you publish a book, it’s all about getting that book out into people’s hands. So I’ve been sending copies to people. I’ve been, you know, going on podcast talking about us and so on. As well as I’m starting a while developing, I suppose a new income stream, I’m doing more corporate workshops and facilitating that side of things. As well as moving house, we had a big house project, etc, etc. So it’s not to say that things haven’t happened this year. But I will hold my hands up and say I didn’t do the rigorous sort of vision board planning process. And while I never want to regret things, and there’s no point in changing and I’m I’m still very proud of a number of achievements of this year, I had my highest income month. Since since I started I want to say actually, which is something to celebrate, definitely, we’re in this dreamy house by the sea again. And I had a big in person workshop that I created around facilitation was the first in person I’ve done and many a year, you know, lots of things for me to celebrate, it’s been a little bit organic is a positive way of saying it ad hoc, perhaps a little bit haphazard, rather than very strategic. And, and again, there is a moment for that kind of time in your life. Maybe it is a bit of consolidating what you’ve done, exploring, experimenting, and so on. But there’s also a moment when we’re ambitious, high achieving individuals, when we want to be super clear on hang on No, this is where I want to go. And for me, it’s a bit of a moment like that now, because I am now 10 years in business 10 years since I quit my job, my corporate marketing job back in 2013.
My daughter started school now, my son is sleeping better through the night most nights.
And at the moment, I’ve got sort of four days a week to work which which is a lot I know the rest of the corporate world thinks four days is not a lot. For me it is a lot. And so I’m at this moment when I’m looking ahead to the next decade, thinking what’s next? Do I tweak my programs, do I you know, an option is to completely scrap everything and start from scratch. I don’t think I’ll do that. But it’s a possibility. So it’s an exciting moment to reflect. And also to then to sort of LEAP forwards into the next gen. So with that in mind, I do want to say that of course I am running my annual strategic planning session. It’s your 12 month business blueprint. I’m calling it this year, very exciting, and very powerful session. So if you’re listening to this live, it’s on the Thursday, the 16th of November, so just over a week from now. And that will be a live session together. Very interactive, very workshopping. There’ll be some pre work, there’ll be some post work and really, really valuable session to map out your year for next year. And believe me, I will be doing the same for myself this year. You can hold me to account for that. In the meantime, though, I should say you can go to one subflow.com forward slash my lips are all over the place day forward slash blueprint, one step outside.com. Forward slash blueprint to access that workshop ideally, to join us live of course though, you can then watch the recording. And of course you can message me on any social platform where we connected if you want the details if you can’t find it for whatever reason, or if you want to ask me any questions in the meantime, though, you may see where this is going, I want to do a bit of a review of this past year. Because before we can start navigating and planning the next year, we do want to look back and say, okay, you know, what do you want to keep doing what hasn’t worked so well what has worked well, and so on. So if you want, you can pause this, grab a pen and paper, and or you can just let my words wash over you. And then you can come back to this later.
It’s not a you know, super comprehensive, time consuming exercise, I just want to ask you a few prompts. We will be doing this as well as part of the workshop in a bit more detail. But I want to already give me an opportunity to start those wheels whirring in your head. I know it’s only November. But as I started this podcast episode, saying, it’s already, you know, getting very close to the end of the year. Before we know it snap like that. It’ll be 2024, believe it or not. So my first question to you to ponder to reflect on to meditate on is how do you feel about this year overall. So you can pause, I won’t, in the interest of interest, give you massive, massive silences On this episode, because that would be a bit boring, but I will wait a little bit. And then you can pause and start again. But the question is, how do you feel about this year? So are you bubbling over with excitement is do you have a general sense of Oh, my gosh, so much has happened and you’ve made, you know, come forward leaps and bounds, oh, my gosh, you’ve started the business. You’ve grown the business to this point, you had your first, this type of client, you made that amount of money. You published a book, you launched a podcast, whatever it is, how do you feel about this year overall? Super, super positive, bubbling over?
Feeling a bit mad, perhaps, like I have, to some extent, and hopefully we can bring out the bubbles from that mat as well? Because I’m sure there’s lots of things that that we have to celebrate. Even so. Or is it? Oh, no, I’m really frustrated, I just haven’t moved the needle at all. On the business. I haven’t prioritized the things that mattered. haven’t grown it to where I want to be. I haven’t even started this project that I said I was going to do, you know, how are you feeling better overall, without even digging into too much detail? How do you feel about 2023? The next question, and it’s a five parter, is digging into the five different areas.
So if you’re new to my community, hello, thank you for listening. And if not, then you’re familiar with these. But it’s my five L’s it’s the five zones five areas of your life that I believe you need to pay attention to those kind of spinning plates, you need to nurture and keep spinning in order to feel meaningful and holistics success. So those five L’s are live love, learn, lead, love.
Live as your health and well being. Love is your relationships and belonging to the community, to your peers to a group learn is development and growth. Lead is your career and impact. In your case, perhaps your business and laugh is a fun and spontaneity and everything that brings you joy and all those things. So live love, learn need laugh. And for each of these, I want you to now double click as it were and reflect on Okay, well, then the health and well being sphere. How am I feeling now? Of course, the go to ones for me was all over and a half marathon and I’ve done this than that. And I’ve lost that weight. And I’ve done but it’s not just about that. Right? It really is. How have you been feeling? Have you been and I have been going to bed earlier to sleep better? My son Zack is sleeping better that no, no thanks to me, but the to coincide quite nicely. So I’m a little bit pickier than I used to be. I work with a personal trainer and nutritionist. I have not run a half marathon this year, in fact, and at the moment as we speak, I’ve got a problem with my IT band. So I’m taking care of that. But generally, you know, how has health been for you and your family? Is it something you’ve prioritized, so both input, what you’ve what actions you’ve taken, and then also what has been the outcome? And unfortunately, you know, sometimes we have unexpected illnesses and things that are outside of our control. But perhaps your energy hasn’t been where it should be perhaps you have had some unexpected health issues. You know, whether they they have a clear cause that you can affect or not is going to change what you can do about it, but how do you feel about live health and well being physical health, emotional health, mental health. The next one is love. So relationships, ships and belonging. So romantic relationship, of course with potential or existing partners, children, parents, siblings, also friends, you know, running your own business, especially when people start out it can feel quite lonely.
So how is that sense of belonging to a peer group? Do you have a support network around you people, cheerleaders, friends, we’ve moved to a new place you know, it’s then making new friends. If you work from home by yourself, you do have to make more than that. But to grant meet people, how is relationships for you? How is the Sarah if you and again, both in terms of you know, I should have, I would have wanted to call my aging Auntie more or seen my, you know, cousins, whatever that is, and also the outcome, you know, actually I feel like I’ve drifted apart from my friends since we left London or I do feel a bit isolated, I don’t have that, you know, peer group, and so on. That’s love relationships and belonging. The next one is learn to development and growth. And my go to, and I know many of you in the community to is to sign up to formal courses, it could be working with a mentor, it could be doing one of my programs working with a coach, it could be I’ve done a little mini masters this year, I say I’ve done I haven’t finished it. So that’s something to complete. In the next few weeks, I remind myself of an organizational psychology MicroMasters. I’ve worked with someone, specifically in terms of several b2b sales this year to learn a bit more about that, because I’ve been doing more sort of individual sales. So what have you learned? And how have you sort of invested in your own personal and professional development. And of course, again, as a business owner, we don’t have a manager or HR department that’s going to tell us to complete x y Zed training, right? So part of it is just a steep learning curve anyway of working for ourselves. But part of it is also in investing in courses, programs, mentors, etc, that will will help us to learn and grow.
I’ve also done Duolingo, which I always thought was a bit silly, it’s an app for languages, if you’re not familiar with it, but I’ve done the Spanish for a year now.
So I’m proud of that, too. So we’ll be at I’m not talking and so and actually, it’s pretty good in terms of keeping my Spanish alive. And if I go back to Spain, at some point, maybe I’ll even dare to speak Spanish to somebody. So that’s another one doesn’t have to be business related. Right. The next category is business related. Its lead. So career and impact. So, you know, have you related to growth, but more related to the business then? Have you challenged yourself this year? Have you upskilled? Have you written a book? What have you created in terms of, you know, contents? Have you started a new channel? Have you launched a new program? Have you done speaking engagements or done your first podcast interview, and in the area of, you know, really developing your career, your business and the impact that you’re making? How do you feel about that this year? Again, always in terms of both of your input, what you’ve done actively, and then also the output the outcome, or I just don’t feel like I’ve, you know, grown the business as much. And hopefully you have a specific goal there rather than just a feeling. You know, I had this goal, and I haven’t achieved that. Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. I have achieved the goal I set myself. The final one is tricky. I know. And it’s the one that I always prioritized the least. So I hold my hands up here. laughs fun and spontaneity.
There’s more and more of this, especially since we moved back and we’re living closer to our friends living by the sea. You know, what is it that brings you joy, something not just going to the gym because you want to get fit to be healthy, not just, you know, learning a language because you know, I don’t know it’s something that needs to bring you join not just you’re not doing it, because you have to you feel you should real joy. So reading a novel, going on a writing, retreat, paddleboarding, sailing, knitting, whatever it is for us that going with friends to do something, you know, something just really fun and joyful? And do you make space for that? Because I say most of us don’t, unfortunately. And it’s hard with pressure of bringing in money, and health issues and all these things. But so, so important. And if we’re not having fun, then you know, what, what is the point to be honest. So those are the five areas to reflect on. So live health and well being love relationships, belonging, learn development and growth, lead career and impact and laugh, fun and spontaneity. So I’ve talked about you there. So again, if you want to pause now and go back and reflect over those five, maybe you’ve jotted something down and you can come back to it and flesh it out later.
This doesn’t have to be a hugely time consuming scientific process.
It’s really to get you a sense of what’s worked, what hasn’t and then what do you want to do? Going forward? I have two final questions for you today. The first one is what do you want to celebrate? So looking at this list in terms of how you feel overall in terms of each of those five L’s, what do you want to celebrate? And I would love you to and as ever, I tell you this because I’m not going to do this, to really celebrate, whether it’s I’m going to book myself a massage, I’m going to take my partner out for dinner. I’m going to have a bubble bath with champagne and whatever I’m going to watch my favorite. I mean, ideally, something different than you would usually do something that feels really indulgent. Really to celebrate yourself. And then I had a client who I saw celebrated five years and her business and she did a proper event. And she celebrated that, you know, if you launched a book and again, I did not do this. So I am just as guilty as the next person, you know, have a book launch, have an event, make a cake with your face on it, for goodness sake. These are incredible achievements. We should be celebrating them. You know, okay, if we hit the income goal doesn’t mean we then have to go out and buy like a new car or handbag or something and spend all our money doesn’t have to be something that’s expensive. But please, please, please celebrate. So the question is, what do you want to celebrate? And of course, Part B, how will you celebrate? And do let me know if you can ping me on social, I’m usually Anna s. E. Lundberg. Anna Lundberg is a very common name in Sweden, unfortunately. So my handle using my middle names as E. Anna St. Lundberg, and you can connect with me, let me know because I love celebrating you, it’s much easier for me to celebrate you then to celebrate myself. And I’d love to hear how you will celebrate. So that will give you some accountability. And the next question, final question, what do you want to do differently? Final question, because this is, of course, transitioning ourselves into planning for next year. So looking at that, is there a particular area out of the five L’s perhaps that needs more work? Somewhere where you want to make more of an effort and or you want different results? What do you want to do differently? And it’s, you know, this is not again, you don’t need to write an essay, you don’t need to have to now have a 12 page business plan, ever, in fact, but really think about, okay, what what kind of different things you want to see. Now, if the answer is exactly the same next year, I think that’s unlikely. But if it is amazing, let’s capture the things you did this year and make sure you don’t lose sight of those next year. Because sometimes we stopped doing the things that are working, forget about them get a bit complacent. And then you know, we don’t get the same results next year. And in fact, we sometimes need to do more just to get the same. But nonetheless, what do you want to do differently, capture that, and then we can move on next week, if you want to join our session. Again, you can find the details of the live workshop one step up for.com forward slash blueprint. That’s going to be our annual strategic planning session for next year. And, and there’ll be more to come there as well. Of course, if you do want to, to join us, that would be amazing. It’s such a great interactive thing to do someone else. And as I’ve admitted myself, sometimes it doesn’t happen when you do on your own. So I really encourage you to join us that one final time one step outside.com. Forward slash blueprints. And that’s our annual business strategic planning session for 2024 have been getting the years right. And in the meantime, today, we’ve reviewed 2023 And I hope he gave you that gave you some little sprinkling of insight as to how this as your got this year has gone. And what you want to do differently for next year as we start to wind down 2023 and inch creep towards the New Year 2024. Hope that was useful to you, as ever do share the episode if there’s someone else who you think could benefit I hope to see you on the live workshop next week, and I will definitely see you on next week’s podcast episode. So thanks so much for listening. I’ll see you then. Bye for now.
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