What are your goals for the new year? What are your intentions for 2023, not just for your career but for your health and wellbeing, your personal and professional development, and your relationships? What does success really look like for you?
*Resources mentioned during the episode*
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Goals for 2022
Welcome back. And now we are looking at 2023. Or as one of my clients right to me 2032. Not quite there yet, we’re looking at 2023 Believe it or not. So we’ve passed the dreaded dark years of 2020 2021 2022 is been and gone pretty much. And now we’re looking ahead to two zero to 320 23. Who knows what exciting things this year will hold for us. But we will do our best to set our intentions to guide us in terms of what we can control. Let’s put it that way. So if you haven’t already listened to last week’s episode, then please do go back and do that. Because we’ve reviewed 2022. And that’s a really good foundation. We finished that podcast episode on the question. Okay, what do you want to do differently? What different results do you want to see next year. So that’s a really good foundation and segue into today. Do go back and listen to that. I’ll assume now that you’ve already done that review of last year. And by the way, I should say this is all very general review. Right? It’s not specifically digging into a particular business model, or career and so on, I’m really looking big picture life. So it should be relevant for all of you.
So again, 2020 to review last week, and then this week, we’re looking at your vision for 2023.
And the first thing to say here is that my approach to setting my intention for the new year has become different to the old school, sort of New Year’s resolutions way of doing things right. And I have to say I did, I was pretty obsessive about this. And the years when I first started coaching, because I was so immersed in the idea of goals and effective goal setting and so on. So I read everything I could get my hands on, I tried everything. So I was a bit of a keen been, shall we say, I’ve dialed it back a little bit. As as things evolve, it is more of an evolution, it’s a shift. And so rather than a total rewrite of my destiny, so that makes it a little bit easier. But I don’t want to get complacent, there are still big shifts that can happen that I do want to happen. But anyway, rather than use resolutions, I want to get fit, lose weight, do more exercise, and so on launch a successful business. That’s not very helpful. Most people will never achieve them, we can go into the details. But of course, they’re not meaningful goals. They’re not specific enough, there’s no accountability, etc, etc. So my approach instead is to set an overall theme. So that key theme could be a word or a phrase. That could be and I’m trying to think back to my past ones, it could be bold decisions, follow through, I had a client who put first things first, it could be momentum impact, could be money, who knows. It could be anything you want it to be what I would say there is a couple of things.
First of all, if you want more detail, I was just looking back, and if you go to Episode 110, episode 1101 10. In fact, if you go to one stop i.com forward slash Episode 110, you should be redirected there, then that episode walks you through how to come up with that one word, one phrase for a year, so won’t replicate that now. You can do it quite organically. And even though I’ve spoken about it first here, I’d actually encourage you to do it last. So once you’ve done the detailed planning, then come back and see if there’s something perhaps a commonality, a theme, a pattern that you can see across your more specific goals that you can elevate up to your theme. And I’m going to admit here, I don’t yet have my theme for 2023. Otherwise, I would share it with you. But first of all, Episode 110 How to grab your theme, and then come back to it at the end. I’d say certainly at the end of this episode, once you’ve listened to Episode One 110, not one 01 10. And and certainly after you’ve developed your specific goals. So that’s the overall theme. The second thing is your definition of success. And this one as well, I think you can come back to at the end.
So you know, this is a funky episode where I’m starting with the end, your definition of success is not doesn’t have to be this perfectly beautiful poetic sentence a perfect picture, right? It can be as simple as feeling like I was present with my family and doing meaningful work. It can be as simple as I feel proud of what I’ve achieved in the year, you know, so really think in simple terms, as ambitious as you want as subjective, as detailed as vague as you want. But the important thing for it is to be meaningful to you. Because it’s so easy to judge yourself based on other people’s criteria, other people’s shoulds and our projections we think we should be looking at. And it’s really powerful to reimagine success, which of course is the theme of this whole podcast.
So what is your definition of success?
So those are the two overarching questions with 2023. But again, I would encourage you to come back to those actually. So overall theme, and then your definition of success. We’re going to do a bit of an exercise so if you haven’t already, I would love for you to get into a quiet space with a pen and paper. If you are again like me listening on the go running, doing the dishes, dry thing, whatever, then have a listen, let the words a wash over you don’t close your eyes when I tell you to close your eyes if you’re running or driving, please. And then you can come back and listen to it again later on when you have time and you’re in an actual safe environment. So think ahead to this time next year, we’re listening to Anna’s podcasts again, December 2023. We’re going to do this exercise, in fact, last week’s exercise right reviewing back over the year, and I want you to close your eyes. Now, I want you think of what will you have done? So, what will you have achieved? What will you have experienced? What will you have done this time next year.
So for example, I will have spoken on a stage of more than 100 people, I will have started work on my next book, I will have worked with my first client, I will have earned my first 10k, my first 100k, my first 1k, whatever that is, I will have shifted to a three day workweek. So what will you have done? Close your eyes? It’s this time next year. What will you have done? What action will you’ve taken? What will you have experienced? What will you have achieved? So what will you have done? Again, I’d encourage you to pause and take more time on this one. But I move on to the next one, which is what will you be meaning how will you be feeling what would you be experiencing? In that moment? Will you be celebrating your incredible sales success? Will you be you know, jumping up and down with pride as to what you’ve achieved? Will you be taking all of December off? Because you want to have that time off?
Because you will have worked so hard and that year? So what will you be? Will you be famous? Will you be rich? Will you be at peace? Will you be relaxed, confident? And then the third one, what will you have? So I will have X amount in my bank account to my bank bank balance, I will have a website up and running. I will have a podcast, I will have a physical book in my hand. So this is based on the do B have which is an exercise I learned back in my initial coach training and it’s something I’ve included in the Business Academy. But it’s what will you do be in heaven. The idea is not just to focus on the have not just I have this amount of money and I have a successful business and so on but really thinking of what do you want to do be in half. So again, closing your eyes, pausing reflecting on those different aspects by next year. Next, I want to go into my five L so of course if you’ve been in my community for a while, and certainly if you listen to last week’s episode, you’ll know the five owls live love, learn lead love. And last week we reviewed the last year. And now we’re going to look ahead to next year. So live health and well being obviously you can look back and you should look back over your notes from last week in terms of 2022. What are your priorities be in this area? So if you put focus on mental health, but not physical health, is that something you want to look at? What have you feel? Have you been feeling like you’ve maybe become a little bit lazy, and you’d like to do more cycling or wild swimming, or maybe go couch to 5k or 5k to 10k 10k? Half Marathon? That’s what I did half marathon to marathon who knows what you want to do whatever feels right for you? Do you want to work with a personal trainer? Do you want to start yoga? Do you want to try meditation? Do you want to join a gym? What do you want to do in the area of live health and well being think physical health, mental health, holistic health. Next, love. And I should say for all of these, you can focus both on the outcome that you want and the input, right. So really, if we were to go into more detail here, which is tricky on a short podcast, I’m seeing the time tick away already. If this was a full workshop or coaching session, we could break that down into okay, this is the outcome I want. And this is the habit this is the step I’m going to take. But for now it can be a mix of those things. And then you can come away from this and do a bit more thinking. So love relationships and belonging. Do you want to go on more dates? Do you want to stop using dating apps? Do you want to start using dating apps? Do you want to join a professional association locally? Do you want to join some kind of hobby community? Do you want to volunteer in your community? Do you need to go to couples therapy? Do you want to do that? Or what is the focus for you in the area of relationships personal romantic platonic professional? Do you want to join a mastermind where you’ll have like minded people who are both cheering you on and sharing their struggles and helping you To navigate the difficulties in your business, and the next challenge is then learn development and growth. So what’s the new area of learning? So for me, I’m still thinking, I’ve got a few ideas. It could be, you know, one small learning piece per quarter. If you’re on LinkedIn learning, for example, that could be interesting. Or it could be that you join a more comprehensive program for the year. But think about what is it you want to learn? Again, there are smaller things you can do, sign up to Audible, listen to podcasts, and so on. But I’d encourage you to have a focus. So is it about? You know, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts about b2b and selling to corporate as that’s becoming a growing part of my business? Or is it about sales for you? Is it about personal branding? Are you at the stage where you’re listening to my podcast, which is more general, right? Hello, you are obviously because you’re listening here.
But if you’re new, you know, it’s around the big picture of getting clear on what you want from your business in your life, putting in place the right business model, getting a plan, the work life integration, having that kind of lifestyle that you want, right?
So are you at that stage where you want the general ideas, the big picture, comprehensive strategies? Or are you ready to do you need to double click on specific areas that then lead career and impact obviously, this is the big piece when it comes to your business, thinking of what your priorities are, in terms of I mentioned, you know, maybe speaking on stage is that something that you want to really focus on, in which case, you need to actually, you know, apply to speak, you need to put out there that you want to speak. In my case, again, focusing more on the b2b, the corporate side of things, for example, maybe you’re developing a new program, maybe you’re trying to sell an existing program, you want to get more people into your program, you want to move from a cohort driven group program to an evergreen program. What’s the impact you want to make? Do you want to develop your own IP your prior Proper Prior to read frameworks or IP? So really having your expertise formalized in something like my five pillars, the five L’s that we’re talking through now I have lots of little mini frameworks as well. So what is your priority in the area of lead career and impact? And finally, I know it’s hard to set goals in this area but love fun and spontaneity. So I’m going to play more ukulele I’ve also got ideas around paddleboarding maybe sailing because I did get my sailing license pre or actually during my my pregnancy with my daughter, Sofia. So you know other things like that social events? Do you want to go to the more theater? As I’m doing? Do you want to, to start some new hobby I’ve got a mum friend to come circle mum friends. They will become real friends, I’m sure but they came from there. Three. He was doing life drawing. And she studied art when she was younger. And she’s coming back to that and going with friends. And so maybe wine tasting or who knows what else you can do paddleboarding? Kayaking, I’m living by the sea, as you can tell. So that’s a lot of fun and spontaneity. And of course, I know it’s weird to plan spontaneity. But actually, sometimes you need to leave space in your calendar for spontaneity.
So even if it’s just blocking time on Sunday afternoon, when you haven’t filled it full of stuff. That is that is a great step to take. So that’s live health and well being love relationships and belonging, learn development and growth, lead career and impact and laugh, have fun and spontaneity. Now, I’ll leave you with a bit of a bonus strategy, which is something we used in corporate and something we use in business to what you can do is do a stop, start continue as well. So I want to stop having my daily donut on the way to work. That’s very old school way of doing things. But it was the thing that came to mind. I want to stop going around in circles stop, like wasting money on lots of different courses and things and formal qualifications. And so what do you stop doing stop wasting time on content creation, and reels and so on. Because it’s not getting me the traction, I want, what you need to start doing in order to get these outcomes that you’re after. And then very importantly, what you need to continue. So if there are things that have been working, or you have been enjoying this year, things that you want to take with you from last year, the things you are celebrating, for example, for me, I’m thinking Thursdays I’ve been keeping is pretty much sacred to work on my course then my book clearly that’s worked really well. I want to keep that as a kind of sacred day when I don’t do lots of calls and meetings and things. So what do you want to stop? What do you need to stop, start and continue? Then if you remember the beginning of this episode, and I appreciate we’ve gone through that quite quickly. Again, it is the sort of limitation of a 15 minute podcast episode but it’s in bite size for your for your convenience, we come back to the overall theme again, say it with me episode 110 is where you can listen more and I think around there there were some other episodes around, you know, around pretty much every year December January. I’ve got lots of episodes on reimagining success and setting goals and so on to do have a listen to those that you find. And we’ll be sharing some in the Facebook group I’m sure as well. And then your definition of success really. Again closing your eyes visualizing where are you next year this time next year, when you’re listening to my podcast again, what have you achieved? What have you done? What do you have? What are you feeling? What are you experiencing what’s different?
Then, of course, it’s all very well to have all this, whether it’s a business strategy, or kind of a life strategy, in this case, on paper or in your head. What we can’t cover now, of course, but certainly we’ll be covering I’m sure in the coming weeks and months is how can you actually go about implementing this? Right? So you need to for now think about, okay, can I have a prompt, can I, you know, there’s the classic thing of putting your trainers out the night before. So go running, or, you know, blocking it in your calendar ahead of time, working with a personal trainer, nutritionist, business coach, whatever expert to support you with your particular goal, joining a mastermind, etc, for accountability. So really think about how you can create the support network, how you can build in that accountability, how you can make sure that you’re putting these things first, and reminding yourself every day, every week, every month, you can have a bad day, you can even I would say have a bad week. But you know, if you start having Weeks, months of not taking these steps, and you know, before you know, we’re back here again, December 2023, and you shall be disappointed with what’s happened. Now, of course, the unexpected things will happen. We don’t need to set ourselves some crazy ambitious goals and then inevitably disappointed, so be reasonable. But I absolutely believe that you can achieve big things. You just need to be single mindedly focused on those take one thing at a time, in each area, perhaps you know, like I did my course then I’ve done my book, you can’t do everything at the same time. So try to break it down into your quarters. So much advice with your into I think there will be definitely some episodes on specifically planning your week planning your days and hours and so on.
I think that’s something that I’m really getting quite geeky about in terms of time management and so on. So that is it for now, I suppose. So again, have a think about what APR theme word or phrase comes into mind. What’s your definition of success going forwards? And then think of those different areas to make sure that you’re not just focusing on business success to the detriment of the other things, or vice versa, right? Maybe sometimes it’s too much work life balance, and then not so much business that’s happened to me, believe it or not in the past as well. So hope you enjoyed that. I’ve got a final interview for you next week, which I’ve put out usually I don’t do an interview for the last week. But this particular one, the career pivot happened, I believe on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day back in the day. So it was a nice little holiday moment a nice bit of symmetry to have that coming out for you next week. But of course I should say and I’m just double checking what date this is going out. So I don’t say something silly. But I mean I will say if you celebrate Christmas or wonderful Merry Christmas, I hope you’re gonna have a couple of weeks off or for Happy Holidays. As we say no disrespect with my rubbish accent. I really hope you can now have some time. Quiet time to yourself to your family. Peace, love and joy all those good things and and here’s to an amazing 2023 Can’t wait to see what it holds for you. I’m excited. Hope you are too. Thanks so much for listening this year, of course as well for being part of the community and here’s to many more exciting things to come in 2023 Bye for now.
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