December 2020 Connections video: How to plan forward after a WHOPPER of a year

We made it through 2020.

It hasn’t been just a challenging year in our lives — it’s been one of the most challenging years in modern history.

Now we know one thing for sure …

We can do anything.

This idea that “we can do hard things” has been coming up for me a lot in the books I’ve been reading lately, and as we barrel toward a (hopefully much better) new year, I find it’s an interesting parallel with certain end-of-the-year activities.

Every year around this time, I do two reflection and planning exercises — and I take client leadership teams through these exercises as well, because I find them so transformative: the Year in Review, and Creating the New Year.

Watch this 4-minute video to learn what these exercises are, how they benefit you, and how to go through them. I’ve included links to some worksheets you can use below as well.

And yes, you’ll also get an end-of-the-year pep talk in this video — because what would a message from me be without some encouragement?

Video Transcription

Good morning, Erin Koss here, CEO of Syte Consulting Group. Hey, it’s been a long year, right? Here we are in December and we’ve lived through one of the toughest years I think probably any of us can can feel or have seen on record. Right. And, you know, some of the things I’ve been thinking about this year as I kind of process it. And there’s so many things, quite frankly. But one of the things that has really struck me was and I think Berne Brown says this, Glenn and Doyle says this, and I’ve just kind of picked it up this last year in a way that really feels true to me

And that is this idea that, quote, we can do hard things, unquote. We’ve seen this at home in our families. We’ve seen this at work with our colleagues. We’ve seen this with our friends where those relationships have had to shift so profoundly this year and in ways that I think have brought a lot of sadness, but have also brought a lot of creativity as well. I know for for my part, trying to engage with these people that I love in all those contexts has been a challenge.

And I’ve had to get creative in order to make those relationships continue to soar. And I feel like I’ve been able to do that. And it’s been hard. And I know you’ve got your stories, too. And frankly, I would love, love to hear you share some of those with us if you if you have a minute. One of the things that I think about as I go into next year is thinking back is doing two things. One is thinking about this this year and kind of doing a review of this year.

We have a process that we do internally that we also do with our clients where we take a few minutes to examine the current year we’re in. Right. How to go. We call it the year in review. And then we look into the next year, usually in the November, December timeframe, and we and we start thinking about what is creating the next year look like. So we use the term creating intentionally, the idea being that we we want to be intentional and purposeful in how we take control of creating our new year.

That’s those. And when we talk about that, we talk about that on a personal level with the people that we’re most intimate with and and walk through our day to day lives with. These are our partners, our spouses, our children, our parents. And then also what is it what do we want on an individual level, what’s important to us from a growth perspective? And how can we be intentional in taking care of and growing ourselves individually as well?

And then thirdly, what is our professional life? What do we want it to look like? Where do we want next year to look like? And how do we start to position ourselves for where we want to be even longer term? And so as we look back on this year, I encourage you to take a minute and do that. Take a minute and write it down. Give it some thoughts. Spend fifteen or twenty minutes. Jot down what your year in review really looks like.

I like to save those year over year over year for posterity a little bit. I have found it really interesting to go back and look at each one year over year. And the thing that’s been so wonderful is even in years where there isn’t massive, massive strides in growth, there’s always something. And so I encourage you to write it down to save, to save it and to look back at your own year in review and then take a few minutes, maybe more than a few, frankly.

Give yourself thirty minutes to an hour, get in a quiet space and start creating with intention and purpose what your New Year will look like.

One other thought I have here is we’ve actually encouraged many of our CXOs so our business leaders to do this with their spouses or partners, their life partners. There’s a lot of meaning in doing that. One of the things I found the last couple of years is I’ve done that with my own husband is you get a level of alignment that is just different. You get a collaboration and a buy in and that camaraderie, just that next level camaraderie that comes into play when you do this with the person that you’re walking through life with.

So I encourage you, look back, write it down, save it, look forward, do it in community collaboration with the people you love the most and just really position yourself for having a great new year. It’s not going to be all easy, but hopefully it’ll be inspired, energized and engaged for you. Much love. It’s been such a treat to be with you this year. Take care.