Hi, everyone.
It's Andy LaCivita, founder of Milewalk and the Milewalk Academy, and award winning author
of The Hiring Prophecies, here with this week's episode of Tips For Work and Life.
I've got a great one about reflection.
And this is really for anybody who is feeling stuck in their life, they don't feel like
they're making process.
It's even for those people that are wracking up accomplishment after accomplishment, or
goal after goal, and they just don't feel happy.
They don't feel like they're making progress.
They're not happy with themselves.
And this is the time of year where I think people spend extra time thinking back on the
year, reflecting, being thankful.
While I think you should do that everyday ... I start my day with gratitude, I end my
day with gratitude.
But I know that a lot of people focus more on that this time of year, I certainly do.
And last week, I sat down to go through my year and what I'm about to complete, and all
the things that I've done.
And I challenged myself.
I said, "You know, I'm just tired of listing down: what did I accomplish?
What did I learn?
What do I need to do better?"
I said, "There's got to be a better way to think about this."
And really, I challenged myself to come up with something that I could take myself through,
that I did, and I packaged it up.
And I'm going to give it to you today.
Let me talk a little bit about this.
When you think about your accomplishments, whether you're stuck, whether you are making
some progress, you will never feel happy, you will never feel successful in your life,
no matter how much you're accomplishing if you don't take the time to spend a few minutes,
whether it's everyday, every week, every month, and reflect on what it is that you've done,
in a positive way.
And be compassionate with yourself and recognize that you're doing your best and you've accomplished
a lot, even if it's one step at a time.
Sometimes you make progress everyday and you don't even notice it.
So, I thought about what is one of the biggest sources of stress that we all deal with?
A lot of you, type A's that are accomplishing a lot of things in your life, you're constantly
moving and always looking forward at what you have not done and what you have not accomplished,
that you rarely take time to look back.
And others, who feel like they're inching along.
If you just took a step back and thought for a few minutes each day about what you accomplished
and what was great, you'd feel a lot better.
So, I came up with ... These eight different areas that I thought really, really would
help me better understand what I accomplished, give me a much better perspective in the way
to look at what I did over the course of the year.
And I came up with 15 questions.
I put them in this guide; I called it The Annual Career Reflection Guide For Success.
This little booklet that you obviously can't read or see, but it's there in the notes.
You can download it.
And I think there's some really great questions to help you reflect.
Let's talk a little bit about ... I won't go into each of these eight different areas
in detail, but there's a couple that I think we should spend a few minutes on.
I think about the moments in your life.
Your life is made up of moments.
And we all move so quickly, and we're all so distracted.
Most people I know, they spend their entire lives in a timezone other than the one that
they're standing in.
They're living in the past, or they're living in the future.
And they don't really think about all those great moments.
And just to give you an example, when I say moments, your most proud moments, your most
surprised moments, your most selfless moments, those first time moments.
The first time moments.
You are watching this video ... Likely, you're watching this video for the first time.
This is the first time I'm shooting this video; likely, the only time I will ever shoot this
video.
It's a first for me.
I did a lot of firsts this year.
I bet you did too.
Those are the kind of things that I'm talking about.
And no matter what you're going through right now, if you think about those four moments
... So, there's questions in this guide.
Those four moments, how could you not feel better about yourself?
Really spend some time and think about that.
Some of the other areas: your accomplishments.
Yeah, let's think back.
Go all the way back to the beginning of the year.
Go back as far as you want.
What are those accomplishments?
What are some of the challenges that you faced and overcame?
What are some of those lessons that you learned?
What do you want to do more of?
Right?
What do you want to keep doing?
What do you want to stop doing?
What do you want to do less of?
That's always a great one.
Here, again, it's not about beating yourself up, it's just about what is it that I'd like
to pair down in my life.
What were those unnecessary worries that I had that turned out to be nothing, or not
nearly as bad as I thought they would be?
And what do I ... What can I be thankful for?
Think about it, if you just thought about those eight areas: the moments, your accomplishments,
your challenges, your lessons, what you want to do more of, what you want to do less of,
what were your unnecessary worries, and what you could be thankful for.
Those are really, really great ways to reflect.
So, I hope this helps.
This exercise is designed to make you feel good.
That's it's sole purpose.
And it's designed ... If you're feeling stuck and you're not moving, it's designed to get
you to stop and realize how far you've actually come.
And if you're piling up those accomplishments and you're moving with some great momentum,
it's just designed to give you a little pause so that you can realize how much movement
you've made, how much positive movement you've made.
And that's what fuels even greater momentum.
So, I hope this helps.
I hope you enjoyed it.
So, take some time during this season to reflect.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it, comment, let me know what you're thinking.
There's also the guide.
Grab it, take a look at it.
Spend an hour, spend two.
You can do it every month, you can do it every week, you can do it everyday if you want.
These are questions you can ask continually.
But always ask them when you're feeling stuck or you're feeling like you're not making progress.
It really, really will help.
And then, lastly, I've got a few other great freebies that we're going to be running.
There's a career workshop that I have called Transform Your Career.
It's got a five step career success planner.
So, as you're looking into the next year, you might want to check that out, as well.
So, all that stuff is in the notes.
Let me know what you're thinking.
Have a good one.
We'll see you next week.