As the sugar haze from the xmas pudding begins to fade and a new year scuttles towards us, it is perhaps timely to reflect upon the last 12 months. End of year reflection is not only about working out what you’re NOT going to do in the new year but also acknowledging the things you have done this year, what you’ve learned and what positive things you’re taking with you into the next phase of life.
There are plenty of end of year reflection questions but the ones I’ve been using this year are an adaptation of questions by coach Shirley Anderson (who runs the Coaching Salon – which is fabulous BTW). I like these questions because they’re not just about achievements but coming back to what’s most important – doing things that are in sync with our values, being surrounded by people we care about, letting go of the shit that doesn’t serve us, being grateful for the life we have …
Grab a cuppa (or a glass of sparkly) and give the following some thought over the coming week:
Year End Questions
What are the 25 things I’m most proud of accomplishing this year?
What were my disappointments and what did let go of?
Who am I most happy to have in my life?
What is the most significant area of personal growth for me?
What would I have done differently, and what is the lesson I got from it?
What 5 things am I most grateful for, and how will I show it?
(adapted from questions by Shirley Anderson of the Coaching Salon)
I’ve written previously on the brilliance of mindfulness and thought it might be time to start sharing some of the resources that I’ve found most beneficial over the years.
Today’s resource is a 10 minute mindfulness meditation and is based on the meditations of Jon Kabat Zinn (the guy who brought mindfulness into the western secular mainstream more than 20 years ago with his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme at the Uni of Massachusetts Medical Centre).
If you’ve not done any mindfulness practice before then the following short guided meditation is a gentle introduction. It gets you started by helping you focus on your breath which you can then use as an anchor for calm throughout the rest of your day.
To begin your mindfulness practice, set aside ten minutes today, find a quiet place you can sit and not be disturbed, and listen to the audio. Repeat tomorrow. And the next day. And so on for 7 days.
If you are interested in developing your mindfulness practice further, I’ll be sharing longer body scans and full mindfulness meditations with you over the coming weeks. So, be sure to subscribe to the monthly Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life newsletter, the worklifedesign RSS feed or follow @worklifedesign on Twitter to receive notification when I upload them.
Somewhere in the space between that which exists and that which has yet to be imagined, sparks of Brilliance fly.
Happy end of the month (or is it beginning of the new month?)! Here are the Brilliant! posts from November.
BRILLIANT! A BLOG, A ONLINE MAG AND A MOOK: THREE BRILLIANT PUBLICATIONS
Brilliant ideas are all around us. The challenge today seems to be identifying those that can actually provide some insight into the questions or issues that we are facing.
To sort through the chaff, I find I will listen to the recommendations by colleagues, clients, family, friends and trusted interweb sources. They’ll often mention magazines, books, blogs, websites, events or simply ideas that are inspiring them.
Three of these little gems have really impressed me this year. … read more…
BRILLIANT! WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM
Finding innovative solutions to problems is a common challenge in work and in life.
In most circumstances the way to proceed is often clear or doesn’t take long to become clear through asking a few simple questions. But other times no matter how many lists of possibilities I roll through, the answer doesn’t appear.
A current situation for me is the naming of a new project. I am fairly clear in what I want the name to communicate but do you think I can find ‘the name’? The frustrating thing is that I know it exists, it’s just not existing in my view yet.
With this in mind, I watched the TED talk, above, by Steven Johnson (a different Steven Johnson from last month) entitled “Where good ideas come from” to see if I could crack my own good idea… read more …
AND, IN THE STUDIO THIS MONTH …
THE STUDIO: CLARITY AND DIRECTION WITH THE OMG! WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?! EBOOK
With the silly season fast approaching, I thought it might be timely to share with you my little all-in-one resource for those who may be scheduling some existential angst or career crisis over the coming months.
This 30-page ebook helps you work out what you want from life and how you can start making it happen.
To download your very own copy of OMG!WAIDWML (catchy, hey?)
THE STUDIO: CREATE A VIBRANT, COMPELLING VISION FOR YOUR LIFE WITH YOUR FUTURE LETTER : EXERCISE
WHERE ARE YOU HEADED?
This is one of the four basic questions I always ask someone who wants to change some part of their life or work. I find that we can be very good at detailing what’s wrong or what we don’t want or how things should be different, but very few people are clear about what they do want. So is it any surprise that we have difficulty making decisions when we have nothing to guide us? Today’s Studio treat is an exercise that is surprisingly simple and yet quite powerful… The Future Letter
Brilliant! Ideas For Work and Life is written and collated by Trish Weston. Everything in it is her opinion, with a smattering of facts to make it hold together. If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to email trish AT worklifedesign DOT com DOT au
