Celebrate Your Wins. Learn From Your Losses.
You’re already thinking about how to make 2023 your most kick-ass year yet, right? You’re thinking about all the ways you can empower your team, build trust, and collaborate to achieve your goals. You’ve got a million ideas, and the only question is: which one should go first?
Not so fast, Danica Patrick.
Before you speed off into the new year, you’ve got to take a good, hard look at 2022. You’ve got to cross the finish line of one race before you go start another. You’ve got to sit down with your pit crew (tired of the racecar metaphor yet?) and figure out what went right, what went wrong, and what didn’t go at all.
If you listened to my advice (cough cough), you’ve already met with your direct reports weekly to dive into everything. But now that we’re at the end of the year, it’s time to go beyond the day-to-day operations of your business and talk with your people about vision and strategy.
It’s time for retrospective evaluations with big-picture questions like…
What did you love this year?
What felt good?
What are your goals/dreams?
What can we learn?
It’s Not as Bad as You Think
People often avoid retrospectives because they’re afraid of bad news. They’re afraid that if they slow down to pause and reflect if they really look closely, they’ll just see all the ways they failed and all the opportunities they missed.
If that’s how you’re feeling, it’s not your fault. It’s that pesky amygdala again.
See, your brain is wired to find danger. It’s supposed to scan the horizon for predators to warn you to run away. Unfortunately, in the absence of actual lions, it tends to occupy its time looking for ways you forked up instead. Sigh.
But an annual retrospective isn’t about finding and punishing yourself for all your mistakes. It’s about dealing with the reality of what happened—the good AND the less good—so you can revise your strategies using your new wisdom and understanding.
I bet there will be a LOT more good stuff to talk about than you think. In fact, I’ve got a tool to help you with that.
Celebrate Your Wins
It still amazes me how much time some of my clients have spent beating themselves up… but as I said, we’re all wired this way. That’s why I created the Celebrate Your Wins Workbook, which is perfect for conducting your 2022 retrospective evaluation with yourself and your employees (but don’t be afraid to use it quarterly, monthly, or even weekly, too!).
This month, set aside some time to answer these 10 questions. Challenge yourself to come up with at least FIVE answers for each one.
What were your biggest achievements?
What are the biggest challenges you overcame?
What did you learn about yourself?
Where did you grow or develop new skills toward achieving your larger goals?
What did you achieve that surprised you?
What did you fail at or make a mistake that needs recognizing?
What new habits did you develop this year?
What new relationships did you build upon or develop?
Where did you have the most fun?
What will you do to celebrate, recognize, and acknowledge your achievements?
Download the full workbook here.
Now What?
Now that you’ve reflected on your year and celebrated your accomplishments, it’s time to take all that learning and apply it to 2023. How can you create more of the good stuff and find new solutions for the not-so-great stuff? What changes can you make to make you and your team more connected, collaborative, and empowered? What priorities need to change? What resources need to shift? Set yourself up with everything you need to translate all that 2022 learning into a truly kick-ass 2023.
Need extra support to make it happen? I’ve got you, boo!
My Master Your Mind Accountability Cohort (now known as the Unleash Your Legacy Accountability Cohort) is a 6-month, life-altering, mind-blowing coaching program that leaves you with clarity, unshakeable confidence, and a laser focus on a six-month plan to crush your goals. Learn more here.
