Here we are in 2021 and my first blog of the year. It's not really how I thought I’d be starting the year (i.e. hiding upstairs from a raucous 5-year-old) but looking back on 2020 I am amazed at what everybody achieved last year, whether that was keeping your business afloat, getting out of bed each morning, home schooling kids and just living through a world-wide pandemic. I mean if that is the only thing you ticked off your to do list last year it is pretty epic.
So feeling like an achiever I took time over Christmas to work on my planning for 2021. At the start of last year I wrote a blog about how I’d written a list of 50 things that I wanted to do over the following 12 months and then how I had broken them down into different categories. The idea was inspired by a post I read by Jenny Procter from Bondfield Marketing. I liked it so much that I decided to do the same again this year.
To start I looked back at what I’d written for 2020 and even though there were some things that weren’t possible; I didn’t get to go away with my best friend (Madrid was cancelled) and I didn’t get a weekend away on my own ( I mean in 2020 I barely go to the toilet on my own so the fact I got a few hours at a spa was a win.) There were business goals I couldn’t achieve in terms of growth, but I wasn’t disheartened as I did things for the business that weren’t on the plan like launching my online course, starting a collaboration with a wonderful photographer and actually blogging more regularly (it’s a work in progress).
On the home front I still managed an overseas trip of a lifetime (we came back the end of Feb- lucky), improved the bathroom and sorted our will (not glamorous but necessary and had been on the to do list for far too long)
So, I hadn’t achieved it all, but it still felt impressive given that like the rest of the country I had spent a lot of the year in lockdown. Feeling emboldened and encouraged by that I decided to do the same again for 2021. This time at first, I couldn’t even think of 50 things, but my list did eventually get beyond 50.
If you haven’t done your planning yet, then this is a great way to get started and really you can write down anything you want to achieve no matter how out there. Once you have your list break it down in to three other lists, home, and family, personal and business.
For business I wrote things about what sort of clients I wanted to work with and financial growth. On a personal level it was things like (maybe optimistically) travelling abroad and eating out with friends’ things I had taken for granted in the past. I also found my list this year was more reflective and explored how I could show people I appreciate them and show gratitude. It showed me that the last year had confirmed for me that connection, appreciation and having time are just as important if not more so than the actual activity itself.
Following on from the lists if you want to go into more detail you could create a list of actions you could take to get you closer to achieving or if you are more visual create a vision board of your 2021 plans.
I’d love to hear how you get on or see your vision boards so feel free to share in the comments or over on my Instagram @beckandcallpr