6 Steps to Your Business Quarterly Review

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The end of each quarter is time to look back and reflect on how things went in the past quarter and plan for the quarter ahead.

Having a business & personal strategy is all about creating an amazing sustainable business and creating a fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. Your business and personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

When it comes to business strategy and the goals you have set, the quarterly review can be the most important as there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating.

Ideally you are reviewing progress of your business goals daily, weekly and monthly which makes your quarterly review easier, more streamlined and more effective,

Your quarterly business review is carried out as you approach the end of a quarter so your action plan is in place for the next quarter as it begins or very shortly after.

Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your Business Quarterly Review:

Step 1 – Review your business goals, the metrics you use to indicate progress and the progress itself

Are your goals still relevant?

Ensuring the goals you set at the beginning of the year are still relevant is critical to the success of your business. Having irrelevant goals means you are traveling in the wrong direction which is almost worse than having no goals!

It has never been more important to have relevant, clear, defined, meaningful, achievable and realistic business goals given the changes that have happened to business’s since the start of 2020.

Are the goals you set at the start of 2022 still relevant to you and your business?

Are you prioritising development of and respect for you and your team?

The success of your business is directly correlated to the amount of time you spend developing and supporting your people.

There is no greater way to spend your time than supporting, developing and showing respect to your people.

Do your goals still align with your Business Vision, Mission, True North and Values?

Your Vision is your direction.

No Vision, no direction, no progress!

Do your goals still align to your Vision, Mission, True North & Values of your business?

Are you regularly communicating your Vision, Mission, True North & Values to your people?

Are you regularly making decisions aligned with your Vision, Mission, True North & Values?

If not, your direction exists only on paper which is not the best place to have it!

Note: If you don’t have a Vision, Mission, True North & Values, now would be a good time to start thinking about creating these. No matter where you are in terms of your business, it is never too late to make positive change and that starts with Vision, Mission, True North & Values.

Do you have the correct metrics in place?

Your metrics should highlight progress towards your goals and should also highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals,

Do your metrics highlight progress towards your goals?

Do your metrics highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals?

When do you review these metrics?

Are you measuring the right things?

Are your metrics at the right level?

Are you improving your processes?

If you are not improving your processes, chances are your metrics are standing still or going backwards!

Process improvements = metrics moving in the right direction = goals achieved

Have you made as much progress as you planned in the past quarter?

Have you enjoyed the progress made or has it been an uphill struggle?

Have you over stretched yourself?

Have you under stretched yourself?

Step 2 – Evaluate what worked in terms of your goals, how were you successful?

What worked for you in the past quarter?

What did you do that enabled this success?

What areas of your business were successful?

What parts of your business did you enjoy?

Step 3 – Evaluate what didn’t work in terms of your goals, what got in the way of success?

What didn’t work for you and got in the way of your goals?

How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?

What areas of your business were unsuccessful?

What parts of your business did you not enjoy?

Step 4 – Make informed decisions about what your key focus areas for the next quarter

Based on the answers to all of the above, what ACTION will you take for the next quarter?

Strategy reviews are only as good as the ACTIONS that are taken as a result of those reviews.

How can you support, develop and respect your people more in Q2? #PeopleFirst 😊

Are your 2022 goals still achievable based on progress made in the last quarter?
Do you need more goals to stretch yourself?
Do you need less goals to stop over stretching yourself?
Are there goals that no longer serve you?
What are your priority goals for the next quarter?
What are your non priority goals for the next quarter?
What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your business?
What will you do to learn from and turn around unsuccessful areas of your business?
How will you measure progress of your goals in the next quarter?
What metrics will you update, add, remove?
How often will you update these metrics?
Where will you document your goals, metrics, progress?
How will you communicate your plans to your team?

Step 5 – Document your strategy, goals, metrics & progress

It’s really important to capture your goals, metrics & progress on your goals somewhere. Whether you prefer physically putting pen to paper or to use something electronic there are so many options. The science behind why writing things down to enable success is outlined in the amazing book

‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’.

My favourite tools are below,

Physical – I love Moleskine journals for tracking progress of goals & journalling. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. It doesn’t really matter what you use from once you write your goals down and track progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly that will, at the end of the year, result in your Annual Review.

Online – My tools of choice online are Google Docs & Google Sheets and Google Slides. These are almost identical to Microsoft WordExcel and PowerPoint.

I use Asana for Project Management and absolutely love it. It has an app which is super simple to use and keeps everything in the one place and all super organised.

These tools are all ABSOLUTELY FREE, are very easy to use and are all you need to set and track progress in your business.

Step 6 – Learn more about Lean Business Strategy

The longer I work in Lean Business Strategy the more I learn.

There is always another level of Lean Business Strategy to move into and there is always so much to learn.

Your will learn the most about your business from your people. Take the tine to listen to them and prioritise their development. There is no end to what your talented people can teach you if you give the time to listen and learn!

If you are looking for a book on Lean Business Strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and really any other books by Pascal Dennis.

This is my bible in terms of Lean Business Strategy and Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean mentors.

Getting The Right Things Done is an incredible book that can be visited again and again as you move deeper & deeper into the world of Business Strategy and success.

Below is a list of mentors that I follow and have learned so much from over the years from their books, podcasts etc – Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfield, Katie Anderson, Karen Martin, Pascal Dennie, Brendon Burchard, Robin Sharma, Tony Robbins, Simon Sinek, Dr Wayne Dyer (RIP), Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle. There are many more but these are my favourites!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at Q1 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to Q2,

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Do You Have Decision Fatigue?

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Do you have Decision Fatigue?

Seemingly, adults make about 35,000 DECISIONS A DAY!

Can you imagine how taxing that is on your brain? The more we do, the more decisions we have to make, the more decisions we make the more pressure is placed on our brains, minds and bodies.

The more pressure that is on us, the less we are able to make quality decisions.

According to Wikipedia, decision fatigue is ‘the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making. Decision fatigue may also lead to consumers making poor choices with their purchases’.

Here’s the visual explanation of that,

To a certain point, which is different for all of us, we make good quality decisions, promptly and with confidence.

These decisions yield the results we want and we move forward with our lives & work.

Past a certain point, which again is different for all of us, we make poor quality decisions, are slow to make these decisions and make them with less confidence.

These decisions do not yield the results we want and we don’t move forward with our lives & work.

As you can see from the graph, when you move past this point, it’s a slippery slope!!

I know this from personal experience. Early in 2021, I was making good quality decisions, promptly and with confidence.

These decisions yielded the results I wanted and I was moving forward with my life and work.

As the year progressed and I took more & more on and became busier & busier, my decision making reduced in quality, became slower and I made decisions with a lot less confidence.

These decisions yielded the results I did not want and I wasn’t moving forward with my life & work.

The lesson here is if you want to make good quality decisions, TAKE ON LESS.

DO LESS BUT DO IT BETTER!

How is your decision making?

Are your decisions giving you the results you want or the results you don’t want?

Do you have decision fatigue?

If so, what can you remove from your work/life to reduce or eliminate this fatigue?

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your FREE EBOOK ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Is Your Life & Work In Flow?

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Image Credit: The Internet

Have you heard of the concept of flow?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a Hungarian-American psychologist who passed away on 20th October 2021. I’ve been aware of his work for ages and have become fascinated by the concept of flow.

‘In his best selling book ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’ Csíkszentmihályi outlined his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow—a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. Flow is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what they are doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterised by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.’ Wikipedia

Doesn’t flow sound great?

You know that feeling when you are doing something or working on something and absolutely nothing else matters. You are in a world of your own and you could keep doing the activity or work forever and it would never get boring or dull?

This is FLOW.

It would make sense that we would want to spend as much time as possible in our personal & professional lives in a state of flow which Mihaly explains is a necessity for our happiness and well being.

Below is Mihaly’s model of flow in relation to challenge and ability.

‘To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur as both skill level and challenge level must be matched and high; if skill and challenge are low and matched, then apathy results.’ Wikipedia

How important is this model in terms of our personal and professional lives?

It is a quick and simple explanation of what we feel when we are either challenged too much or too little and what we feel when we possess or do not possess skills & abilities required to meet these challenges.

How helpful would this be in terms of happiness in our personal and professional lives?

What it does show is that to be happy, confident, contented & focused you need to be continuously challenged and continuously growing your skillset to match those challenges.

Fascinating eh?

Here are two amazing Ted Talks from the late, great Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

As well as explaining flow, in the video below, Mihaly also talks about the relationship between happiness & money and how it’s not a linear relationship meaning that gaining more and more money past a certain point will not bring you happiness!

TED Talk – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow – 2004

In this Ted Talk, Mihaly goes deeper into the relationship between happiness and flow.

Living in flow – the secret of happiness with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi at Happiness & Its Causes 2014

Lean philosophy is all about growth of people in the workplace to ensure growth of business. There wouldn’t be much growth of people or business if everyone were anxious, worried, apathetic or bored!

Hence the necessity to prioritise people’s skill development and challenge to match.

This ensures your workforce are alert, focused, happy, confident and contented. All necessities for people & business growth.

I’m in flow when I spend time with family & friends or when I am writing, reading, creating content, teaching, learning/researching, exercising, traveling, taking/editing photos. Not surprising then that these are my passions in life.

When are you in flow?

Is your work/business in flow?

How can you bring more flow into your life?

Here’s to more flow in all of our lives!

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Is Your Focus In or Out of Control?

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Where is your FOCUS?

Is it on what YOU CONTROL?

Is it on what YOU DON’T CONTROL?

Positive change is my passion and, when I had one, it was my day job!

Change fascinates me and the more I learn, the more I love it.

I have learned through time & experience that there is only one thing you control in this life and that is YOURSELF.

Everything else is OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.

Every person, every event, every situation, every single thing outside of yourself is OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.

Because of this, wouldn’t it make sense to only give our time and energy to what WE CAN CONTROL?

In an ideal world the answer would be YES.

But we don’t live in an ideal world – we live in a messy, unpredictable, busy world where most of what we encounter during our daily lives is outside of us.

So if we don’t control what is outside of us, how do we change it?

The answer is WE DON’T, all we can control is our REACTION TO IT!

We absolutely, 100% can control our REACTION to EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENS.

Read that again.

Easier said than done for sure.

The next time something happens that you want to change, think about the following,

1. How can I accept this?

Eckhart Tolle in his profound and my favourite book ever ‘The Power of Now’ suggests to accept everything as if you had chosen it. Following this acceptance, Eckhart then suggests to ask what the situation is trying to teach us. This is a concept that takes a bit of getting used to but absolutely brings much peace of mind.

Acceptance of any situation is totally IN OUR CONTROL.

2. Can I change this?

YES, then change it.

NO, how can I change how I view it?

Wayne Dyer in his masterpiece book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ introduces the concept of changing how we view things which doesn’t change what they are but changes our perception of them. Wayne’s beautiful quote sums up this thinking ‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Again, a concept that takes a bit of getting usd to but also brings much peace of mind.

How we view and think about any situation is totally IN OUR CONTROL.

3. Do I need to make a plan for this long term?

If you can’t accept something and can’t change it then the only other option is to remove yourself from the situation.

This is not always straight forward or easy and might take some planning on your part. While you plan to remove yourself from the situation, acceptance and changing how you view the situation will go a long way to protecting you and your mental health.

The situations we allow ourselves to be in is totally IN OUR CONTROL.

4. Reflect on your reaction

The more I reflect, the more I learn about how I react in situations that I want to change and how I make decisions, big and small.

Reflection is one of the most powerful things you can do to learn more about yourself. Do you reflect on decisions you make and how you react to situations you want to change?

Reflection on and learning from every situation is totally IN OUR CONTROL.

The next time you are faced with a situation you want to change whether it is a small situation or life changing situation, I hope the above will support you with acceptance, changing how you view the situation, planning to remove yourself from it and reflection on all of the above.

As mentioned above, here are 2 life changing books that I love and that you might love also..

‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle

By far my favourite book of all time, if you only ever read one book in your lifetime, let it be this one! Eckhart’s follow on book ‘A New Earth’ is equally as good.

‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ by Dr Wayne Dyer

An incredible book on how to change situations by changing how we think about them which is turn totally transforms our lives. Anything by Dr. Wayne Dyer is a transformational read.

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Is What You Think, Say & Do Aligned?

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Mahatma Gandhi is well renowned for his deep wisdom and I just love his quote,

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Is what you THINK, SAY & DO in harmony?

This is a very simple question but takes some deep thought to answer.

Does what you THINK ALIGN WITH WHAT YOU SAY?

Does what you SAY ALIGN WITH WHAT YOU DO?

Of course this is a difficult place to get to at all times but even being aware of the relationship between what you THINK, SAY & DO is a step closer to happiness.

Here’s where unhappiness creeps in.

When we don’t say what we think, we bottle it up.

This not only causes discord within us but can cause discord with others as we aren’t SPEAKING OUR TRUTH.

When we don’t behave aligned with what we say, we are giving off mixed signals. Again, this not only causes discord within us but can cause discord with others as we are not LIVING OUR TRUTH.

If we do the above for long enough what we THINK, SAY & DO becomes misaligned resulting in deep happiness.

I’m sure Mahatma Gandhi didn’t mean that we tell everyone our each and every thought.

The interpretation I take from his quote, is more around being true to ourselves in our being.

That we are THINKING, SAYING & DOING aligned to our values and to who we are at our core. That we are speaking up for ourselves and what we believe in, that we are striving to be the very best version of ourselves that we can be.

I am at my unhappiest when what I THINK, SAY & DO are out of alignment and at my happiest when what I THINK, SAY & DO are aligned as much as possible.

Is what you THINK, SAY & DO aligned & in harmony?

How can you achieve more alignment in what you THINK, SAY & DO?

Here’s a super video on the power of truth telling.

The Power of Truth Telling | Christine Carter | TEDxThacherSchool

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Where are you on the Emotional Scale?

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

Our emotions, whether consciously or subconsciously drive every single thing we do.

Emotions are not only in the driving seat, they’ve got Google Maps!

Our emotions set the direction & determine our each and every move.

They determine what we say & how we say it, determine what we think and subsequently determine what comes in and out of our lives.

Pretty important yeah?

Well worth some time to evaluate and understand!

So, for today, tomorrow and beyond, where do you want your emotions to take you?

The image above is the Emotional Guidance Scale. This is attributed to Abraham Hicks and is a scale of emotions going from the highest of joy, empowerment, love, freedom to the lowest of fear, powerlessness & depression.

Take a look at the emotional scale, create some quiet time for yourself and have a think about where you currently are on this emotional scale, what are your underlying emotions each and every day?

Of course our emotions can fluctuate during the day but at a high level we will find ourselves in and around a few numbers on the scale.

Are you on the upward spiral where you are feeling hopeful, optimistic, positive, enthusiastic & content?

Are you on the downward spiral where you are feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, disappointed, doubtful, worried, angry & discouraged?

Wherever you are on this scale, ask what is contributing to your emotions and what changes can you make to move yourself up the upward spiral.

Every one of us should be aiming for & moving towards the pinnacle of the upper scale spiral of joy, knowledge, empowerment, freedom, love and appreciation. I smile just thinking about these words!

After taking on way too much work & many steep learning curves last year, I was hovering around overwhelmed, frustrated, disappointed & impatient and had much work to do to climb back to the upward spiral of hopeful, positive, enthusiastic and content!

Where are you on the Emotional Scale?

Where would you like to be?

How will you get there?

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

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21 Lessons Learned in 2021

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I love looking back, reflecting on and learning from what has gone by, then using these learnings to create positive change in my life. 2021 was a year of many lessons learned, some harder than previous years but all very valuable.

When you start to treat both wins & challenges as lessons learned, life’s ups and downs become wondrous and exciting and even the challenging times seem to have a sparkly silver lining!

Here is 21 of my favourite lessons learned from 2021,

Time with loved ones is the most precious gift
Our most important relationship is with ourselves
The only person who defines our value & our worth is ourselves
People are amazing, that includes YOU!
Health is wealth
Money cannot buy health but health is required to make money (read that again)
Abundance is not just about money – it is about love, health, time, freedom and everything else important that money can’t buy
You need a vision to give you direction in life & business – no vision, no direction, no progress
Where & with who we spend our time & energy directly impacts our mental, physical, emotional & spiritual health
Everyone needs support and everyone deserves to be supported
Loving who you are and loving what you do is the key to inner happiness & contentment
Burnout and boreout are very real & very damaging
To create a new version of ourselves, we need to let go of the old version
For introverts, solitude is just as important as oxygen
We are the authors of our own story – no-one else holds the pen
How we spend our energy is just as important as how we spend our time
No growth occurs in the comfort of our comfort zones
Everyone has challenges that most people know nothing about
Acceptance of challenging times goes a long way to overcoming them
Everything is on time and in perfect time
Florence & The Machine were spot on – ‘It’s always darkest before the dawn’!

What lessons did you learn in 2021?

How will these learnings support you in 2022?

I’d love to know what you learned in 2021, comment below or share with me on social.

I hope that whatever 2021 brought you, you can build on & learn from it to make 2022 your best year ever.

May 2022 bring you and your loved ones health, happiness, peace & prosperity.

Thanks for reading, stay safe,

Siobhain

x x

Below is a list of blog posts designed to support you with your Annual Review, you can download your ‘Annual Review Workbook’ below also.

5 Steps To Your Annual Review

Get SERIOUS about your Intentions and Goals for 2022

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Annual Review 2021

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In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to reflect on our goals evaluating what worked so we can celebrate & build on the successes and also evaluating what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction. I have been carrying out a personal Hansei in the form of an Annual Review for many years and find it hard to believe this is the 9th year I have published this review online. See annual reviews from past years at the end of this blog post.

2020 was a year like no other on a global scale and for me 2021 felt like the hangover from 2020! In 2021 I reached very few of the goals I set for myself and it was a year of immense unplanned and challenging change.

Whatever 2021 brought you, I hope you find time to reflect on your year, leave behind what doesn’t serve you and bring into 2022 everything that supports and nurtures you.

I use my version of the Wheel of Life below, you could use this or your own version for your goal setting and reviewing. Below is my Annual Review for the year that was 2021,

Relationships:

As always, Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of much of my happiness. Similarly to 2020, even though we were in lockdown and in varying degrees of restrictions, I spent loads of time with Mike and my family in 2021. Working from home, removing the long commute from my day and working reduced hours gave me precious time to spend with those I love.

Everything has a silver lining, for me this was definitely the silver lining for 2020 & 2021, more quality time with loved ones and less rushing & racing around trying to get everything done.

I will be bringing this slower, less stressful, more peaceful way of life with me into 2022.

Similar to most people, I didn’t get abroad in 2021 but I did enjoy many day trips with family & friends and spent lots of time with family in my hometown of Kilfinane which was lovely. I also attended my friend’s Fiona & Trevor’s wedding (as photographer) which was amazing and I had a few days away after that.

Here’s hoping the world becomes safer so we can travel freely in 2022 and enjoy holidays & weekends away with loved ones again!

Health is Wealth:

There is no truer saying than health is wealth.

In 2021 my loved ones remained safe and healthy which is the greatest gift of all. I hope you and your loved ones remained safe during 2021, we have more work to do to ensure this in 2022

I have always been aware of the importance of physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health and over the past few years, for many reasons, this awareness has been brought to a deeper level. 2021 was challenging for me in all areas of my health and I didn’t reach any of the goals I set for myself. Healthy habits I had spent years building were broken and I have much work to do to embed them again.

I suffered serious burnout early in 2021 which pretty much negatively impacted the rest of 2021 for me. This was due to working a day job and trying to build a business on the side – lesson learned! Following this, I stopped working on my writing & business for most of 2021 and took a break from social media for about 8 months.

Physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health is a journey and just like any other journey, it’s important to keep learning & keep moving forward no matter the pace!!

Here’s to a healthy 2022 in Mind, Body & Soul for us all!

Finance:

Every year I learn more and more about personal finance and every year I wish personal finance was a subject I learned in school, it certainly would have saved me much trial and error. Just like health, finance is a journey of which learning & understanding are constant companions.

In 2021 my entrepreneur income (outside my day job) was more than ever! 8% of my income came from entrepreneur work and 3 separate income streams which was very exciting!

In contrast to this, my earnings were the lowest they have been in a very long time. I was on reduced hours due to the pandemic and then I left my day job in October, without another job. For a million reasons this was the best decision for me, albeit a difficult one.

I am a born optimist and so always find a silver lining. In leaving my day job, what I have lost in income I have gained in the precious resource of time. Where and with who I spend this valuable resource means more to me than anything money can buy.

Ironically when I left my day job, my income reduced but I felt more abundant in so many other areas of my life. This taught me that abundance is not just about money – it is also about love, time, health, freedom and everything else that money cannot buy.

Work/Business/Purpose:

In 2021 everything changed immensely for me in terms of my work, writing & business.

I got very serious about setting up my own business early in 2021 and with the support of my moach (mentor & coach) Natalie Sisson and her 10K Club I realised many firsts in my business.

I launched and delivered my first 6 week online course of which I loved every minute of. I held my first free webinar and my first paid webinars. I was interviewed on Natalie Sisson’s podcast and Sharon Singh Sidhu’s podcast which were my very first podcasts. I ran my first 5 day email challenge which was not very successful but was an abundance of lessons learned. I co-started the Women in Lean (WIL) Personal Strategy Table with Debbie Barnard. WIL is an amazing group of Women in Lean founded by Karyn Ross and Dorsey Sherman where we share our knowledge, thoughts, wins & challenges of being part of the wonderful world of Lean.

In Q1, all of the above on top of a day job resulted in me taking on way too much work and getting seriously burnt out. This was awful and I felt the effects of it in every area of my life for the rest of the year.

As mentioned above, I left my day job in October, without another job. This was not an easy decision but it was the right decision for me at the time. Following this, what I had in income was replaced with the precious resource of time.

I had time to myself, time for those I love, time to think, plan, dream and be, time to close projects, time to write, time to schedule social media posts, time to do what brings me joy fulfilment and happiness. After I left work I had so much time for writing and loved every minute of it, writing makes me blissfully happy.

One constant in my work in 2021 was my weekly email to those on my mailing list. I am so grateful to everyone who has signed up for this weekly email as without knowing it they were a flashlight when the light at the end of the professional tunnel was very dim.

If you want to sign up to my mailing list and receive my weekly email, download your free ebook linked in the image below and you’ll be signed up.

Another constant throughout 2021 was the support of my small but mighty team. Debbie, Madhuri and Mugdha are a dream to work with and supported me more than they can realise in 2021.

Over the past few years I have missed Travel Photography so much. In 2022 I am going to reenergise my passion for Travel Photography and am very much looking forward to this – watch this space.

2021 brought so much change in my professional world – some planned but mostly unplanned. I have realised that life is a bit like this, no matter how much we plan, the path that is meant for us (not necessarily the path we plan) will always be the path we travel!

Personal Development:

Reading physical books is one of my favourite things to do. I love audiobooks but there is nothing more relaxing than sitting with a physical book and immersing myself in it’s wisdom.

Here’s a list of books I read & loved in 2021 and highly recommend. Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and The Power of Intention and Wishes Fulfilled by Dr Wayne Dyer (RIP), Start with Why by Simon Sinek, The Greatest Salesman by Og Mandino, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, The 5 Invitations by Frank Ostaseski, The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav, Ranger 22 by Ray Goggins, The 4 Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, Ikigai by Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles.

‘Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn’ (hard copy & audible) was my absolute favourite book of 2021. Lean is a business philosophy that I follow both professionally & personally. Every year I am more aware of the power & necessity of a Lean culture/strategy in business and the importance of growing people to grow business. Katie’s book ‘‘Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn’ absolutely nails the philosophy of people centric leadership & business. If you are in leadership & business of any kind, I highly recommend Katie’s book.

I completed the Certificate in Business & Executive Coaching and loved every minute of it. The biggest learning I took from it is that life coaching, while designed to support others, is really a journey of self discovery. If you don’t take that journey yourself, you can’t support others to do so!

In 2020/2021, I bought many online courses but didn’t have the time to dedicate to all of them. Now I’m not working, I’ll have plenty time to go through all these courses and am looking forward to it all.

Social Life/Fun:

This category could be combined with relationships as it is with those I love that I have the most fun times. No-one makes me laugh out loud more than those I love and those who love me, they are food for my soul!

Reflection on this category of my life is short and sweet which kind of sums up my social life!!!

Environment:

This category for me is about the planet and also our beautiful home.

In terms of the planet, I reduced my plastic usage but the more I reduced, the more I realised I used. This is a work in progress. Global warming is a very real thing and small steps taken by many can really make a difference.

Mike and I cleared out our spare room so I could have a home office. It’s all set up with my Visual Management boards and I absolutely love it.

Even though I have read Marie Kondo’s ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ I seem to be continuously clearing clutter! I haven’t carried out Marie’s technique to banish clutter for once and or all – maybe 2022 is the year for that!

Contribution:

I have been supporting 4 main charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity. Charities have been severely impacted by the global pandemic and so need our support more than ever.

That’s it, my 2021 in review.

As with all Annual Reviews, looking back and reviewing my year brings pride in what I have achieved but also many lessons learned and things I would like to do differently that I will bring into 2022.

Thank you for reading my blog posts and your kind words during 2021, I really appreciate your support. I hope whatever 2021 brought you that you can build on & learn from it to make 2022 your best year ever.

May 2022 bring you and your loved ones health, happiness, peace & prosperity.

Thanks for reading, stay safe,

Siobhain

x x x

Want to carry out your own Annual Review? Below is a list of blog posts designed to support you with your annual review, you can download your ‘Annual Review Workbook’ below also.

5 Reasons To Prioritise Your Annual Review

5 Steps To Your Annual Review

Get SERIOUS about your Intentions and Goals for 2022

My previous annual reviews can be found below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015 Annual Review 2016

Annual Review 2017 Annual Review 2018 Annual Review 2019

Annual Review 2020

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5 Reasons To Prioritise Your Annual Review

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One of my favourite things to do at the end of each year is my Annual Review.

Reflecting on the year gone by is such a worthwhile exercise.

Looking back allows you to see clearly what worked and what didn’t work in the year gone by but it also paves the way for clear, focused and intentional goal setting for the year ahead.

But first – WHY!

WHY is your Annual Review so important.

Simon Sinek is famous for his brilliant TED Talk ‘How great leaders inspire action with over 13 million views on YouTube.

In this video, Simon talks about the importance of knowing your WHY in terms of everything you do. When it comes to everything in your life, your WHY is your first step to success!

Here are 5 reasons WHY I think your Annual Review deserves to be your priority,

Your Annual Review slows you down giving you time & space to think

Reflection of any kind allows us to stop moving forward, to be still in the present moment and to give the necessary time and space required to learn from the past.

Not to dwell on or judge the past, but to take the learnings from it to move forward with more knowledge, focus, intention & purpose.

When was the last time you took a few hours to look back and reflect on your life?

Do you give yourself the gift of time and space to learn from reflection?

2.Your Annual Review allows you to acknowledge and celebrate your successes

Do you celebrate your successes or do you move through life at the speed of light, not looking back to reflect on anything?

We make progress in our lives all day every day yet we are sometimes so busy and focused on getting things done that we don’t see all our wins & successes.

Carrying out your Annual Review gives you the time and space to acknowledge and celebrate the progress you have made in the year gone by.

This in turn will get you thinking about all of the amazing wins and successes you have every single day of which we all have so many.

3.Your Annual Review allows you to understand what contributes to your success so you can take action to create more

There are many reasons why we are successful at some things and not successful at others.

Have you ever sat down and reflected on your successes and really thought about how they happened.

Was it something you did alone or something you got support with?

Was it a bit of pot luck or did you plan meticulously for it?

When we understand what contributes to our success, we can build on this to bring more success into our lives.

Reflecting on your success supports you to create an action plan that will build on the success you already enjoy!

4.Your Annual Review allows you to acknowledge challenges that got in the way of your success

Things don’t always work out how we plan or how we want them to.

Even the best plans don’t work out, this is a normal part of life.

Acknowledging your challenges is the first step to overcoming them & ensuring you don’t come up against them again and if you do, you are better prepared.

Sometimes we don’t want to face our challenges however it is from our challenges that we can learn so much and grow and evolve as human beings!

5.Your Annual Review allows you to understand what contributed to these challenges and take action to turn challenges into successes

Challenges are a normal part of life and business, it is how we deal with them that determines our ability to overcome them.

Understanding what caused the challenges goes a long way to dealing with and overcoming them in a healthy way!

Challenges are your stepping stones to success and so learning from them makes stepping over those stones that bit easier!

Taking action from what you learn will turn challenges into opportunities!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the year gone by and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the year ahead.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

If you want to carry out your own annual review, download your Annual Review Workbook below 😊

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3 Steps To Your Annual Review

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Another year has whizzed by and it’s time for your Annual Review – how fast did that year go?

That’s the thing with time, it literally flies by which is why it’s so important to live and love every single minute you have.

How do you make the most out of every single minute?

You plan for it which you can do by setting intentions & goals.

What else can you do?

You can look back and review your progress to learn what works for you & what doesn’t work for you and change your direction accordingly.

It is through PERSONAL REFLECTION that we LEARN THE MOST.

We are our OWN GREATEST TEACHERS and so reflecting on our experiences brings us so much wisdom.

The ‘3 Steps to Your Annual Review’ is easy to follow – no jargon, no fancy words and will take as much time as you want to dedicate to it.

Here’s a few tips on preparing for your Annual Review.

Print your Annual Review Workbook (you can download it at the end of this blog post) – you can also use a journal/notebook or an online document. I document my Annual Review in Moleskine journals and use Google Suite tools for online documentation throughout the year.

Schedule time in your busy calendar – I usually take about 3 days to do this. That may sound like a lot of time but it is time well spent when you think of the amount you will learn. No matter how long this takes you, the most important thing is that you schedule and take this time for yourself.

Refer to your Wheel of Life as you answer each question – keep in mind the key areas of your life in your Wheel of Life. If you haven’t created a Wheel of Life, you can use mine below. The areas of my Wheel of Life are Sense of Self, Health, Relationships, Work, Finance, Social Life, Environment & Contribution.

Step 1 is reflection on what went well in 2024

1: What worked well for you in 2024?

What did you enjoy?

Did your plans work out how you wanted or better?

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day.

If you focus on the small stuff first you may see that life goes your way more than you may realise – the small stuff really is the big stuff!

2: What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life?

There are so many things in our lives that we cannot control and so it’s best to just focus on what you can control.

The only person who has control over your life is YOU and the only life you can control is YOUR OWN.

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

3. What brought you joy and happiness in 2024?

When were you at your happiest in 2024?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you? Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

4. Are you happy with where you spent your time in 2024?

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have!

This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go in 2024?

Are you happy with where your time was spent in 2024?

Did you fully enjoy every minute of every day?

That’s Step 1 of your Annual Review done!

Step 2 is reflection on what didn’t go well in 2024

1. What didn’t go well in 2024?

When did your plans not work out in 2024?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way.

In his book ‘Green Lights’, Matthew Mc Conaughey talks about the fact that if we only had green lights in life, if there were no amber or red lights, then life would be very boring and we would never grow and evolve.

Such truth and wisdom in that.

2. What challenges got in your way?

Were there challenges that got in your way in 2024?

Challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

What can you do to eliminate these challenges?

If you can’t eliminate the challenges, how can you think about them differently?

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn challenges into opportunities for success.

3. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in 2024?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand – no human life is devoid of unhappiness.

Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest in 2024?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

What did you do to understand and alleviate your unhappiness?

4. Where would you have liked to have spent more time in 2024?

As mentioned above, we all know time is precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have.

Where would you have liked to have spent more time in 2024?

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life – did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others?

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

That’s Step 2 of your Annual Review done!

Step 3 is reflection on learnings in all areas of your life in 2024

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward.

Work through the categories of your life in your Wheel of life and ask yourself the following questions,

Sense of Self – what did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Did you dedicate enough time to personal development?

Relationships – what did you learn about your relationship with yourself? Has your relationship with yourself improved? What did you learn about your relationship with others? Has your relationship with others improved?

Health – what did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve or decline?

Work – what did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work? Does your work improve your life? Does your work disimprove your life?

Finance – what did you learn about finance? Did your financial situation improve? Did your financial situation disimprove?

Social Life/Recreation – what did you learn about socialising and recreation? Did you have enough fun & recreation?

Environment – what did you learn about your environment ? Did your environment improve or disimprove? For me, environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – what did you learn about contribution? Did you give more to the world in terms of your time, money or skills? Did you make the world a better place by giving more? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

That’s your Annual Review done!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the year gone by and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the year ahead.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

If you want to carry out your own annual review, download your Annual Review Workbook below 😊

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