Image Credit: Immo Wegmann (Unsplash)

In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review & reflect on our goals to evaluate what worked so we can celebrate & build on the successes and also evaluate what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a personal annual review (Hansei/Self Reflection) for many years and find it hard to believe this is the 8th year I have published this review online. See annual reviews from past years at the end of this blog post.

2020 has been a year like no other on a global scale. Who could have thought a pandemic would sweep through our beautiful planet and bring life as we know it to a halt and do so much damage in terms of loss of life and other devastating losses. 

Just like all change, planned or unplanned, welcome or unwelcome, a new reality emerges and we adjust to it. The resilience, adaptability and drive of our human spirt supported us to get through 2020 and gives us hope for 2021 and beyond. 

In Leo Varadkar’s address to our nation on St Patrick’s Day, he said that ‘not all super heroes wear capes’, referring to the healthcare workers and other front line workers that kept our country functioning during the pandemic. From looking after our sick and vulnerable, to putting food on our table to delivering our post, these frontline workers are the real heroes of 2020. All credit and gratitude is owed to these people, I am deeply grateful to each and every one of them for keeping us all safe so we could live through this pandemic and rejoice in the fact that we get to ring in a New Year. This is a luxury denied to many this year. Thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones this year to Covid 19 or any other reasons. The finality of death is almost incomprehensible. 

My plans for 2020 changed dramatically in March as I’m sure yours did. Plans changed, work changed, socialising changed, when we could see our family & friends changed, our sense of freedom changed, communication changed – everything we regarded as normal changed. And everything continued to change throughout 2020, it was the year of immense change – and yet, we all got through it. 

Whatever 2020 brought you, I hope you find time to reflect on your year, leave behind what doesn’t serve you and bring into 2021 everything that will make 2021 your best year ever.

Here’s my annual review of the year like no other, 2020, 

As always, Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of most of my happiness. Even though we were in lockdown and in varying degrees of restrictions, I spent loads of time with Mike and my family this year. I have been working from home since March and so removing the long commute from my day and working reduced hours gave me precious time to spend with those I love. Every minute with our loved ones is precious and, as we were in and out of lockdown, this time has become even more precious. This time together was spent at a slower pace as we weren’t trying to pack so much into 2 short days at the weekend. They say everything has a silver lining, for me this was definitely the silver lining for 2020, more quality time with loved ones and less rushing and racing around trying to get everything done. I will be bringing this slower, less stressful, more peaceful way of life with me into 2021. 

I didn’t see my friends as much I would have done in previous years and as much as I would have liked. I have missed them and look forward to the day that a night out or a weekend away becomes the normal thing to do again.

I hope you and your loved ones remained safe during 2020, we have more work to do to ensure this in 2021. Here’s hoping we get Covid 19 under control and return to the freedom to see our family & friends that we had pre 2020. 

There is no truer saying than health is wealth.

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. 

Without all elements of our health nothing else matters. Spending time to learn what health means to us and how we can improve & optimise our health is time well spent. As we are all unique, what works for one person may not work for another and so it’s important to understand what works for you, what optimises your health, what makes you happy and what brings you joy.  

With more time at home this year and more time on my own I learned a huge amount about myself and what supports my physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health. The more I learn about myself, the more I accept myself which goes a long way to keeping my mental health strong and stable. This is not work that a personal trainer or anyone else can do for us, it is inner work – work that that can only be done by ourselves, at our own pace and in our own time.

I had more time for exercising this year and have loved walking and running around the beautiful countryside where I  live in Knockaderry. This gives me time to listen to my favourite podcasts and audio books which is also a great way to strengthen & stabilise my mental health. Towards the end of 2020, I started learning about nutrition and macros and have developed a new found respect for food and my relationship with it. This is thanks to Munro Fitness and Jason Munro for his fact based learning, no nonsense, just do it attitude and support. Gratitude to my friend Vicky Baker who introduced me to Jason and Munro Fitness. 

I regard learning a key element in keeping my mental health strong and stable. I love learning and the more I learn the less I realise I know! This year I learned loads and gained more clarity about who I am and what I want from life. I learn from many different sources and in many different ways including, 

• Books – my goal this year was to read 2 books a month, 24 in total. I didn’t reach this goal but did read 20 amazing books and learned so much from each one. I’m currently finalising my blog post on my ‘Top 20 books of 2020’ and will share it with you as soon as it is finished. 
• Podcasts – I started listening to more podcasts this year. My top 6 podcasts are Untapped by Natalie Sisson, The Mindset Mentor by Rob Dial, Online Marketing Made Easy by Amy Porterfield, The Jocko Podcast by Jocko Willink, The Brendon Show by Brendon Burchard & The Marie Forleo Podcast by Marie Forleo.  
• Mentors & inspirational people online – there are so many people that I follow online that that I learn from in all areas of life. Including all of the above whose podcasts I listen to, I learn from everyone I’m connected with online (& offline). Everyone is inspiring in their own way and everyone has something to teach us. 
• ‘Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator’ by Natalie Sisson was the first online course I have ever taken. This was a huge learning curve for me and pushed me far outside my comfort zone. In saying that, I loved this course so much I went through it twice!! 

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

Here’s to a healthier year for us all! 

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. Learning about personal finance at a young age would set up young people for a healthy and prosperous relationship with money. 

Just like health, finance is a journey of which learning & understanding are constant companions. 

Even though my earnings were down this year, the time I gained was far more valuable than any income. Where and with who I spent this valuable time meant more to me than anything money can buy. How ironic is it that money of which we spend so much of our time earning cannot buy that time back or any of the most important things in life – for me being relationships and health!

I have listened to the audible version of Tony Robbins excellent book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’ many times and with each listen I continue to learn more about financial freedom. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of financial understanding which is why I like it so much. I listened to this book again this year and learned more about and moved a few steps closer to financial freedom which is my long term goal. 

If you want to learn more about and improve your personal finance I highly recommend this book. It’s not a quick read but it is totally worth the time.

In 2020 everything changed dramatically for me in terms of my work, writing, business & brand. 

Lean is a business philosophy that I follow at work & in my personal life and that I write about on my blog ‘The Art of Positive Change’. Similar to previous years, this year I again became even more aware of the power and necessity of a Lean culture/strategy in business. 

In terms of my day job, I moved to a 4 day week in January to achieve a better work/life balance and give more to my writing. After March, due to the pandemic, I moved to a 3 day week which I am currently on. This meant I had more time for writing etc which is where I spent most of my free time. This focused time resulted in the following, 

• I wrote and launched my very first e-book. This is a huge milestone for me as I have wanted to write an e-book for many years. You can download my e-book for free here ‘A-Z of Effective Change’.

• I published more blog posts this year than I have ever published since I started blogging in 2012 which resulted in my blog views being higher this year than the previous 3 years combined.

• I created and launched my first online course which was a Masterclass on ‘How to Create Your Personal Vision’. Gratitude to all the fabulous girls who attended, you all made it so enjoyable. Learning how to create, launch and promote an online course was a huge learning curve for me and took me way outside of my comfort zone. Thanks to Natalie Sisson and her amazing course  ‘Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator’ for making it possible. If you are interested in launching your own online course in 2021, sign up for Natalie’s course, I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

• I joined Natalie Sisson’s 10K Club which is a business mastermind club for female entrepreneurs designed to get you to hit 10K months! I have only been in the club 2 months but am loving every minute of it. I have been following Natalie online for about 10 years and am thrilled to finally get to work closely with her. The group of entrepreneurs in the club are all so talented, passionate, inspirational and supportive, it’s a wonderful club to be a part of. If you are a female entrepreneur and want to bring your business/brand to the next level check out Natalie’s 10K Club. 

Before the pandemic hit, Mike and I spent a fabulous weekend in the beautiful Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa which was lovely and so relaxing. In January, I went on my annual ski trip with my friends Karin, Shelly and Ailbhe. The fresh air and the excellent company on and off the slopes was food for the soul!

Staycationing was the thing to do in 2020 and I spent many weeks staycationing with my parents in my hometown of Kilfinane, I enjoyed this time at home with my family immensely.  

I look forward to the day we can travel the world again, in the meantime we can enjoy the beauty & company on our doorsteps and no matter how far we travel from our homes ensure we all stay safe and keep those we love and the world at large safe.

Travel and Photography are a big part of my life and 2020 was to be a year of an epic travel trip! I was due to join my friend Katie Anderson and other Lean enthusiasts on Katie’s ‘Lean Study Trip’ in Japan for a week in May. I was then to spend 3 weeks travelling around Japan. My summer was to be filled with editing images, creating a Travel Photography book on Japan and adding Japan Fine Art Prints to my portfolio. As all of our travel plans did, my travel plans went on hold and are still, for the foreseeable future, on hold! 

Japan, like all of our holiday destinations, will be there when the world becomes safe again. 

I had also planned to launch a new Travel Photography website in 2020 but those plans also went on hold. I didn’t renew the hosting of my current Travel Photography website which was a hard decision to make but it is 7 years old and needed a lot of work to upgrade it. I’m looking forward to working on my new Travel Photography website when the time is right. 

I have been supporting 4 main charities for many years. Year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. This year I gave more to charity than I have done in previous years as more was needed due to fundraising efforts being impacted by Covid 19. 

That’s it, my 2020 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 2021. 

Want to carry out your own annual review? You can download my free ‘2020 Personal Annual Review’ template which will walk you through the 3 simple steps I use to do my review. It’s so useful to learn from the year gone and bring these learnings into the New Year to make it your best year yet!  

Thank you for reading my blog posts and your kind words during 2020, I really appreciate your support. I hope whatever 2020 brought you that you can build on & learn from it to make 2021 your best year ever. May 2021 bring you and your loved ones health, happiness and prosperity.

Thanks for reading, stay safe,

Siobhain

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Note: The system I use for my annual review is a work in progress and evolves year on year. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template used by my friend and inspiration Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris’s guidelines on  How To Conduct your own Annual Review. 

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