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4 Steps To Your 12 Week Review

1. Step 1 is all about what went well over the past 12 weeks

i. What worked well for you in the past 12 weeks?

What did you do that you enjoyed?

What worked out exactly how you wanted or better than you wanted?

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day, sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a closer look to find them.

You may see that life goes your way more than you may realise.

Take your time with this, work through every area of your life, focus on the small stuff first – as it’s the small stuff that is really the big stuff!

Using a daily gratitude journal can really help answering this question. If you don’t have a daily gratitude journal maybe it’s something you could start for the next 12 weeks.

Even just one gratitude a day over 12 weeks is about 90 things to be grateful for over 12 weeks, wouldn’t that be something really lovely to look back and reflect on?

ii. What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life?

How did you contribute to the things that worked well for you?

The only person who has control over your life is you and the only life you can control is your own. Keeping that in mind, all success in your life starts and ends with you.

No-one is going to improve your life for you, no-one is going to set and reach your goals for you, yes, it’s all on YOU!

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

Did you make sacrifices to improve your life?

Knowing how you contribute to your own success means you can build on this to bring so much more success into your life.

iii. What brought you joy and happiness in the past 12 weeks?

When were you at your happiest over the past 12 weeks?

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

Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to create more time to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

Who doesn’t want to be happier and more joyful?

Knowing who brings you happiness means you can create more time to spend with these very special people.

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.

iv. Are you happy with where you spent your time over the past 12 weeks?

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 over the past 12 weeks?

Are you happy with where your time was spent over the past 12 weeks?

Are you fully enjoying every minute of your days, weeks, months?

That’s Step 1 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

2. Step 2 is all about what didn’t work well for you in the past 12 weeks

i. What didn’t go well over the past 12 weeks

What didn’t go your way in the past 12 weeks?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

What didn’t go to plan?

What is holding you back from living your best life?

Challenges and obstacles are a normal part of life.

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. Acknowledgment and acceptance of this fact is the first step to turning challenges & obstacles into opportunities.

Acknowledging when things don’t work out takes bravery and courage and also an understanding that it is completely normal.

How can you acknowledge and accept what doesn’t work out for you and understand this is all part of your path?

ii. What obstacles got in your way?

Looking back at the past 12 weeks, were there obstacles that got in your way? Did you get in your own way?

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

The question to ask here is what can you do to eliminate these obstacles & challenges and if you can’t eliminate them how can you think about them differently?

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

Dr Wayne Dyer’s book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ teaches us that all we have to do to change what is not going well in our lives is to think differently about it. A most profound book, I highly recommend it.

iii. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in the past 12 weeks?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand. No human life is devoid of unhappiness just like no human life is devoid of happiness.

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

When were you at your unhappiest over the past 12 weeks? 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.

There is no such thing as the perfect life that is happy all the time, however there is a level of contentment and inner peace that can be reached by understanding what takes our happiness & joy away and working to avoid, eliminate or understand more about this.

What could you have done to understand and alleviate your unhappiness?

iii. Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 12 weeks?

Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 12 weeks?

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 Personal 12 Week Review done!

3. Step 3 is all about what you learned in the key areas of your life

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

Reflect on the questions below to understand what you learned over the past 12 weeks in all of the key areas of your life.

Sense of Self – What did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Have you dedicated time to personal development? What did you learn about your relationship with yourself, has your relationship with yourself improved?

Relationships – What did you learn about your relationship with others, has your relationship with others improved? Are there relationships you want but don’t have? Are there relationships you have but don’t want?

Health is Wealth – What did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve?

Work – What did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work? Has your work moved forward and improved?

Finance – What did you learn about personal finance? Did your personal finance improve?

Fun/Experiences – What did you learn about fun & experiences? How can you bring more fun into your life? What experiences have you enjoyed? What experiences have you not enjoyed?

Environment – What did you learn about your environment? Did your environment improve? 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 make the world a better place by giving your time, money or skills? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

That’s Step 3 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

4. Step 4 is about learning more about personal goal setting & reviewing.

i. Do you set personal annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals?

Yes – great, are you reaching these goals daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually?

No – why not? What is keeping you from setting & reaching your personal goals?

ii. Do you celebrate and learn from your successes?

Yes – great, keep celebrating every single success, no matter how small! Look out for the small successes, they really are the big things!

No – when are you going to start celebrating your successes, each and every one of them, each and every day?

iii. Do you reflect on and learn from your challenges?

Yes – great, keep reflecting and learning. Reflecting on what happens and what doesn’t happen is one of the most powerful ways we can learn.

No – when are you going to start reflecting and learning from your challenges, each and every one of them, each and every day?

iv.How do you like to learn about personal goal setting and reviewing?

It’s one thing setting goals, working towards them and reviewing progress. It’s another thing to continue to learn about what you want from your life and how to achieve that.

Do you like learning about yourself and your life? Learning is the key to success as you are the only person who can bring success into your life.

What is your preferred way of learning – through books, podcasts, courses, videos, mentors, coaches, your work, observing the world, observing others, observing yourself, through reflection?

Whatever your preferred way of learning is, make sure it is part of your daily plans for the next 12 weeks.

That’s Step 4 of your Personal 12 Week Review done.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 12 weeks.

I write a weekly newsletter on all things positive change, if you want to join me download your free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below and you’re all signed up!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2017

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It’s that time of year again, time to look back reflecting on what last year brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review.

In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 5th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

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

As always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. By far the most exciting thing that happened to my family this year was my younger brother Declan and his beautiful wife Aoife welcomed my gorgeous niece Ayla Danaher to the world, a wonderful addition to our ever-growing family.

Here goes, in no particular order, my Annual Review for 2017.

2017 was a big year for me in the world of Lean. I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa. This year saw us implement Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) for the first time which brought new learnings every day in terms of our Lean journey.

For my personal goals it was also the first year I used the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri to set and monitor goals and objectives. In terms of planning, organising and changing direction when required this brought the process of goal setting to a whole new level.

One of my goals was to share information and learnings from the world of Lean. I did this by designing, creating and launching my new website ‘‘The Art Of Positive Change’ in March. This took way longer than I had anticipated but it was worth the wait as I now have somewhere dedicated to sharing information on Lean, Simplicity and Positive Change and the immense benefits they bring to our businesses and personal lives.

Another goal was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total). I didn’t reach this, completely underestimating how much time it takes to create blog posts and edit them. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is more than I have published in any previous year. So while I didn’t reach my goal I’m definitely improving in this space.

Also in March I started working with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford creating a new character called Pinky, aptly named by my 7 year old niece Miah. Pinky is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts here.

The Complete A-Z of Effective Change

This year I was reminded how much I love Travel Photography and so I will be working more on this in 2018. If you are new to my work you can view my Travel Photography images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

In terms of travel near and far, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away in Edinburgh, Killarney and Kilkenny, my parents and I spent a few days in London and later in the year my Mom and I spent 10 days in the amazing city of Dubai. Earlier in the year I dusted off my skiing skills and joined one of my best mates Karin Hennessy for a few days skiing in fabulous Pila in the Italian Alps.

Following a trip to Abu Dhabi with Mike in 2016 I created and published my 8th Travel Photography book ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Abu Dhabi’ in September complimenting the blog post I wrote on this beautiful city ‘The Top 5 things To Do in Abu Dhabi’.

I worked with some of my family and friends on photo shoots this year which I enjoyed immensely. It’s always a joy to shoot images of family and friends,

My Travel Photography Fine Art prints and my Fine Art Catalogue are now displayed at my friend Michelle Quilty’s newly opened business, The Tea Cosy in Ardpatrick. This makes me very proud and gives me itchy feet to do more Travel Photography exhibitions – watch this space!

Social media continues to provide a steep learning curve for me that twists and turns at an exponential rate.

I have been using social media for online marketing for many years, however 2017 was the first year I created a social media strategy as part of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment). This allowed me to focus on clear goals and objectives and ensured I tracked the correct metrics and used these metrics to change direction when required.

Just like the world of Lean and Continuous Improvement, the only way to definitively know if you are improving is to have ‘fact based’ metrics. I currently track 13 metrics across 9 social media platforms. Each one of these metrics increased in 2017 which means I’m moving in the right direction!!! In saying that, growth is slow – slow but steady!

Tracking and evaluating metrics may sound like a lot of work but just like metrics in business, when you get used to setting, tracking and using valuable information from the metrics, they can become quiet addictive and it really is the only way to measure improvement accurately!

If you’re not using metrics to measure performance in your business maybe 2018 is the year that you start, they really are a game changer!

Throughout most of 2017 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn.

In terms of health I welcomed 2017 with open arms as 2016 saw my Dad go through his second heart surgery. As I wrote in my annual review last year – there is no greater pain than watching someone you love and adore battling an illness. My Dad’s surgery and subsequent recovery has made me intensely aware of and grateful for every breath I take and every day my family and I spend illness free.

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’.

Knowing what nurtures my mental health and knowing what challenges it allows me to make decisions to protect it.

To keep my mind and spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can (see my Top 10 Books of 2017 here), meditate (not as much as I would like) and journal (again not as much as I would like).

I try to eat healthy but do have a rubber arm that can be twisted quiet easily when it comes to biscuits and savoury treats. Exercise has always been part of my life but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. With this comes an immense respect for what the human body can achieve when we put the work in! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2018.

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal finance. In this quest, I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To 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 wealth which is why I liked it so much.

I have always known this but 2016 made me more acutely aware that no matter how much you earn or how much is in your bank account it doesn’t make you happy, make you a good person or heal you when you are ill and I continued to be very aware of th throughout 2017.

Just like my social media stats I monitored income, spending and savings much more than I have done in any previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. I continued to support these charities in 2017 and also found new charities to support. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2018.

That’s it, 2017 was like most years, full of ups and downs, twists and turns.

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a made a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for making each year better than the last, you are the reason for it all.

May 2018 bring you health, happiness and prosperity,

With love,

Siobhain

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Note: The system I use for my annual review is still a work in progress and evolves year on year as my own life evolves. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template shared and used by Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris Guillebeau’s How To Conduct your own Annual Review. This is a great read and highlights how powerful planning and reviewing can be.

Chris’s updated annual review template can be found here – Annual Review Template, I used this initially then changed and modified it over the years. Chris is a very inspirational guy which is why I follow him on social media and I travelled all the way to Oslo a few years ago to attend his celebration of visiting every country in the world.

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