December 2022

December 2022

Aristotle said that the good life is made up of good work, leisure and reflection (with a base of virtue and morality). This is the time of year we have the opportunity in particular for the latter of the three, and it’s both important and meaningful to give ourselves the gift of time and careful thought.

Let’s start somewhere unexpected.

When the late Clayton Christensen returned to Harvard for his thirty year reunion, he realized that many of his classmates were successful by professional measures, but were personally unhappy, divorced at least once.

His book: How Will You Measure Your Life? looks not at professional accomplishments (he had many) but rather at relationships and living with integrity. It’s well worth your time to read, but here are high level takeaways to integrate into your own year end review.

Key takeaways:

Lesson 1: Relationships constantly require your attention, even if you don’t think that they do. Even early in a career; damage done early continues throughout a life.

Lesson 2: Build intuition and empathy by thinking of your family life as a job— which is to say, be thoughtful and intentional about your family. Christenson suggests asking the question: What does (this person) need me to do?

Lesson 3: Avoid marginal thinking— allowing yourself to say “just this once,” especially in areas of morals, ethics, values. Don’t neglect the relationship with yourself and your values— live with integrity.

Not your standard year-end review, is it? But as the Japanese Ikigai concept suggests (which we explore in Paths 2 Purpose— 50% off!), meaning in life is about all areas of our life, not only work.

At the same time, our professional work has deep meaning, if we’re doing it right.

So from this more holistic approach, understanding the body-mind-spirit-heart approach I suggest for looking at each day, a way to consider your past year, and look at the next.

“Life is a gift of nature but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom.” — Aristotle

How can you apply this to looking back on 2022?

How do you look back over a year?

Here are a few prompts (and a free video and download for you to work through):

  1. Start by journaling. What would you do if anything were possible? What is “beautiful living” to you? Write for at least five to ten minutes.

Start with your Four Quadrants from Paths 2 Purpose if you’ve completed it (mine are below) as well as your Four Quadrants of Body Mind Spirit Heart.

Because I know how powerful it is, I’m dropping the price through January 15th on Paths 2 Purpose— 50% off for you to do this work of resetting and reevaluating.

  1. For each of the four quadrants, look back over 2022.

  2. If you had goals or aspirations for the year that you recorded somewhere, look back over your planner or your calendar. Assess what you consider to be achievements. Assess where the year ended relative to your plans when it began. Write these achievements down.

  3. Write down those things you’re grateful for in this year related to this quadrant.

  4. (An addition/edit from my original post): How have you positively impacted a person or your community this year?

  5. Look back at what you learned from the year. What do you want to do differently moving into 2023?

Is this helpful in your work? Leave a comment, like and share this post so others can benefit— and it encourages me to keep offering valuable content to you!

 
 

My own work, in case it’s helpful:

The word that I picked for 2022 was WHOLE, which prompted the Four Quadrant exercise I shared with you above. And one of the ways I’m looking at the year is by using my personal purpose shield (one of the several approaches I guide learners through in Paths 2 Purpose). My shield includes the categories of: Love, Learn, Create and Serve. (this is not an accounting of goals, but rather those areas of purpose I’ve defined as most important to me):

LOVE: This year my husband and I both turned 50 and celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. I’m so grateful that we are both committed to continuing to lean into our marriage and our family through all that life brings.

Opportunities to connect with old friends after the long COVID separation have been deeply meaningful this year. Making new friends while abroad is also an unexpected gratitude.

Despite the standard challenges of raising good kids, we are all growing closer through the adventure and the struggle of our family’s experience overseas.

LEARN: We made a bold move as a family: moving overseas to France for the school year. Both of us have continued to grow and expand our businesses. We’re learning a new language. We’re growing as a family and as individuals.

 

CREATE: I published my first poetry— four pieces in four publications (find them here…the fourth coming in a week or two)! An essay I’ve been playing with for literally a decade was selected as an honorable mention in a contest (as well as being selected for publication); another essay that means a great deal to me was selected for spring publication, and yet another selected as a finalist in another contest. (Links posted HERE when they’re available).

SERVE: Professionally, some exciting news coming next year, and continued expansion in speaking, writing, and facilitating learning for serious learners of grit, resilience and leadership.

And I finished five and a half years of work (I usually just round up to six!) leading a library board and fundraising for and opening a new library in our community.

Our fellowship community continues to thrive in our absence during this year abroad, showing a whole new layer of growth in an endeavor we founded 8 years ago.

I’m grateful for: meaningful work building courageous leaders for a better world, exploring ideas through writing, speaking and teaching, my family, friends, this beautiful world, travel, art, history and health.

And the rest:

Some things didn’t go as expected, and others didn’t go as well as expected. I’m still not back in shape. Old injuries are really bothering me now— both a knee and a shoulder— which is discouraging. Meditation and prayer are spotty (but regular). I didn’t pitch the book proposal yet (but I’m working on it!)

Developing the B2C aspect of The Grit Institute is still very much in early stages of a work in progress, though B2B continues to do well. In 2023 I’ll assess whether this is something worth pursuing, but for now, I’ll keep working at making this important work accessible to everyone.

My biggest takeaway from this year of being 50 years old:

Anything that is important, you have to decide is worth working for. Health and an active lifestyle, family, friends, and good work. Things that are not worthwhile must be culled. And so the key is to love the work, find something in the work that you love, and/or do what it is that you love. And routines help, a lot (I’m still working on that).

How are you looking back at YOUR year? And how are you starting to think think about 2023?

I’d love to hear— in the comments, or in your reply! And if you try and like the Four Quadrants technique, let me know how it goes, and feel free to share!

Warmly,

Shannon

PS: Shopping for the holidays? Check out ways to wear your courage and your grit HERE, and my Bookshop storefront HERE! Look at Monk Manual as a planner for 2023. Or consider gifting one of The Grit Institute offerings to someone you love— reach out and I’ll help you through the process.

 
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