Every year about this time I set my sights on the year in review trip that I plan in the 2nd quarter each year. Over the last half a dozen years this trip has had me in 6 different countries from the hot summer mountains of South Africa to icy cold snowy but beautiful Finland. While these trips have always been solo events, this year it will be with my son among the salt surf and palm trees of the Baja peninsula. The focus of the trip has been and is always two things…how was this last year and what about the upcoming one?
Socrates said: ὁ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ. "The unexamined life is not worth living."
One of the themes of Wildly Better this past year has been the danger of skimming through life, of getting caught on cruise control and autopilot only to awake well beyond your exit and then realize 4 years had passed. Many people miss much of life sleepwalking through it.
Part of development, part of the expansion of our awareness horizon, part of the ability to take in wider swatches of life, is by simply being mindful: aware of what is arising within and around you in real time.
And that is the key: real time. Monday morning quarterbacking is always welcome to learn where we misstepped or missed cues. The real juice of development is to live awake and aware in real time and to act in accordance with the big goals in front of you that are laid out and clear.
Enter TYIR.
The Year In Review is an exercise done by most top performers seeking to learn from yesterday with the express purpose of integrating that into action plans of the the next year! I have placed for your download the TYIR exercise I hope you will take some reflective time and do. I suggest doing some silence meditation and then blocking an hour or so to really think about this past year. Only then will you be able to progress to dreaming, ideating and planning the next.
Here's the download: