Well folks, we made it to 2021! While 2020 was a doozy of a year, it gave me a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted to accomplish, what I was able to get done, and what I learned about myself from both a professional and personal standpoint. This contemplation naturally led me to New Year’s Resolutions but despite my reflections, I found myself at a standstill when it came to setting goals for 2021.
So, as collaborative teams do, I reached out to my colleagues at Continuus to hear what their plans and aspirations are for the new year.
Our team is extremely creative, intelligent, and thorough, so I knew the responses would be impressive. But the thoughtfulness that went into each response still amazed me. A common thread through all of them was that, for the most part, they were not quantitative. I have consistently failed at reaching quantitative goals in the past, but what works for some may not work for others. If you are motivated by finish lines, set those goals! If quantitative resolutions haven’t worked for you in the past, perhaps it’s time to try a different approach.
A follow-up conversation with one of my long-time friends (and coworker) gave me a whole new perspective on setting mindful goals and not focusing so much on crossing a metaphorical finish line. He told me about an article his uncle wrote about the concept of living in “decades”: setting a 10-day rotation with assigned “focuses” for each day. This method doesn’t necessarily assign you a task to do every day of the year, but rather gives you a framework to reference if you find yourself with some free time or feeling like you maybe aren’t on track with your goals.
What might this look like in practice?
Let’s say you have these 5 themes or focuses for the year: reading, calling family, learning guitar, mindfulness/meditation, and movement. Each day of the year has one of these themes attached to it; maybe you set this up and track this with a symbol or reminder in a physical or digital calendar or agenda. On a random Tuesday, you have a couple hours of free time that you don’t know what to do with. You check your calendar for the theme that was assigned to this day at the start of the year and it says “call family,” wiping out the overwhelming list of things you could possibly have done with that extra time and putting that energy toward a constructive goal you’ve set for yourself. After a 20-minute chat with Grandma, you still have extra time to relax with the peace of mind that you made personal progress.
You can also see how my colleague will be putting the exact method his uncle outlined into practice below!
Here are some anonymous personal goals that my coworkers shared with me. I hope they give you some ideas for how you can crush your 2021 goals, no matter what they are and how you go about setting them!
Professionally, I want to spend some time working “extra” remote! I am hoping that planning for a little more freedom will be feasible in the new year (hopefully by summer when it’s nice and warm again!). I think remote work is here to stay, but I would love to spend a few weeks in Minnesota so I can see my niece and nephew in my free time to make up for the time we lost last year, or maybe even go out west so I can ski when I’m not working.
Personally, I want to keep moving! And get better about working out regularly. My Continuus co-workers have been so inspiring with all their running, and joining the Strava group has been a great way to re-capture a teensy bit of that working out with friends vibe. I want to keep building on my momentum and make working out a few times a week the new normal for me!
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Professional: I want the “SnowPro Advanced, Architect” certification for Snowflake which will be a tough one because their exams are no joke!
Personal: I want to read/ listen (audible) to one new book per month. I also want to complete a half marathon before my running anniversary.
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My overall theme for 2021 is exploration.
I like to set multiple themes, but when I have an open 4 hours, picking between all of them is intimidating. So, I stole a method for organizing my themes from my uncle. He lives his life in a decade, a series of 10 days, and each day has a focus. My decade looks like this:
⌘ ❥ ❖ ✿ ✽ ❥ ✽ ✿ ❖ ❥
Connect, Read, Study, Play, Create, Read, Create, Play, Study, Read. Repeat.
My personal goals directly fall in line with this sequence:
- I will be more mindful; I will meditate and keep a journal.
- Living out of state, I will talk to my family and friends often.
- I will read more.
- I will visit every national and state park in Utah.
- I will learn Spanish.
- I will become a better cook.
- I will be intentional with my time online and on social media.
My professional goals also fall in line, mostly on ❖ Study day:
- Pass Alteryx server certification
- Pass Tableau server certification
- Pass Snowflake certification
- Learn Python to an intermediate level
- Grow my Salt Lake City professional data analytics network
The “decades” method comes directly from an article entitled “The Discipline” by William Van Hecke. I linked the article above, and you can also read the full article here.
