The 2017 review

As a start to my December, I used some left-over lumber from our house construction a year and half ago, and built a giant dog house. Not only do we have a giant dog, but friends of ours have his litter mate, and together the two dogs weight around 235 lbs (106 kg). Those are some big dogs.

With that done, all of the outside projects are pretty much wrapped up. We even planted garlic, to come up in the spring! Now our attention turns inward, where I have plans to re-organize our pantry and root cellar, as well as a number of junk drawers that have been breeding… junk.

It’s a good time to start to consider what has happened for you over the last year. Some people like to do this kind of process at the very end of the year, but I find that it’s much more of a “stewing” for me, and I need a little more time.

How I make a year-end stew

I want to note, before walking through these steps, that this can be as detailed or general as you like. It could be a deep dive into everything that takes up hours, or it could be just a high-level perspective that helps to guide your priorities for next year.

The first step is just to identify what you did.

It’s important to identify what you actually worked on and completed. Major projects as well as what you kept up with during the year.

Maybe you completed a few major products, like launching a new website for your business. And maybe you also kept up with some commitments, like writing a regular newsletter/social media postings, and keeping up with clients.

Identify both the big, one-time projects, as well as the ongoing work. The ongoing work can be pretty invisible, and so you can judge yourself as only completing a small number of big projects… not taking into account that you also kept the bicycle moving. 🙂

The second step is to identify the results you saw.

What you did, and the results you saw are two different things. Often our actions only have a limited impact on the results. Don’t get me wrong, action is very important, and yet don’t confuse what you have control over versus what you don’t.

Results can be captured in a number of ways:

1. Financial results- total revenue, how much you paid yourself, much profit was left, how much debt you have, and how much debt was reduced, etc.
2. Time results- total amount worked, whether number of hours per week/month went down or up.
3. Client results- number of clients/customers seen or products sold/delivered, or number of client hours, or… however you like to measure these.
4. Others…?

Capture the numbers, so you can see what happened and take it in.

The third step is to identify what you had hoped for this year, way back last December.

You may or may not have a record of that, depending on what your process was like last year. If you do, that’s great. If you don’t, you can start now for next year.

Even if you don’t have a record, you can take some time to think back on what it was like last December, what was happening for you, and what you were dreaming about for this year.

The fourth step: compare what you were hoping for with what happened.

I’m guessing there were some pretty significant differences. That’s okay, take time to sit with it all. I would include connecting with the heart of your business here, as a separate spiritual entity/being.

Here’s a recorded Remembrance from our Community library to help with that: Connecting with the Heart of Your Business.

From this last year, identify what you can:
… celebrate.
… learn from.
… grieve.
… put to rest.
… repeat.
… [other reactions?]

The fifth step: dream about next year.

Given all you learned and saw from this last year, start to dream into this next year. Connect with the heart of your business, and ask yourself:

• What does the heart of your business say it needs from you this next year?
• If it gets what it needs, what does the heart of you business want to give you this next year?
• What feel like priority areas of the business to focus on for next year?
• What does your own heart need this next year?

Just notice. Write it down. See how it sits with you.

If you’re wanting to understand what stage of development your business is in and what it needs in that stage to thrive, then I suggest taking our free assessment.

This is a lot to do. And it’s totally worth it.

Maybe you want to set aside a day or two and go deep. More likely, I would start collecting the information you need, especially for the first two steps, over the next two weeks, and let it percolate. There will be things you didn’t remember the first time you looked, and so giving it a week or so will allow more information to pop up.

Give yourself this gift. It will prepare the soil and send down roots so that next year can be nourishing, productive, so you can bloom to whatever extent you and your business are ready for.

What are you noticing for yourself as you start to let this process percolate within you right now?

With gratitude and love,

Mark
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.