One of the wonderful aspects of this time of year is the chance to take a break, reflect, and spend time thinking about the year ahead. For me, this time is special because of the space it affords me to review what I’ve learned in the past year, declutter anything I don’t need to move forward with, and identify the kinds of growth, experiences, and goals I want to plan for in the year ahead.
I know I’m not alone in resetting and refreshing at the turn of each new year. Great advice can be found everywhere. Years ago, Michael Crow, one of the UIA’s inaugural founders, recommended the books FIVE, Seven, and TEN to help identify new targets and life goals and structure each week to make progress toward them. Countless others have raved about Designing Your Life, which was adapted from a course at Stanford.
Entire sections of the internet are devoted to the practice of vision boards, goal setting, and human optimization. The Desire Map method is unique in that it turns your attention to identifying how you want to feel at various points in your day and year, then guiding you to plan for those feelings rather than for goals, which can sometimes feel hollow. Desire mapping nudges you to identify your five “core desired feelings'' and target ways to optimize them. My five are contribution, vitality, connection, growth, and joy. What are yours? And how are you resetting and reflecting over the holiday break?
We all know how important it is to have our batteries fully charged for the work we do. When you come back to work, I hope you are renewed and have soaked up the lessons and learning of the past year. If you need some prompting, here are a couple tools to help you reframe how you think about your work and strategize for the year ahead:
Don’t worry about getting to them right away – these and all the resources the UIA offers will be waiting for you when you return in the new year. I hope you enjoy your break in the most rejuvenating way possible.
Happy holidays from the UIA!
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