Looking back – 2015

At the beginning of 2015 I set myself some goals for the year and sketchnoted them to cement them in my mind and commit to them.

I put it all down in a blog post and then proceeded on with my year, seldom taking another look at it, but with it always at the back of my mind. My goals for 2015 were:

• Focus on health
• Spend time with people I love
• Draw every day
• Read more books
• Wear more coloured lipstick
• Travel
• Do work that makes me happy

So how did I do? Some of them were more challenging than others. But when I look down the list I am pleased to say I did pretty well with 4.5 out of the 7 goals I sketched at the beginning of 2015. There are a couple of things that occur to me as I reflect on this:

• A sense of achievement, I did some cool stuff (i.e. #todaysdoodle)
• Simple goals were way easier (kind of obvious I guess)
• Last year I took on a lot of work and some goals suffered for that

I’ve already started sketching out my goals for this year. I usually like to do this a little earlier, but I watched a short video by Dr Jason Fox that suggested a “fuzzy contextual beacon” rather than specific goals. So I have been playing and iterating with that idea since January 1.

Screw goals & new year resolutions. Choose one word, and have it serve as a fuzzy, contextual beacon. https://t.co/XfYTHUz6Rs

— Dr Fox, Wizard (🌳,🌳)┻┳ (@drjasonfox) January 1, 2016

Taking that advice and having reflected on the results from last year’s goal setting the lessons I take forward are:

• They need to be simple and more focused
• I am going to try themes, instead of specific activities
• One theme will drive the year

I’ll blog the results soon.

Have you set goals or themes for the year? Share your thoughts in the comments.