2024: Ritualize

In 2023, my word of the year was "consistency".

And of course, that was a total bust once the chaos of work and life bulldozed over good intentions 😞

If that resonates with you, I hope you've feel reassured that you were not alone.

What's your process?

What I learnt from that experiment is good intentions need to be backed by specificity.

More importantly, I realized that the key is not just about being clear what your goals are, e.g. I want to get a promotion this year or I want to lose Xkg by the end of the year.

The essence of making things happen is to be as clear as day on our process.

Here's a sample dialogue of what this might sound like:

[Me talking to myself]

So you want to write a weekly newsletter? Ok, when are you doing to do it? How much time will you need to put into completing this, realistically speaking?

Answer: I'm going to mull over one or two ideas over a week by gather the stories and data into a dedicated Notion page, then I'll set aside 1-2 hours to put it all together on a Sunday or Monday evening.

It could definitely be more specific but at least I know that this is something I can add to my calendar.

2024: A Year To Ritualize

If you're looking to level up different aspects of your life this year, I'd like to invite you to join me on this journey to ritualize your process that will help you achieve the goals you may have already set for yourself.

If you're still wondering about what goals to set for yourself this year, I'd recommend taking stock of where you'd like to feel like dedicating more time and energy across these key areas which I personally use in my own goal-setting process:

Health, wellness & spirituality
Relationships
Personal Finance & Investment
Work (you can swap this out for your role, e.g. I use 'Talent Advisor' to stay more focused)
Learning new skills and languages

For this year, I've started rituals for my morning routine that takes just less than 2 minutes to start my day off with peace of mind and using time during my commute for learning new skills and I've found that my brain truly looks forward to those moments because there's a feeling of congruency when I act on commitments that I've made to myself.

To continue this journey, I'm really looking forward to seeing how I can better tweak my rituals for writing by blocking it on my calendar. connecting with others, reviewing finances on a monthly basis, and to structure my day at work so I'm not just getting caught up in busy work.

How rituals can help you stand out as a top performer

If you feel like you need a bit more extrinsic motivation to get started, consider this surprising interview question that not many people prep for:

How do you spend your day?

Thinking back on the interview questions that I've come across, this is one that stands out as particularly effective for the interviewer to get a sense if candidates are able to share their process to a level of detail that differentiates themselves from those who are good storytellers but only at a superficial level.

For customer-facing roles, especially when there are sales quotas or targets that need to be met, a manager can easily tell the difference between a top performer and a mediocre one with this question.

Hint: The moment you share that the first thing you do at the start of each day is to check and respond to your emails, the interview is pretty much over.

It's not that checking emails is the wrong answer but if your daily process is to allow other people's priorities to become your own priorities by responding to them first before you get any of your strategic actions completed, it's a clear red flag that you are not a top performer.

Managers know that top performers are able to outperform consistently because they drive their own process to get the important things done first instead of allowing themselves to be in fire-fighting mode all the time.

A 30-second happiness ritual to try today

Finally, I want to leave you with a simple yet powerful ritual to boost your happiness level today. I guarantee it will bring a smile to your face and drive home the point of how rewarding having rituals can be.

Take your phone, go the to photo library and take just 30 seconds to scroll through all the moments you captured since the start of the year.

Which were the moments that you wish you could experience again?

Those are the moments that we can intentionally focus on repeating the next month and beyond.

After all, in the words of Milan Kundera, "Happiness is the longing for repetition"

Imagine the compounded effect this can have on your life and happiness if this because a monthly ritual that you added to the end of each month 🤯

Your welcome.

Your talent advisor,
Lynn