This month I have been lucky enough to put the intentions I laid out in my last blog post into practice and spend some time away from home for a week of ashtanga yoga with Mark Robberds in Dubai. Every time I make the space in my life to focus on my own practice and personal development I wonder why I left it so long since the last time. The answer is obviously because life doesn't really work that way and before you blink you are back into the old routine, racing along on the same treadmill. This time, however, I've taken precautions to try and make sure that things work out differently.
Whilst I was away, I read a book that was recommended to me during my teacher training, but which I then totally ignored for a couple of years. It's called 'Your Best Year Yet' by Jinny Ditzle and it outlines a programme, made up of 10 simple questions, to help you review the achievements and disappointments of your last 12 months and put a simple plan in place with targets for the year ahead. I'm not a big 'self-help' book fan, but I really enjoyed this process and would highly recommend it.
The premise is that you could carry out the plan in just 3 hours, but I chose to do it over a couple of afternoons (since I was lucky enough to have that luxury). As I worked through the questions, it reminded me of the apprasisal process you go through at work each year, and I thought it made perfect sense to apply that model to our personal lives, with the added benefit that your 'appraisal' will only be used to make the business of being 'you' more profitable. I wondered, why we don't monitor and reflect on our performance in life each year, bask in our glories and learn from our mistakes, rather than rushing headlong into another 12 months of stress and frustration? We know it helps to keep us motivated and improve our performance at work, so of course we should do it with the things in our lives which are of more importance.
By working through the questions you end up with a one page plan, that gives you a set of guidelines reflecting your beliefs and 10 clear 'goals' for the year ahead linked to your priorities for personal change and development. Ditzle recommends that when you are finished, you should pin it up somewhere and read it every week to remind you of your focus. Better yet, you should share your plan with your loved ones or a friend, so you have the motivation to keep on track (hence this blog post!). You then spend a little time each week breaking those big goals into smaller tasks and activities, so that when you get to the end of the year and look back, all of those things that seemed like impossible dreams have at least been attempted or moved towards, rather than growing dusty in the back of our minds.
I complained in my last blog that I was feeling a bit directionless and this process has really helped me. If nothing else, making the effort to look back on what you have achieved, is an uplifting process which I am trying to apply to my yoga practice too. So often we get caught up in what we can't do, believing that things are impossible for us for one reason or another, but failing to recognise how far we have come. If I never do the perfect backbend, or bind in kurmasana will it really matter? Of course not, but every time I get on the mat and create a millimetere more space, I am opening myself up to more change and improvement in my body and mind and I should be proud of the distance I have travelled, not comparing my progress to everyone else. The week of yoga taught me that, as I huffed and puffed and cursed in a room full of talented yogis who all seemed so much stronger, flexible and 'together' than me, but of course I know nothing of their journey and how far they have come.
I'm ready to get back on with the next stage of my own life adventure, and I have a rough idea now of what steps I'm going to put in place to help me along the way in 2016. There will no doubt be many curveballs ahead to make me swerve off my path, but as in the business world, I'm hoping that my annual self-appraisal will make me better equipped to deal with them.
Whilst I was away, I read a book that was recommended to me during my teacher training, but which I then totally ignored for a couple of years. It's called 'Your Best Year Yet' by Jinny Ditzle and it outlines a programme, made up of 10 simple questions, to help you review the achievements and disappointments of your last 12 months and put a simple plan in place with targets for the year ahead. I'm not a big 'self-help' book fan, but I really enjoyed this process and would highly recommend it.
The premise is that you could carry out the plan in just 3 hours, but I chose to do it over a couple of afternoons (since I was lucky enough to have that luxury). As I worked through the questions, it reminded me of the apprasisal process you go through at work each year, and I thought it made perfect sense to apply that model to our personal lives, with the added benefit that your 'appraisal' will only be used to make the business of being 'you' more profitable. I wondered, why we don't monitor and reflect on our performance in life each year, bask in our glories and learn from our mistakes, rather than rushing headlong into another 12 months of stress and frustration? We know it helps to keep us motivated and improve our performance at work, so of course we should do it with the things in our lives which are of more importance.
By working through the questions you end up with a one page plan, that gives you a set of guidelines reflecting your beliefs and 10 clear 'goals' for the year ahead linked to your priorities for personal change and development. Ditzle recommends that when you are finished, you should pin it up somewhere and read it every week to remind you of your focus. Better yet, you should share your plan with your loved ones or a friend, so you have the motivation to keep on track (hence this blog post!). You then spend a little time each week breaking those big goals into smaller tasks and activities, so that when you get to the end of the year and look back, all of those things that seemed like impossible dreams have at least been attempted or moved towards, rather than growing dusty in the back of our minds.
I complained in my last blog that I was feeling a bit directionless and this process has really helped me. If nothing else, making the effort to look back on what you have achieved, is an uplifting process which I am trying to apply to my yoga practice too. So often we get caught up in what we can't do, believing that things are impossible for us for one reason or another, but failing to recognise how far we have come. If I never do the perfect backbend, or bind in kurmasana will it really matter? Of course not, but every time I get on the mat and create a millimetere more space, I am opening myself up to more change and improvement in my body and mind and I should be proud of the distance I have travelled, not comparing my progress to everyone else. The week of yoga taught me that, as I huffed and puffed and cursed in a room full of talented yogis who all seemed so much stronger, flexible and 'together' than me, but of course I know nothing of their journey and how far they have come.
I'm ready to get back on with the next stage of my own life adventure, and I have a rough idea now of what steps I'm going to put in place to help me along the way in 2016. There will no doubt be many curveballs ahead to make me swerve off my path, but as in the business world, I'm hoping that my annual self-appraisal will make me better equipped to deal with them.
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| Me and the Ashtanga Yoga Dubai crew with the amazingly talented Mark Robberds. |
