We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience – John Dewey
Dear friend,
At the end of every year, I ask myself and write down a set of questions, including:
- When have you felt proud of yourself this year? What were you doing?
- If you had to teach one thing you learned this year (that would improve one’s quality of life) what would that be?
- What kept you up at night with excitement this year? Was it worth it? Would you want to do more of it?
- How did you have fun differently this year?
- How did you suffer differently this year?
1 of these questions is What new habits did you create in 2022? Which ones would you want to keep?
Habits are the fundament of my successes and the 10/10 happiness in my life. Frankly, without the design and implementation of various habits, my life would suck.
Hence, I take a lot of time to think through this question. There were many micro-habits I tried out and kept in 2022, such as making notes during calls of any kind or preparing each meeting (agenda, key outputs, potential next steps).
Part of this reflection routine is to think about the next 5 years and which habit I will need to implement to make the life of the next 5 years happen. The following 3, I’m currently implementing and testing during 2023:
As my life becomes rather more than less stressful as a founder and CEO of a climate tech startup, I do now conscious breathing exercises – 2 mins every 3 hours. If you want to be relaxed even in the most stressful meetings, try it out, too! I use box breathing.
I prioritize the most important tasks and what tangible outcomes I want to create every day incl. now at the weekend as well. As the boundaries between work and life become even more blurred, I also want to ensure that my weekends are as productive as possible.
And I ask myself every night part of my sleeping routine whether I represented myself throughout the day as I wanted. This easy but powerful question reminds me: Perception is reality. Real is not how I think I behave, but how people perceive my behavior. It’s not unlikely that soon multiple people will work for the company I will be CEO.
That’s about my reflections on last year. What about you? What questions do you ask yourself to reflect on the past?
All the best to you and yours,
David
