Hey goal achievers, Kristin here. Recently, I recorded the LAST Elite Achievement podcast of 2021. The episode was significant to me because I shared my top lessons learned, which is quickly becoming a year-end tradition.

Last year in December, I released a top lessons learned episode to celebrate my first year in business. This year, I decided to do it again because reflecting is a critical element of the goal-setting process. Plus, I’ve been fortunate to learn a lot from others along the way and want to share with you some of my greatest lessons so you can grow even quicker.

As you prepare for the new year, I highly encourage you to dedicate time to reflect on your growth, progress, and goal achievement journey from 2021. We learn a lot about ourselves, goal-setting tendencies, and goal-achieving behaviors by intentionally reflecting on the year.

Before recording the podcast, I reviewed a year’s worth of notes from Friday Rituals, coaching sessions, and meetings I attended to grow and develop as an entrepreneur, coach, and ambitious woman.

I looked for themes among my notes and complied the reflections and insights into seven lessons. I believe each of these lessons will be valuable for you and your business, but I’m highlighting just three for this blog. You’ll have to hop over to the podcast to listen to all seven (including How to Execute On A Big Project, Hiring for Growth, and more)! Click here to listen to the full episode.

Three Lessons for You and Your Business

The first lesson I’m sharing is to Connect to Your Vision.

It’s easy to forget what you are working towards, which I was reminded of during my third quarter business reflect and plan session. I started this year with a plan to launch a course, and I spent time researching a successful launch. I even followed people on social media who appeared to be course experts. When I achieved only 20% of my goal for participants in my course, I felt defeated and flirted with the idea of giving up on social media. What’s the point if people don’t register for my course after I spent hours planning posts and building an email list?  

I intentionally paused pushing after my launch and gave myself the summer to get clear on how to move forward. I remembered why I wanted to have a presence on social media and why I wanted to establish my email list when I re-read my vision during my third quarter review.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in what we didn’t achieve that we lose sight of the bigger picture. When I re-read my vision during my quarterly review, a best practice I recommend, I remembered the impact both social media and an email list can have on my future ambitions.

I’m not going to rush into figuring out how to move forward with this course. Instead of dwelling on what didn’t go the way I expected, I will celebrate the fact that I now have a course created! I’m going to trust that I will determine how to move forward at some point in the future. 

Take the time to connect with your vision as you assess your goal achievement from 2021 and let the bigger picture help you evaluate what’s next.

The next lesson is learning how to Recognize Push versus Flow.

You might be thinking, what is push versus flow? I describe push as walking up a hill wearing high heels while boulders are tumbling down at you. It’s challenging to navigate. Flow, on the other hand, is when ideas come naturally. You are still working hard, but there is far less resistance.

I live in LA, and this makes me think of Runyon Canyon. If you’ve ever been to Runyon, you might recall a trail that is paved on one side and rocky and steep on the other. Push is the rocky and steep, and flow is the paved. There is still effort required to climb both, but the paved side is a heck of a lot easier.

Often the achiever in me can get caught up in all of the doing. I might plow forward to meet a deadline (a deadline I likely created in my own mind) without pausing to reflect if it is energizing to me or asking if I am moving on purpose, if what I am doing is working, or if it is what I want.

I’m starting to realize that my push moments are often connected to “should’s.” Be mindful of the should – I should be here by now; I should achieve this because someone else is or someone told me to.

I need to stop looking outside of myself for answers to remain in flow. The strategies I used to sell out my course might work for an online marketer on social media, but they might not be the right strategies for me.

I also benefit significantly from taking a pause. After my course launch, I got quiet. I stopped pushing for the next thing even though the idea to launch again crossed my mind. I get a lot of clarity from taking some time (a couple of weeks) before deciding what’s next.

I also need to keep paying attention to my sleep at night. If I am lying awake tossing and turning, worrying about Kajabi or other course platforms at 3 am, it’s my body’s way of alerting me that I am in the push and not the flow. Look for your own signals that you may be in the push and take time to ask yourself if you’re moving on purpose, if you’re listening to yourself, and if you may need space to gain clarity. 

The final lesson I’m sharing in this blog is the importance of Having a Tracking System in Place.

The temptation to avoid tracking when things are not going great is real, but not knowing leads to even more anxiety. I typically already know when I am off-track or not where I want to be, but tracking allows me to shift my perspective and move away from shame and judgment towards perspective and understanding.

When I review the data, I can plan how to move forward. Tracking and reviewing the data helps minimize emotional decision-making and helps build consistency. Learn what works for you and what doesn’t. You don’t have to use a complex tracking system. One of my most effective tracking tools is post-it notes!

If you are ready for a more complex tracking approach, look for a system with a dashboard that displays the metrics around the health of your business. With that information, you can understand leading indicators and look ahead to make changes. Lagging indicators are the results. They’re in the past, and together with leading indicators, they can help you achieve any goal.  

Another benefit of a tracking system this year was the opportunity to look at the data with my team. Together, we could review the numbers and focus every month.

I will leave you with one final lesson: success leaves clues. This quarter, I was reminded of this Tony Robbins quote, and compiling this episode reinforced its importance. So often, I tried to overcomplicate or look outside myself for answers. But at this stage in my business, I have two years’ worth of data that I can study. I can learn where my best clients come from, the length of a typical coaching engagement, and even how many outreaches it takes to yield a yes. Don’t underestimate the value of your own experience and data as you end 2021 and enter 2022.

Until next time, keep celebrating your weekly wins, noting your lessons learned, and identifying your priorities so you can consistently pursue progress in the direction of your goals.

As you begin a new year, do you have a process for reflecting and planning to get clarity around what works for you and what doesn’t as you strive to build your business and achieve your goals?

If you are thinking, I’d love to work with a coach to get this clarity, click here and submit an application. 

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