So it´s coming towards the end of the year and for some of us (not all sadly!) we´ll be in the process of winding down for a well deserved break.
Now I know what you´re thinking, there´s nothing restful about having to cook for twenty people whilst entertaining Great Aunt Nora, but even with all of the parties and dinners and cooking and gift giving, there´s usually an hour or two where you can just sit in your pyjamas and rest.
I´m not usually one for celebrating on arbitrary days, nor am I suggesting there´s a specific time of year that things should be done (I don´t even go out on New Years Eve usually.
One, I´m old and midnight seems like about two hours past my bedtime, and two, I really object to paying five times the amount for food because it happens to be the 31st of December. Is it magical food? Is the wine from grape juice pressed by vestal virgins? No? why are charging me so much more than yesterday then?)
However, there is something about that brief time between Christmas and New Year where the whole world seems to just slightly shut down and it invites the idea of a mental reset and a look back at what´s changed in the last 12 months.
At Year End Always Remember “A small win is still a win”
I hate this idea that every year we have to go through a list of what we “should” have achieved. We “should” have gotten a promotion, and a pay rise, and personal and professional recognition, and if we didn´t then somehow the last 12 months have been a bust. It´s BS. For some of us, just getting through the year without murdering a co-worker is an achievement (if you don´t know which co-worker I´m talking about, you may have to consider that YOU are that co-worker. There is always one. It´s an unwritten but infallible rule) It is maybe the time though to consider what you did want to get out of the last year, and what you´re hoping to get out of the new one.
Maybe you didn´t have any particular work goals that you were hoping to achieve this past year, and that´s fine. I´ve personally never really had that mindset. It´s not that I´m not ambitious, I´ve just never particularly been able to see a straight path to somewhere I want to be. But there can still be small successes along the way, even without a “grand plan”. Maybe you aced planning that event, or you implemented a new routine in the office that really works for you. Maybe you just found a great new coffee supplier and everyone´s a bit more chilled out because they don´t have to taste the rubbish that used to be supplied. Whatever it is, take the win, it´s yours.
"Comparison is the thief of joy."
I get it, it can be difficult to avoid, especially at work and even more so when you´re going through end-of-year reviews (Actually, it´s difficult anywhere. My sister in law is an insanely good cook and last Christmas my offering for the table looked like I´d dropped it on the way in. I just topped her up with wine and hoped she wouldn´t notice). The fact of the matter is though, your only competition is with yourself. It doesn´t really matter what other people achieved, or didn´t. If you’re happy with your progress and your work is on track, then you´ve done a good job. This awful idea that in order to be successful in your career you have to be constantly hustling, or working more hours than anyone else is insane. You don´t get a medal for working yourself into the ground and it´s not a win for the year if you´re so exhausted you can barely move. ESPECIALLY if you were only working so hard in order to keep up with the “competition”.
The point is, it´s not worth your time to kick yourself for failing to achieve something you didn´t even know you wanted. Take the time to figure out what you would like to achieve, figure out the steps to get there and then reassess in 12 months’ time. (Then kick yourself)
On a serious note though, this goes for your personal life as well. Wins are not always about the workplace. In fact, more often than not, they aren´t. I doubt in a decades time I´ll be reminiscing about that deal I closed in February, or the great company review in 2020. I probably won´t forget discovering the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the universe with my kids though (Thank you Sallys Baking Addiction) Or the time that I laughed so much with some friends we had to pull the car over as we were definitely a danger to other road users at that point.
For next year, I don´t know what I´m looking for professionally. Hopefully more of speaking to great people like yourselves (Ideally doing so whilst on a trip to New York in first class, but that´s by the by). Personally though? I want to remember the successes of this year and replicate them. I want to laugh so hard I cry, and spend hours playing the unwinnable game of Risk, knowing that we will once again just call it (no one has ever won that game in the history of the world). Those are the real reflections and successes of my year, the time I´ve had with friends and family that I wouldn´t swap for the world.
So remember to celebrate your wins, whether big or small, personal or professional and let us know below what your favourite achievement this year was (it was definitely the chocolate chip cookies for me!)
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