Friday Conversation with Hannah Beko on Spring goal setting and planning for 2021

This solo episode celebrates the coming of Spring 2021. 

How can you use this time of the year to "start again" and set some goals, whether personal or career-related?

For the blog post on the same topic please click here.

To get hold of a copy of the goals planner referenced in this episode, please click here.

Podcast host Hannah Beko is a self-employed lawyer, coach and creator of the Lawyers Business Mastermind™ (the place for entrepreneurial lawyers to grow).

If you are a legal professional, please feel free to join our free Facebook Group for networking, tips and support - Legally Speaking, a group for the legal profession by clicking here.

You can connect with Hannah on LinkedIn or visit www.authenticallyspeaking.co.uk.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hello and welcome to another episode of Friday Conversations exploring the law in lockdown and beyond with myself Hannah Beko, a commercial property partner and also trainer and coach to the legal profession. Now in today's solo episode I thought it would be great to talk about the springtime. Now I am a huge fan of the spring. I think rather than the start of the year and thinking about new year's resolutions which we know the statistics they just in general aren't particularly particularly successful I think the springtime is a wonderful time of the year to think about what it is that we might want to achieve in the rest of the year you know whether it is the equivalent of new year's resolutions about getting fitter healthier starting a new habit stopping an old habit or maybe it's planning for for your business or your career um for the rest of the year I think the springtime is probably one of the best times of the year to think about planning So I think, you know, around the springtime, we see all this regrowth and like rebirth, if you like. When we go into the winter, nature itself goes into hibernation. You know, all the trees and the plants look as if they're dead. They're bare and nothing is happening to them. But underneath the ground, they are getting ready. They're preparing, ready to launch when it comes into springtime. And I think we've got a lot to learn from that. You We feel as though we're not achieving very much perhaps. And maybe then we get cross with ourselves that we're not achieving. We're not getting everything done that we want to. Now, maybe that's in a work sense. Maybe it's in a personal sense. You know, it could be decluttering the house or decorating it. Could be reorganizing your desk or your filing. Could be doing your tax return. You know, maybe you've got new targets at work and you want to sit down and spend some time planning on how you can approach those targets. You know, maybe you're looking at how you do things and wondering if you want to change your approach to them, maybe so that you get different results or perhaps just simply because you're bored of the way you've been doing things and you want to change it up a little bit. And what I think is that the springtime is a time to start again. You know, as I say, I've talked about New Year's resolutions quite a lot and And I really don't think we should beat ourselves up if we don't stick to them. But if there's something that we really want and we were planning on it in January, we can always start again, you know, and we can start again with our monthly planning, our annual planning, whether it's our health routine, a diet we wanted to implement. We can always start again to cement new habits. And I think after the year we've all had, we all need a fresh start of some sort, a way to reset our mindset, if you like. Clearly, it's been a year that none of us have ever experienced in our lives before or known how to cope with. And there's been huge highs and huge lows all the way through the year. But if we approach spring with this sense that every day is a new day and even every minute is a new minute, then I think we can really make the most of this time of year. Maybe we felt that we've been in hibernation through the winter, maybe even for a lot of last year while we were trying to cope with what was going on. But by this springtime, we might feel as though we're sort of ready to take some action, to make some changes. The days are longer, it's going to get lighter, it's going to get warmer. There's just this air of positivity and possibility, I think, around, you know, maybe it's to do with the vaccine and it appears to all intents and purposes to be going well in its rollout. But I'm wondering whether this year, more than ever before, there's this sense that spring is bringing this positivity and this optimism. And is right now a time to look forward with more optimism hope and maybe even enthusiasm than perhaps we've had for a long time. So I've got a question for you. You know, could this springtime be a time for you to take some action that perhaps you've been putting off or you've been procrastinating over? Is it time for you to start a new routine if the lockdown one is perhaps either boring you or you know you've developed habits that aren't working for you? So my springtime challenge for you is to give yourself the gift of a little time to think, a little bit of time to consider what it is that you want from the rest of this year, from the rest of 2021. You know, whether this is personal or work related, or perhaps, as I frequently think is the case, is a combination of both. You know, maybe like, a little bit more. And what I've got for you is a goal setting and planning process that you might like to try. Now, I think this process can be used whatever stage of our careers or our lives we're at right now. And it's just a simple way to think about where you are right now and what you might want to achieve in the rest of 2021. So here is my planning process for you. Hopefully you've got a pen and paper or you can always come back to it. So first of all, write down your priorities for the rest of this year. And I would suggest a maximum of three. You know, what three things are really important to you right now and as you think about the rest of 2021? might be things like improving your mental or physical health, getting a better handle on your finances. Maybe it's moving jobs. Maybe it's a promotion. Maybe it's growing your business. You know, what sort of things do you consider to be your priorities right now? And I often talk to clients about things like, you know, if they're working too many hours, well, ideally, what hours would they be working? How much time would they be spending with their family in an ideal world? You know, where would you like to get to by the end of this year or say in around 12 months from now? So that's step one. Write down what your priorities are for the rest of this year. And then step two is to write down what your long term goal is or your vision. And by long term, I'm thinking maybe you think 12 months to three years from now. I'm more of a shorter term person personally, so I like to think in 12 months. But maybe you're a three years, five years or even a 10 years person. You know, what do you want your life to look like? in that timeframe. Think about what would your vision be for your future? I always say dream big there. Don't go into the, I don't know how that would happen. Just go into what it is that you want. When you close your eyes and take a deep breath and ask yourself, what do I really want my life to look like 12 months from now or three years from now? What does your day look like? What are you doing? What are you spending time on? What are your surroundings like? Who is with you? You know, have a think about those things and use that to identify what your long-term goals or your vision is. And then the next step, step three, is to write down what are the first small steps or milestones that you would need to take towards this bigger goal, bigger vision. So think about three months into the future from now, you know, what could you achieve in the next three months that would just put you a little bit closer to towards that longer term goal and these really are just little stepping stones and then the next step is to write down what barriers are in your way you know what is or could be stopping you from achieving both your long-term goal and even these short-term milestones you know if you already know that there could be an issue with achieving one of those milestones what is it you know is it lack of time lack of finances lack of knowledge about the best next steps is it a fear of the unknown or a fear that you're not going to be able to do it. Because I do think that realisation is always half of the battle. If you can understand what might hold you back, then it will help you to find solutions if and when these barriers pop up. And then finally, what are your three month actions towards that first milestone? And I would think about just three little actions. You know, what steps can you take in the next three months to get you towards that three month goal you've set? There's so much evidence that planning in three month chunks is the most effective time frame. So use that to your advantage. You know, ultimately, if you know this is where you want to be in 12 months time, chunk that down into three month chunks. segments if you like and then think about what steps you will take in each of those three month periods to get you towards that goal and that's it That's it. If you visit my website where you can find this actually on a blog post, which is authenticallyspeaking.co.uk slash spring 2021, then you will find what I've just talked about on this episode in that blog post. But also you'll find a link to a worked example if you want to see this written down, this step by step process. And you can use that to create your own planner. And just a few interesting facts about goals for you. You may have heard me talk about this before. If you get clear on your goals and you write them down, you will be 42% more likely to achieve them. If you write them down and put them somewhere, you're likely to see them often, like a post-it note on your laptop, by the kettle or by the cupboard where you keep your mugs. If you see them regularly, that's really going to help you to cement those goals and to take every step you can towards them. Sometimes even without realising is really letting your subconscious brain take over and help you towards those goals. If you find someone to keep you accountable and check in with you regularly, then you're 85% more likely to reach those goals. So definitely think about whether you can find an accountability buddy If you'd like an extra boost towards achieving those goals, then do think about creating yourself a morning routine. I think these are really, really powerful and it's something I'm a huge fan of. So you might want to try some fantastic books like The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. That talks about the power of having a morning success routine. And although the book is quite hardcore, it suggests getting up at 5am and spending an hour on morning success routines. You can do a watered down version of that. But the idea is that you think about things that will help set you up for the best day possible. You know, do you do a little bit of meditation, maybe some exercise, maybe some writing, some journaling, maybe you read a couple of pages of a book that's going to help you to develop, you know, these are the sorts of things that you can try if you want that extra boost. And you can find more about that in one of my blog posts, again, Good to Great, which is on my website. And I will put a link to both of these in the show notes as well. So I hope that that has been of interest to you. If you'd like to find out more, then do come and join us in my free Facebook community for the legal profession. This is the place where you can find networking, mini trainings, the support and accountability of the group. So we can provide you with weekly accountabilities towards your goals, you know, just come in the group, tell us what they are, and we will be able to provide that accountability and support for you. So I hope you found that useful. It's a pleasure to be speaking to you again. And do, of course, check out the other podcast episodes, where mainly I'm interviewing other lawyers and people around the legal profession to find out about their lockdown journey. And if you would like to come and share details of your lockdown journey with us, then it would be a pleasure to have you. Do get in touch and let me know. Take care. Bye bye.