3 Keys to a Productive 2022!
It’s already the 1st of March. If you are like me, this fills you with a sense of mild panic as I realize we are almost a quarter of the year through and I have so much I want to achieve. Now, this is nothing new for me. I go through this panic every year and almost every month. The reason for this is I like to set goals, learn new things, and expand my skillset and knowledge. Because of this thirst for self-improvement, I have a list in my head of hundreds of things I want to achieve, try, or learn. Inevitably, life gets in the way, my grand ambitions of learning and improving in all fifty different facets of my life fall by the wayside, and this can lead to a sense of unfulfillment or failure to achieve.
I realized this many years ago and so devised a more realistic way of ensuring I always finish out the year with a sense of achievement and having made progress in some of the important areas of my life. I call this the Three Things Formula for Fulfilment. This exercise can be completed at any time of the year, but I enjoy doing this in January.
What is the Three Things Formula for Fulfilment? Essentially, it’s choosing three new things, areas of improvement, or skills you want to learn, in three key areas of your life. These areas are:
- Your current work/job
- Your future career
- Something not related to work
The aim is for you to not only make progress in your current role but also to ensure you are giving yourself some direction for where you want to go in your career. Often the skills we need for future roles or industries, do not provide any benefit for our current job.
The third aspect of learning something not related to work is so important in today’s fast-paced, work anywhere environment. It ensures we are well-rounded individuals and builds us into more resilient, multidimensional humans.
What does this look like for me?
For work this year I have chosen to expand my knowledge on other cloud environments. To achieve this aim I have chosen to add Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure to my Cloud Architect Certifications.
For my career, I have decided to sharpen the saw (to borrow from Steven Covey) on my leadership coaching abilities and do some courses on coaching.
Lastly in my non-work life, I have chosen to continue learning Cello (I started on this last year) but with a specific aim in mind of being able to play Bach’s 1st Cello Suite prelude by the end of the year. I promise you if you hear it, you will know it. I have added a second goal as well. As I have recently moved to Canada I also decided to learn about and play hockey. I am now an avid and loyal Maple Leafs fan (yes I have been warned :-)) and am getting there on the ice, albeit slowly.
Following the above Three Things Formula, ensures that I exit the year with a feeling of accomplishment. If I achieve these earlier, fantastic, I then have space to add some additional ones onto the list.
I hope this helps you in achieving your dreams and ambitions. Wishing you a fulfilling 2022 filled with new learnings.