Success beyond the workplace: planning your wellbeing like your career
Success isn't just about what you achieve in the office or your work; it's about crafting a life where your well-being thrives as much as your career.
During my corporate career, year after year, I would develop a personal development plan based on the SMART principles, all aligned with business objectives and personal business skills. But I rarely applied the skills I developed in my business career to my own wellbeing goals or my own personal development, until now, that is.
As I develop my coaching career and structure my life around endurance events, applying the skills I built up in the corporate world is becoming more and more important.
So I want to share a snapshot of how I plan my year around key goals and create my vision for 2024 to support you in your thinking so that you can start to prioritise your wellbeing and find time for yourself.
Getting to the finish line
At the start of the year, I pick one main goal (race) and 2 or 3 smaller goals (local or smaller events); this helps me plan my year, set my focus and guide my day-to-day actions and activities. By having the events as my goal (strategic), I now make the right lifestyle choices to help me get to the start of my races in good shape.
I then work backwards and decide whether or not I can achieve the goal. Then, I think about what I have coming up, family- or work-related, that I need to factor in. It's a constant negotiation with my time and external stressors of day-to-day life, so I am consistently reevaluating and replanning my time.
For example, my first main goal for 2024 is a Half 70.3 Ironman in Valencia at the end of April, closely followed by a coast-to-coast bike ride across Italy at the end of June and another Half Ironman at the end of August.
For sure, that means that I have had to make some lifestyle choices around leisure time (alcohol is out the door), but I am happy with that because that's the immovable version of me; I want to be that woman who crosses the finish line.
Now, I am not suggesting that you jump on board for one minute and start endurance training (I would love it if you did!)
But, what if you started to craft your life around your immovable version of yourself and apply the skills you have acquired through your career to your wellbeing? For sure, this is not it's not an overnight task; it will take time and effort, but once you have made that leap and become more intentional and goal-orientated about your health and well-being, life so much more adventurous and fun!
How you can create a wellbeing blueprint - Simple 3 step process
Here is a simple 3 step process to help you start to visualise where you want to be this year.
Step 1: Reflect on the last six months or previous year.
Grab a pen and paper. Go somewhere quiet to reflect. Take five to ten minutes (or as much time as you need) to consider the past year. To help you with this process, try reflecting on these questions:
What happened over the last year?
What brought me joy?
What drained me?
What do I wish I did more of?
What do I wish I did less of?
What did I learn? What are the top five things I'm grateful for?
Step 2: Review your thoughts
Now, look through your answers and note any themes that might have come up. Think about what you'd like to accomplish over the next year in each area of your life. Consider various aspects of life, including family, relationships, hobbies, passions, social life, career or education, health, and finances.
Step 3: Start to map it.
Set goals that will help you progress in the identified areas. Break down these long-term (SMART) goals into specific actions you can incorporate into your daily, weekly, or monthly routine.
(Many free vision board apps can help you with this. I use canva.com as that has templates that I populate with my clients.)
Revisit this as many times as you need to until you are happy with the vision that you have created.
The immovable version of you.
Remember, this is a guide to help you start to define what really matters to you and your wellbeing, not an exact rule book. My aim is to support you in your thinking so that you can start to prioritise your wellbeing and find time for yourself.