I’m a big believer in baby steps… I even tell my team that it’s all about progress over perfection. That’s how you keep moving forward and build momentum in your business. But sometimes moving forward actually means you have to look backward… and that’s what this week’s video is all about.
Video Transcript and Relevant Links
Here’s one more video about intention, intentionality, designing the life you want, creating the life you want, figuring out what you want, and how to get there. I've talked about a whole bunch of different things throughout this series, and in this one, I talk about the idea of the debrief or the review.
We've talked about a bunch of different practices here. And none of these, I think, should be set in stone. Well, a couple of them I think should be set in stone. But even how you do them, how they fit into your life might evolve.
When I started down this path, which was 22, 23, maybe 25 years ago… when I started down this path my life looked radically different than it does now. And my practices around creating an intentional life looked radically different. There are some threads that have been there almost the entire time. In the last video, I talked about journaling. That was one of them. But the idea is that in creating an intentional life, you're going to be creating intentional days and intentional weeks and intentional months and intentional years. But you want to reflect back. You want to periodically look back and say, “Is this working or is this not working?” In fact, I think you should schedule this in.
For me, once a year at the end of the year, I absolutely go through an extensive process in doing this. But I also do this on a monthly basis. And then occasionally I'll just take some time and set aside. I'll look through my journal. I'll reflect on what I've been doing and what works well and what I want to do differently. That's key phrasing for me: “Work well, do differently.” So, it's just noticing what worked well, what I want more of in my life, what's really been getting me results and what I want to do differently. What's not feeding my life? What's not feeding into the energy of my life?
It's important that you don't just sit there and try to create one set of rituals, one set of rules, one set of practices, one way of doing things and think that's going to work forever. You want to reflect back. You want to say, “How can I evolve this? What should I be doing differently?”
So much of the value of this entire process is in the debrief. It’s looking back and reflecting. What's working? What's not working? What do I want more of? What do I want less of? It's that simple.
So, build in that reflection time and build it in periodically so that you're not all in lockstep doing the same thing over and over and over even if it's not serving you.
So I’m Jeff Walker. Wherever you’re watching this, scroll down, leave a comment for me.
As of right now, this is the last video I'm planning on doing in this series on intention. If you're really loving it, if you have some ideas of other stuff you’d like me to cover, then leave a comment for me. Otherwise, let's go get ‘em this week.
Laurel Colins
Love this, I have begun doing reflection work and it’s made a huge difference. Thank you
Douglas Dicks
that fireplace looks like you could walk into it…is it really that big
Consuelo Castañuela H
Thank you for putting vid 1 of 7 right after 7!
Cygnet Brown
Thanks for this entire intention series. I enjoyed it immensely. It is very much in line with a book I just wrote a book that I call: The Ultimate Keystone Habit. This book describes how creating the habit of starting your day the night before (and includes creating goals and doing a debrief of the previous day) can impact your life. There is so much that can be said for creating goals, plans, and habits.
Josi
That was great- love the idea of what works and what do differently, implies flexibility and evolvement in practices which allows things to feel less rigid. Thank you Jeff! 😊
Rudiano
Very true. Big believer in baby steps too. I was introduced to a similarly structured end of year reflection about 5 years ago. I realise it’s crucial to stick with it each year otherwise I end up carried away by distractions way off my goals 😅
Theresa
Boy did I need this series this month! I see how much of a transformation I need and how I have to change some of the people in my life to get it.nThanks for sharing your wisdom, Jeff.
Sheri
I started with Part 7 and listened to the whole series! Hearing your morning practices and those around intentionality are reassuring. Reassuring that these rituals (and I regularly use many of them) are a foundation for an international, and successful life and not for sissies.
David
Jeff, thank you so much for reminding us that reflection and retrospectives are so important. We can’t live in the past, but we certainly can learn from it.
Susanne
wonderful, thank you!
Jeff Gunther
Again, Jeff, thanks for sharing this series of seven reflections. Spreading them out over seven weeks made it easy to begin implementing (again). Interestingly, ALL of these are things I’ve done at times when life just seemed to flow. We all need reminders to put back into practice the things that work.
Sherry
I really enjoyed this series and I’m disappointed that this is the end of hearing your simple, yet profound lessons on designing an incredible life. You walk your talk and your results are amazing. Thank you for all your giving and support of all of us who strive to better ourselves.
Tracy Lamont
Thank you Jeff, your timing of this kind series has been very welcomed. Some I already practice and others just dabbling, but appreciate enormously how effective they are when combined. My life has transformed so much in the last 10 months through career change, physical change and now changing from a typical British diet for the past 46 years to a whole food plant based diet starting last week. My life has become very intentional and by doing so my body, family and income are thanking me. Thank you for sharing your insights Jeff really appreciated. P.s I joined the “wake up” programme too it’s teally great, I’m on day 12 : )
Adama
Thank you for your timely video Jeff! I am just finishing up Michael Hyatt’s ‘Best Year Ever’ program and this video was just the cherry on the cake I needed to hear 🙂 I will schedule in the monthly reflections. Thank you so much!
Joan McManus
Debriefing is so critical – we seldom learn unless we take the time to reflect on just what you said – what worked for me, and what do I want to do differently. Thanks for bringing it to the forefront!
Norma Brumbaugh
Perfect. This makes a lot of sense. Life can be messy but this practice would help keep you and your business on track. It’s like a timely evaluation. I need to do this. Thanks.
Cary
It may not be an issue for you any more, any tips on how toi ntend create what kind of income you”d like to make when at ground 0?
Lacy Schoen
Fabulous reminder, Jeff! Thanks so much for this amazing series on intention. It has really helped me sharpen my saw for the coming year. Much appreciated!