Set Your Own Agenda for 2019

Set Your Own Agenda for 2019

by Judy Klipin

If you are anything like many of the people in my immediate orbit, you have found yourself limping towards the end of the year feeling more than a little dazed and confused.

How did we get to the end of the year so quickly?

And, at the same time, why did it take so long?

Why do I feel so tired and depleted?

Why does everything feel so hard and scary?

What the &#$&^#@^ is going on out there?

And why haven’t I done anything I set out to do in January?

Without a doubt, much of the instability and insecurity we feel is due to the craziness which is going on in the world around us. We are living in precarious and unpredictable times and we can’t help but be affected by them.

But/and it is also true that many of us have a tendency to be a little more reactive than proactive. We are easily destabilised and thrown off our own path. We tend to let the people around us set the agenda rather than sticking to our own plan – often to our detriment. If someone suggests something, we go along with it. If someone wants our help, we give it. Too often, we allow the people and events around us to set our agendas.

I call this tendency to do things for others at our own expense being ‘others-centred’ and I believe it is at the root of much of the burnout I see all around me. We are others-centred when we put everyone else in the centre of our lives, and ourselves on the periphery. We are others-centred when we suspend our own priorities to meet the demands of others.

When we are others-centred we spend all our energy outside of ourselves. We find ourselves meeting everyone else’s needs and not our own. And then we get to the end of the year and realise that we have not achieved the things we identified as being important for us to achieve.

In times of uncertainty and (let’s be honest) craziness, it is more important than ever to have a clear and strong personal map. An inner GPS that helps to guide and steer us. That helps us to navigate every detour and obstacle that we encounter and keeps bringing us back to our own chosen path.

If you want to meet your own goals and needs, you need to set your own agenda. You need to set aside time to think about what you would like to achieve and why. If you have a clear idea of what your personal short, medium and long-term priorities are, you are much, much more likely to honour those priorities and achieve the goals you set for yourself along the way.

A wise man* said, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

In 2019, I invite you to get clear on where you want to go and thoughtfully choose the road or roads that will get you there.

*Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland

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