With New Year comes the pressure of reflection and setting resolutions. Everyone says it is like a blank slate on which you can create anything.
What new goals and ambitions do you want to pursue this year? What new habits do you want to inculcate? What do you want to let go of?
I have not done any of this yet this time. Partly it is because I did not get enough time for reflection.
But it is also because I am still trying to process the last year which was full of unpredictable events and situations.
One thing that I found useful for this was an Annual Review
Here is a simple template I used from Tiago Forte to do the annual review exercise. You can create a copy of the template which you can then use for your review.
Sharing some of my biggest lessons from 2022 which I uncovered while doing the exercise:
The path emerges when you take the first step
Following uncertainty and fear with courage is a precursor to living an authentic, rich life
Being kind to oneself is really underrated
Sometimes surrender is the way to go
Another interesting question in the template is, “What one word or phrase would you like to have as your theme this year?”
Here was my response: “Surrender to your intuition and the divine will.”
I honestly don’t know what it means or implies. But I hope I am able to follow or implement it at least partially.
For a long time, I have been struggling with the idea of ambition as I grapple with the concepts of surrender, awareness, and equanimity. Obsessive focus on the future at the expense of the present moment feels like a recipe for anxiety.
The article introduces the idea of holistic ambition to rethink the traditional meaning of ambition that is centered around success, rising, attainment, and accomplishments related to work
The author defines holistic ambition as,
“An intentional desire to be, become or create something new, better or different that is aligned with who we are and what we value.“
Under this definition, ambition is not just associated with some external achievement in the future. It is about how we experience it on a day-to-day basis.
Read the complete article to understand and learn how to cultivate holistic ambition