On Track - A time for reflection

It’s been another year many of us might prefer to forget. As 2021 draws to a close, the fatigue and mental exhaustion is palpable.

It’s no surprise that mustering some positivity for the year ahead may prove difficult.

However, it’s important, for our own mental health and wellbeing, and job satisfaction, to try to move past the feelings of doom and gloom and find the positive takeaways and causes for celebration from 2021. It’s a process that offers important opportunities for growth and change.

Because while 2021 was probably not a year when you achieved standard career milestones, there are always accomplishments to acknowledge, on the personal and professional fronts. Taking stock of them not only helps us to appreciate the enormity of what we have experienced, living through a global pandemic; it can also inspire us to move into 2022 with renewed hope and energy.

Sometimes the wins we overlook are the ones most worth noting. Let’s not discount the achievement of keeping on top of work, home-schooling or study; or maintaining our health and wellbeing and keeping our communities safe in the face of a highly virulent disease. Even continuing to do your job, meet customers’ needs, maintain professional relationships and support your colleagues can be considered successes of 2021, when the continued uncertainty made it difficult to make confident choices.

Now is also a perfect time to reflect on those things that didn’t quite go according to plan – and thinking about what we can usefully learn to navigate similar challenges in the future. How did your mindset serve you this year? Could a different way of working reduce the pressure you may have felt from impending deadlines? Were there opportunities you missed and why?

A critical review of the year can boost our self-awareness in a number of ways. It helps to identify gaps in our skills and knowledge, and prompts us to consider new processes, ways of thinking and being, that can better serve ourselves, the people we love and our employers.

Sitting with this knowledge and processing it can help to inform and realign our goals, and even enable us to find new satisfaction in our existing roles. By recognising the areas of our personal and professional development that need work, we can discover new focus and direction. And even small shifts are capable of making big inroads.

So as we count down the days of 2021 why not take some time out to reflect deeply on the year you’ve had – the good, the bad and the ugly? It’s a powerful exercise before you hit the reset button for 2022.

* Anna Dellow is a member of the UNE team responsible for the Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice - postgraduate courses that can be tailored to suit your individual career ambitions.