For about 5 years in a row, the last time being in 2018, I re-posted this blog.  A colleague told me a week ago that she revisits it every year and asked me to speak to her organisation about it.  So I decided to post it again with some updated thoughts.   Those who know me well know that I cannot live without my green tea and my dark chocolate. Whilst attempting to reduce its influence on my life, dark chocolate still holds its own on my Five Essential Foods list. Having said this, I’ve become a coffee drinker in the past few years, but Green Tea and Chocolate are still close to my heart! I’d love you to share this idea with your network…a great way to wrap the year, perhaps do a reset, and refocus for 2024. Enjoy! Your brain, over it’s lifetime, will hold up to 1 quadrillion pieces of information.   It takes in around 11 million bits of information every second, but is only aware of around 40 million.  It has selective attention – it makes choices on what to stop and pay attention to and notice and what to ignore, and these choices are based on data from past experiences and choices (your brain learns what you are interested in) and what it believes is or might be meaningful for you – in other words, your goals.  Of course it also pays attention to things that it feels may be a physical or social ‘threat’ to you as priority. The RAS (Reticular Activating System) is a part of your brain that plays a role in your sleep-wake transition, wakefulness and behaviour … but for the purpose of this article, it also tunes your attention, regulates behaviour and drives motivation. In simple terms, it makes decisions on what stimuli make it through to your brain and get attention.  The issue to consider is whether the choices your RAS is making are useful for you! In the absence of any direction from you, the choices and decisions your RAS makes will be…

• random, or
• based on your past instructions or interests or random thoughts, OR
• in line with a more primitive decision-making set of instructions designed to ensure your survival.

In light of this, taking the time teach year to give my RAS the ‘gift of guidance’ in the form of a meaningful ‘theme’ for the year has served me well.  For example, my theme back in 2014 was ‘PROFILE’– I wanted to raise the profile of my business and my expertise to attract new clients. What happened was three-fold:

1. I started to come across (and pay attention to) more opportunities to raise or contribute to my business and professional profile.
2. I was more proactive in making decisions that supported that particular outcome over other potential outcomes, and it helped me to make decisions that would distract me from the focus I wanted.
3. I was more likely to act on such opportunities than I would have been in the past.

As a result, I more easily achieved my business objectives than I had anticipated. In the absence of a well-thought out ‘theme’ I would probably not have paid as much. Or any attention to the opportunities. Or I may have tended to continue to make decisions and choices similar to the previous year (stay in my comfort zone). Or I may have failed to overcome my inertia on acting on the opportunities due to a desire to protect myself from the risk of doing something new and different. In 2017 my theme was ‘Leading Humans’.  At the time I felt a passion for becoming one (a better version of myself), and for creating them, so they can in turn lead them!  During the year I changed the name of my business to Leading Humans and now have an even clearer focus on where to next for me and my work. Over the last three years, the specifics I had in mind didn’t necessarily appear precisely as intended, but something else of equal value did. It was the fact that I was on a journey and had a thematic end in mind that counted. The fact that the goal wasn’t so specific also let me off the hook so I didn’t get caught up in ‘failure’. Your word or theme serves as a useful decision-making criteria. Does this opportunity or focus align with my theme? Doing new, great stuff is difficult for the human brain and requires deliberate attention and undesirable (according to the brain) effort. So, to make this a little easier, I encourage you to take some time TODAY to start providing some guidance for your RAS this next year.  This will take time.  You can start with the process below, but remember, it will evolve over time.  You will KNOW the right word or phrase lands – you will feel the excitement and clarity. Here is my SEVEN STEP process to get you started… FIRST…take some time out and head to a café where you can indulge in coffee and cake (or green tea and dark chocolate in my case – there it is – finally the reference to the title), and a notebook or device or small whiteboard depending on your personal process for scribbling and creating! THEN…just reflect on what you want—big picture 1/3/5 years from now, how last year went, what needs to be different, what will give you the biggest bang for your buck this year, what you don’t want to happen this year, where you want to be in December… Create a vision board of scribbles and key words—WHATEVER takes your reflection fancy. AVOID lists and lengthy prose – use bubbles and key words and pretty pictures. You might like to do a KNOW Assessment (click here to download the instructions) to help your thinking.  Do this… SO YOU CAN…land on a series of tangible and intangible goals that excite you! Let your imagination go here…don’t hold back. You need to zoom in to some specifics before you zoom out again to find your theme (note…these goals must EXCITE you).  Side bar – it’s quite good to do this with others – friends, family or your team. NOW YOU NEED TO…take a step back and consider the shift or change or ONE THING that is going to make a difference and help you to achieve these goals – what has been the barrier in the past, what has gotten in the way, or what have you failed to do enough of or well enough. Write down a few ideas and order another cupcake or dark chocolate thingy. AND THEN…forget it all for a while… That’s enough for now. Stop thinking about it and take a few days to let your brain percolate over this. Add to your notes as ideas come. Discuss it over more coffee. Eventually, the WORD or THEME will hit you when you least expect it, and when it does… PROCLAIM TO THE WORLD…write it, blog about it, draw it, figure out what it looks like everyday, share it with your team and discuss what it means for you and them. Immerse yourself in it, set mindful reminders to make sure it is in front of mind. Do whatever you need to do to clearly instruct your RAS that THIS IS IT FOR 2018…this is our (meaning you and your brain’s) goal, our influencing context, our foundation, our driver. Hardwire it into your RAS – then get on with your year. And finally… TEST YOURSELF and PIVOT…At the end of a meeting or conversation ask yourself…did I engage with my theme? Set device reminders to make sure you check in and reconnect with it regularly. If things aren’t quite working out, then PIVOT – make a small change in direction or energy to keep you on track. It’s OK to let your theme evolve. At the end of the day/month etc, diarise a green tea and dark chocolate meeting with yourself and/or your team to reflect on how your theme is going. The BIG TEST is whether the theme is influencing your professional decisions and behaviours. If not, it’s probably not the right theme, or you are not really committed to it – just interested in the idea of it! If this is the case, change it, or get off your butt and commit to it. My word for 2024 is ‘REINVENTION’ and it evolved from three words – Leverage, Legacy and Longevity.  Watch this space! Good luck. I hope it works for you like it works for me. Go now and get that chocolate …