The gift of inspiration
This week’s email has two parts: reflection and inspiration.
1. Reflection
This year’s end-of-year reflection deviated from my norm. The process I took on was simple, yet effective in acknowledging my year and planning for the future.
It looks at only three questions:
What did you like this year?
What is wanting?
What do you wish for?
I love that this process avoids looking at what needs to change. It puts down the disempowering tendency to anchor changes on what isn’t working and instead paints a possibility for the future, regardless of current reality.
The first question takes a look at what’s working. Our brains are hardwired to protect us by finding danger. Asking “What did you like?” disrupts that tendency. A vision appended to what already works is more powerful than one attached to what’s not working.
The second question invites you to name what you are wanting. Your desires can be ways you want to be and feel or achievements you’d like to pursue. What does ideal look like?
The third question reserves space for moonshot ideas. The tricky part with naming what you wish for is detaching from your tendency to wonder whether something is realistic or achievable. Put that tendency to rest when approaching this question.
I did this process to mark the transitions of the years and to enter the year ahead with intention. This set of questions has limitless applications. For example, At Inside Out Incubator, we use this as a template for retrospectives on new initiatives or endeavors as a business.
2. Inspiration
When women come together, brilliance emerges. An unexpected reward of gathering groups of women together to discuss leadership is how much the women inspire one another. Here’s a collection of what inspired us this year.
Page turners
“Untamed” reminded us we are cheetahs.
Alicia Keys invited us to explore the depths of our truth.
We learned the master’s tools will never help dismantle the master’s house.
Adrienne Maree Brown shifted our view of strategy and change.
Cassandra Speaks asked us to see the risk in taking the predominant culture’s stories at face value.
Podcasts on Repeat
Brene Brown unlocked us and dared us to lead.
Glennon Doyle saw that we can do hard things.
We saw that we were Under the Influence.
Music We Couldn’t Get Enough Of
Activism Opportunities
Not one but two ways to participate in changing the world.
Call for conversation:
What’s one thing that inspired you this year? Ask ONE woman in your life what inspired her. Give yourselves the gift of shared inspiration.
Shine On,
Alicia