How I Conduct My Weekly Self-Assessment Review
So, what do you really want to do with your life?
It’s a tough question. Probably the hardest one you’ll ever have to answer in life.
For years my life was directed by external expectations from others.
Whether I like to admit that or not.
My source of energy came from brute force. By my early 30s, I discovered relying on sheer will alone was an unsustainable source of energy. It left me chronically anxious.
I didn’t clarify my purpose until I started a self-awareness practice. Start paying attention to what makes you curious and why you react to various circumstances in life the way you do.
I believe one of the easiest and most effective self-awareness methods is writing a weekly self-assessment review.
If you are serious about changing the course of your life, I know you can find an hour or so every week to put on the brakes of your life to see if you are headed in the direction you intended.
The Structure of My Weekly Self-Assessment Review
It doesn’t matter how you conduct your weekly review, it just matters that you do it. Consistency is also key, so you can measure your progress against your goals.
My weekly review is divided into three parts:
Part I: Primary Goal Assessment
Part II: Growth Habits Assessment
Part III: Creating a New Weekly Goal
The following is what works for me. The foundation of my weekly self-assessment monitors my four core growth habits that both sustain and replenish my source of energy:
1) Reflecting
2) Learning
3) Connecting
4) Creating
These are the habits that create value, move me toward my purpose and engage me with other people, so I can work and live on my terms.
Part 1: Primary Goal Assessment
My primary goal for the week isn’t necessarily a specific achievement, but rather a theme for guiding my actions for the week.
It provides focus on a goal that will have the biggest impact on my life or work.
The biggest benefit of theming my week is that it liberates me from the daily “to-do lists” that used to dominate my life. They made me feel like I was never getting enough done and constantly running out of time.
Now I look at my daily tasks in the context of my weekly goal. It provides breathing room for the chaos of life that inevitably happens.
My bad days get balanced out by my good days, making me feel more satisfied with my life and work at the end of each week.
A weekly perspective also reveals patterns in my thoughts and behaviors more clearly. It provides me with more examples, experiences and data about my track record and adjustments I need to make to my habits.
My biggest lesson? I’m a much better judge of my time weekly than on a daily basis!
Part 2: Growth Habits Assessment
Life is growth. It comes from having a clear purpose and challenging yourself. I measure my growth by whether or not I’m creating value for others.
It’s amazing how easily we humans can get so easily distracted from our goals and often fail to live up to our values.
If all your actions are reactions to external forces, you aren’t living your life intentionally based on your core values.
You are unknowingly outsourcing all your decisions to others and taking no personal responsibility for your actions.
You are stuck in survival mode. You aren’t growing. You are just existing. You are stuck.
From all my research, interviews and life experiences, the most successful people throughout the ages in every field have been able to direct their lives from within by instituting some sort of regular self-reflection practice in their lives.
It’s an opportunity to check in with yourself to see if your actions and habits are in alignment with your purpose and your values.
Following are the three core growth habits I monitor each week to measure my development and to create value for others.
#1 Connecting
You need to constantly expand your community of connections.
Even if you consider yourself an introvert, humans evolved to work together. If you want to grow, you need to build community.
The popular myth in American culture of the rugged individualist is a false one.
There is no such thing as a “self-made” man or woman. They may provide a vision or leadership, but trust me they had a lot of help turning their ideas into reality.
Too often we stay in the comfort zone of our existing social and professional circles.
No doubt they are an important source of emotional support, but growth comes from being challenged by new people with different ideas.
I connect with people on a weekly basis for three primary reasons:
A) To learn from them.
I allow my curiosities to introduce me to new people. I connect with people based on mutual interests. I’m seeking new friends, not just “connections”.
B) To help them.
It’s amazing how much faster you can grow in almost anything in life when you put your focus on others and not on yourself.
I participate in a weekly mastermind group. Honestly, I learn things I never knew I needed to learn from the calls when I’m helping someone else work through their challenges instead of mine!
C) To get unstuck.
We all get stuck in our own heads. Do you know the fastest way to get unstuck? Talk it out with someone you trust!
My mom was a huge advocate of getting things off your chest and getting problems out into the open, so they didn’t fester inside your head. The process was often difficult, but darn it, it worked!
We always think engaging with someone means offering our help, but I have learned a more powerful method of engagement is simply asking for help.
People love to feel appreciated and to know they are important in your life.
Staying inside our own heads is probably our biggest productivity suck.
Next time you feel stuck, talk it out and save yourself a ton of time and energy!
#2 Learning
Learning is a lifelong pursuit. It doesn’t stop with formal education. Sorry!
Our economy is changing so rapidly, we constantly need to acquire new knowledge and learn new skills.
At the same time, life seems to hand out lessons when you least expect them. Sometimes those are the most important lessons.
They shed light on areas of my life that need improvement or adjustments. My self-reflection practice has made me more aware of these moments and how to pay attention to them.
Too many of us don’t enjoy learning because we’ve never been provided the opportunity to discover how we really like to learn.
To begin your learning habit, choose something you are really curious about and then experiment with different methods of learning to discover how you enjoy learning.
#3 Creating
We all have to show our work now. It’s no longer enough to just talk about it. Just as artists have portfolios of their work, the rest of us need to follow suit.
One of the number reasons so many people feel miserable in their work is because of a lack of creativity and a desire to create value.
Guess what? The economy where you can hide behind your resume and derive your self-worth from corporate brands is fading away.
What I love most about creating original work is the opportunity to put my own take on something. It’s an expression of my core values. It also enables me to engage with others in a deeper way that challenges me to grow.
Let me be clear, when I write about some of the stuff I “create,” it’s far from perfection. Very far. It’s more of a continuous rough draft of experimentation!
Real creation is all about the freedom to fail and to learn from your past efforts. Just go for it!
As you might have guessed, each of these activities is intertwined and feed off each other.
Practicing these three core habits (plus the habit of self-refection) is not just the engine of my life, but yours too.
Humans evolved as a species to imagine things that never previously existed and to bring those ideas to life by working together. No matter how sophisticated our technology becomes it won’t rewire those basic instincts.
Download our Daily Growth Journal to start practicing these growth habits.
Part 3: Creating a New Weekly Goal
My primary goal for the week isn’t necessarily a specific achievement, but rather a theme for guiding my actions for the week.
Sometimes my goal for the upcoming week is immediately obvious.
When it’s not, I use the following method for devising my goal:
First, I consult with my three-year goals. Currently, it’s to:
help 1,000 people work on their terms
renovate the house I recently bought
grow the economy of North Adams, MA (where I now call home)
build a meaningful relationship with a woman who enjoys travel as much as I do.
This helps bring deeper intention to both my daily and weekly actions, so I can live in closer alignment with my larger goals and purpose.
Second, I assess all my obligations in the week ahead. I may have a fairly clear schedule, I might have a lot of meetings or I might be going on vacation.
This helps me assess how much time and energy I will have available to me in the week ahead. Sometimes I just have to let go and other times I need to be more rigid. Every week is a little different.
Third, I review my previous week’s accomplishments. I may have had a great week and feel I need to stay on track to take advantage of the momentum I created or it may have been a less productive week indicating I might need to reassess and switch gears.
Time to Start Your Own Weekly Review
If you read this far, you knew this was coming!
Whether you are stuck, struggling to find purpose in your work or having trouble getting your business idea off the ground, a weekly review will drop some hard knowledge on you by forcing you to get honest with yourself.
two simple actions to get started:
1) Write down something you really want to change in how you work.
2) Now write down the three most important habits you need to practice each day to make that change happen.
Either you want to change the direction of your life or you want to blame someone else for what ails you.
I have discovered the latter is a complete waste of time.
When I have focused 100% of my energy on the former good stuff happens in my life.
It can for you too.
Check out our 12-Week Self Assessment Challenge to learn more about yourself to design work that works for you.
