December 3, 2025 • 33 mins
Some years slip by in a blur, and others demand you stop and ask yourself why certain moments changed you more than you expected. This was one of those years for me. So in the first episode of this two-parter, I sit down with my good friend and ABC broadcaster Lisa Leong to compare the tools, questions and rituals we each used to make sense of 2025 - including the surprises neither of us saw coming.
If you're craving a clearer, kinder way to understand what actually shaped your year, this conversation will give you plenty to explore.
Lisa and I discuss:
- Lisa’s favourite reflection tool: the Agile Retrospective
- The energy audit I’m doing with my husband, including what energised us, what drained us, and the surprising things that lit us up.
- How I use an interviewing GPT to challenge my thinking, dig deeper and unpack problems.
- The Life Flow exercise: how mapping highs and lows reveals patterns.
- How the people around us shaped our year - who influenced us most, and who we influenced.
- The importance of letting go and deciding what emotional or practical baggage you don’t want to carry into the next year.
KEY QUOTES
“I still think with these reflection pieces, you should just go with what comes to you naturally, because it’s when we overthink things that we get away from a true reflection.”
“Looking back on a year is never really about the events themselves, it’s about what they reveal.”
Connect with Lisa Leong on Instagram and LinkedIn. Listen to her show This Working Life, and
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some years don't unfold the way you expect, and when
you finally pause long enough to look back, you realize
the things that shaped you weren't always those big milestones.
They were the tiny moments of energy gained, energy last,
and the choices that you made when no one was watching. Today,
(00:22):
I'm sitting down with my very good friend and ABC
broadcaster Lisa ly On to unpack our methods for reflecting
on the year that was twenty twenty five. If you've
ever wanted a clearer, kinder, more structured way to understand
your year in terms of what worked, what didn't, and
(00:43):
what actually mattered, this conversation will give you tools that
you can use right away. Welcome to How I Work,
a show about How It's rituals and strategies for optimizing
your date. I'm your host, doctor Amantha imber.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So, Lisa, you're back. I think it's fair to say.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That you and I are self development junkies, and we
love a bit of structure and reflection and all that
sort of good stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yes, let me just stop and reflect on what you
just said and my behavior throughout that. How's I listening? Yes?
I agree.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
What we plan to do is we're going to do
a two parter, and today we're going to be looking
at how are we both reflecting on the year that
has been twenty twenty five, because I know we've both
got different ways of approaching it. And then in part
two of this episode, we're going to look at how
can you set yourself up for a really great twenty
twenty six? So let's get into this. I think we
(01:53):
both use the term retro like, let's do a retrospective
on twenty twenty five? Yes, So tell me, Lisa, how
are you approaching this?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So I have different ones that I use for different years,
and I can talk about the ones that I discarded
and why I discarded them for this year later, but
first the one that I chose for this year. So
I've actually been using it quite regularly to just check
in with how I've been going on projects, in particular
my radio shows. So it's called the retrospective. It comes
(02:27):
from Agile, and it's very well known as a quadrant
kind of way of looking at things. So I'll describe it.
So it's what went well, what did we learn? What
would we do differently? And then in the fourth quadrant,
I use something a bit different what still puzzles us.
(02:48):
And so the way you usually use it is you
might experiment with something and do a sprint, so that's
a very short way of testing something, and then you
check in and you do a retrospective on how this
sprint went. And the reason why it's so powerful amanther
is that when you do it as a team, instead
of somebody having to give you direct feedback on how
(03:12):
you went or things you would change, because you're actually
focusing on the project itself and just asking these brilliant questions.
It comes out but all sort of bubbles up. Does
that makes sense? And even when I do it on myself,
I find that it keeps me off the hook a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So this is something that you do at work in teams,
and also you basically take that same process and use
it for yourself when you're doing solo reflection on the year.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, And the reason why it's useful for doing things
through the year is because at the start of the
year might be trying something different and you want to
just know how it goes. So I actually launched a
radio broadcast version of my show at the beginning of
the year, right, And so I really wanted to make
sure that we were testing and learning, and so after
(03:59):
every show we did a retrospective, me and my producer.
So every week, every week, right after the episode, we
would literally do a retrospective. And it was really great
because then we could tweak things. And so I've just
found it so useful. I thought, you know what, I'm
going to use this for the whole year. So instead
of just asking what went well for a particular episode,
(04:23):
I actually asked myself, well, taking a step back, now,
what went well? What did I learn? What would I
do differently? And what still puzzles me?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So when you're taking that process and thinking it to
reflect on twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Five, how are you going to do that?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Like?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Where are you going to be? Are you going to
be on your own?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Will you be with your daughter Billy?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Like?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
What paint a picture of what that's going to look like.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
So my first pass was I was sitting in a
hotel room because I was traveling, and I thought, do
you know what, this is the perfect time to reflect
because I did need a bit of quiet time. I
still think with these reflection pieces that you should actually
just go with what comes to you naturally. Because I
think it's when we overthink things that we get away
(05:07):
from a true reflection. So I actually just, you know,
wrote down all the things that really occurred to me first,
and then I pay attention to, Oh, that's really interesting
that I didn't put that in what went well, because
I think you pay attention to that as well, because
maybe it's lesser of importance than you think in doing
these retrospectives. And the reason why you would do it
(05:29):
individually first, or do it with post it notes if
you're doing it with another person is to avoid group think,
because it's incredible how even the vibes of someone looking
at you as you're suggesting something can actually put you off.
And so even if you ended up doing it with
your partner or your best friend, I still think doing
it yourself first and then doing it quickly going with
(05:53):
your first feelings is interesting and instructive. What do you think.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I've got couple of processes that I am using, So
let me talk about where they're both inspired by. So
one of the processes that I have adapted, I guess
for myself and my husband, we're going to do this together.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I don't think i've told him that no I think
I have surprise he's into this.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So I don't know if you're familiar with the work
of Bill Burnett and.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Dave Evans, Yes, design your Life.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So Designing Your Life is very very well known books.
The Stanford professors, they teach design thinking, and then they
decided to apply design thinking principles, which are traditionally applied
to innovation in workplaces, to our lives. And they've got
a new book coming out called How to Live a
Meaningful Life. I'm actually trying to get them on the show,
(06:48):
but I love their approach, I love their thinking. And
so what I did actually is I worked with AI
and I prompted them to take some of their concepts
but also to you know, weave in some of the
things that I felt were important.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So it's a bit of a hybrid process.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So I was like a partner, like a coach.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So prompted AI to take on the persona of those
professors and their work and prompted it to just you know,
capture their work. And then I had a few things
that I wanted to put in that process, and so
together I worked with AI to come up with something.
And then another process that I reckon I'm going to
(07:28):
steal from because I haven't done this for reflection process yet.
It's called the Year Compass, and if you Google your compass,
I will put a link to this in the show notes.
But it's been around for many years and haven't you Okay,
So there's a pdf booklet that you can download. It's free,
and it has all these really great prompting questions to
do a retro on the year that has been and
(07:49):
also future project think about into the year that will be,
which of course we'll go into in part two.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So let me talk.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
About some of the things that I've got from that
AI kind of meshed approach. So energy has been a
very big focus of twenty twenty five for me because
I've been working on my fifth book, The Energy Game,
and that is coming out to mid twenty twenty six.
So one of the things that myself and my husband
will be doing is an energy audit where we are
(08:23):
going to reflect on a few things. So we're going
to reflect on what were the things that energized us
in twenty twenty five, which which is pretty broad and
you know, thinking about all the important categories like work
and personal life and family, I'm going to think about
what drained us, what gave us flow, the things that
we resented doing, what we avoided doing, and just what
(08:46):
lit us up unexpectedly.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yes, and as you said, so this is for everything.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
This is not just free thing. Yeah, not just work.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So yeah, meeting, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's so important.
And then I think the process of comparing notes will
be really interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
So you're obviously going to do it privately.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We're going to do it privately, Yes, so privately individually.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
First, are you led to comment on the other person,
like or is it just you? I think we'll be
in the same location when we do it.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Well, I was thinking, okay, so it wasn't meant to
be you drained me. I was actually thinking, I noticed
your energy was drained when oh I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I love that build.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay, so yes, so what are our observations about the
other person's energy? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Really, because sometimes you don't notice.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, sorry, that's true.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
The other thing that I reckon I will do is
when I'm trying to unpack a problem. And this has
become a bit of a I guess a workflow of
mine this year, and you know, sometimes I will sit
with the teammate or I was with my husband or
a friend. But other times, what I will do when
I feel like I just need someone prompting me is
(09:56):
I will use credit a bunch of GPTs this year,
but I'll use this one that isn't interviewing GPT and
I will get it to interview me because that way
you've got someone prompting you and digging deeper, and it
just like it means that you don't have to.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
It's so much example of this when you have to
make a decision, is it or oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Generally I've used it when I'm problem solving or like
when I'm trying to think creatively about something.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Occasionally I've used it for reflection.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You need to interview me, but certainly for this energy audit,
I think I will also do.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I love that, don't you, Because maybe you did questions
last year and you found them really useful. I think
you had about one thousand, two hundred and fifty nine
questions that you found you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, so that's how you're going to approach this brainstorming energy.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I also want to share some of the things from
the year compass because there's I mean, it's very comprehensive.
I've just sort of highlighted a few things that I
will share and I'll just I'll shuffle these papers around.
So one of the things that I really like is
it asks you to go through your calendar week by
week and write out what were the most important significant
(11:11):
things that happened. And I love this because obviously recency
bias is a real thing where we remember the things
that were you know, that happened recently, and we forget
about everything else, particularly in the middle.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Of the year.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
That helps me a lot with life.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Having a calendar, and I just like being a.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Gold fishing guy.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Today's a great day totally. So I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So I'm going to actually open my calendar and sit
down so that I can write out the significant things
that happen.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I think I know what you're going to say.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
What am I going to say?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I think, because it's something that I think we should share,
is you have a process that you write about in
your book, this working Life, and I can't like the
lifeline is that what it's called.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I can't believe we knew exactly what I was going
to Okay, so yes, it's called the life flow. That's
what I Yeah, that's what I call it. But I
think it's got other names. I thought I created it,
and then I realized, you know, when you I'm like,
oh Jesus, I've created this thing, and then yeah, it's
a very common thing. So just google life flow and
(12:16):
you'll find it. But I was going to say, this
was one of the things that I had well rejected
decided not to do because I do it every year.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Can you explain what the process is and why you've
decided not to do it?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So the life flow is when you go through from
as far I'm going to tell you the one that
you normally do, So you go as far back as
you can remember to today, and you actually do it
in increments of time on the horizontal line, and then
subjective levels of happiness on the vertical line, and you're
(12:50):
basically mapping out the highs and the lows of your
life on the big milestones. So I use it as
a retrospective in the sense that I use it usually
at the end of the year to map out the
highs and the lows using my calendar, which I have
converted to you know, how you have the month view.
(13:12):
So even though I have my Google calendar, I actually
every day will just write the main things that happened
in the day so that I can do the life
flow at the end of the year on the month calendar.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That is so organized.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I love that, and often as I go I might
put things in either red danger or you know, green happiness,
just so that I remember those things, and then I
map it out and I do the highs and lows.
And the reason why I didn't do it this year
is because in the middle of the year, I was
(13:47):
feeling like it was literally the worst year of my life.
And now I have a different feeling about it, and
I actually don't want too much to go backwards into
the past because the past has happened for me. I
actually wanted my retrospective to be forward looking. And the
(14:09):
amazing thing about asking what went well, what did I learn?
What would I do differently, is there's questions are actually
forward thinking reflections, and so that's why I've chosen, just
for this point in my life to take a different
approach to the year that was.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I like that view. I think that's cool.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's cool for listeners, though maybe you know, be open
to that because I think it's.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
A very good exercise. It's so powerful and why I
have used in every other year because first of all,
as you said, you forget what has happened, and also
you can really spot trends. So as you do the
highs and the lows of the year, and you reflect
on what made that a low for me? What was
I doing? Who was I weird? Where was I And
(14:56):
then you do it with the highs, and if you've
done it year on year like I have been doing,
then you really do get a sense of am I
just repeating myself? Or is this just life? Sometimes life
is life? And so how did I bring myself to that?
And even if it was a difficult situation, did I
behave better than in the past? You know, I think
(15:17):
that's a win.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I really like that exercise because of the themes that
it shows, Like I think for me and I reckon
I will do that exercise is that I know for me,
I feel like, look, I know that how energized I
am through spending time with friends, and I know that
when I can be organized enough to bring my friends
(15:38):
together and they're kind of, you know, all in disparate
groups and areas of life. I'm not one of those
people that has that.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
You know, that group of six.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
People and we've all grown up together and you know
that we all holiday together.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
That's not me.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
But it takes a lot of work organizing my friends
because they're all really busy, and I guess everyone's really busy,
but they've been some of the most real warding times
of this year, and through going through the life flow process,
I think it's a really good way to be reminded of.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Okay, that took a lot of work, but the payoff
was incredibly high.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Like you know, I think about you know, it was
like a birthday lunch that you were at this year
that took a bit of organizing, but it was like
it was one of the most special days and I'm
so glad I did it.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
That if you didn't pay attention to that and you
just let life roll on for next year with all
the projects that you have on, then you could easily
miss something that was an obvious high for you and me. Yeah. Yeah,
So I think that's a beautiful reason to do this
reflective piece the life flow or the past year. Do
(16:49):
they do the highs and lows in their version.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
No interestingly, what they say, these are the instructions. So
going through your calendar, go through last year's calendar week
by week.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know it's if you're doing this in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
If you see an important event, family gathering, friendly get together,
or a significant project, write it down here so they
don't actually get you thinking about the highs and lows there.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
How do you reflect on it? Then?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, Well, like there's lots of other questions, I think
the life flow process is better. Coming up next, Lisa
and I will be talking about more powerful questions and
tools that you can use to unpack the year that was.
And I'm also going to be sharing my answers to
the biggest surprises of twenty twenty five because I had
some big ones, which incidentally is a very useful reflection
(17:38):
question along with the power of deciding what to let
go of and what to leave behind in the year
that was. If you're looking for more tips to improve
the way you work can live, I write a short
weekly newsletter that contains tactics I've discovered that have helped
(17:58):
me personally. You can sign up for that at Amantha
dot com. That's Amantha dot com so one of the
things that they ask you to do is there are
six sentences about my past year, so things like the
wisest decision I made, the biggest lesson I learned. One
(18:18):
sentence that I particularly like is the biggest surprise of
the year. And I really love that because oftentimes when
when I've just been naturally reflecting on the year that
has been, and you know, I really love twenty twenty
five for lots of reasons, but it was surprising some
of the really good things that happened.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Like and you're so organized, I can't believe anything slip.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Through the net to surprise you.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
But that Thine an example.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, look, I think one really big surprise was I've
spoken on this podcast, you know, on a few episodes
about just how horrible twenty twenty four was and that
the culture of Inventium was not the culture that I
knew and loved. And I think often when we're thinking
about the culture of an organization or the culture of
(19:08):
a team, that it's just like it takes there's years
to rebuild culture. But what I found this year is that,
you know, we made some changes, and literally as of January,
the culture felt different, and it just kept getting better
and better and better every month. That just kept getting better,
and it reminded me, and that surprised me because I've
(19:29):
seen this happen a couple of times before with my
journey with Inventium, that culture can rebound incredibly quickly, you know,
with some good decisions being made and with the right
people on board and with trust being there, and so,
you know, I just felt so buoyed by.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
That and witness seout that on so many different levels.
I think first of all, that it's heartening that culture
can change so quickly. And also what's happening for you, Amantha,
is often when you're made making really difficult decisions and
they're very complex, the hardening part is knowing that you
(20:06):
can make good decisions. Yeah. Yeah, Sometimes I reflect on
that and go, you know, I went through this process
and I just wasn't sure, but I made some hard
choices and I did everything that I could to make
it a good decision. But you never know. And so
I'm proud of how I made that decision, and I
(20:27):
know in myself that I can make good decisions because
sometimes I don't know. In the past, I might have
questioned the way I make decisions.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That is such a good point and you know what
like that really really resonates. Like one of the other
big surprises of this year is just how the AI
training and programs that invent Humors started offering, and we
started offering them late twenty twenty four and it's just
completely taken off. The business has grown, I think like
(20:58):
fourfolds or something crazy like that. And it's funny because
it was his decision that I wanted to make quite
some time ago, but I got quite a bit of pushback,
and I thought, well, maybe my instinct is wrong, and
there are some things that are different you know now
than you know a couple of years ago, when when
I really wanted to know, double down on AI. But
I kind of go, yeah, my instincts were really right there.
(21:20):
It was the right time. We had the right team
for it, We had the right mix of capability.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And it's kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
To because my decision making confidence was probably at an
all time low at the beginning of twenty twenty four, suspected,
which then led to, you know, a really tough year,
and so it is nice to take.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
You make smaller decisions to improve your decision making confidence,
like would you just be.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
That would be sensible. But I didn't end the.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Choice, really no, I had to just make a whole
lot of really big decisions, and that was one of
the big decisions.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Was there something that you had to say to yourself
to enable you to go with that intuition?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Well, I mean, I think in any kind of workplace
or in life, there are what some people refer to
as one way and two way door decisions, where the
two way door decisions, if you get.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It wrong, you can reverse back. Yes, and that's fine.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
That's the reverse back.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's the truck truck reversing.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
There are other decisions that are one way door decisions
where you make that decision and you really can't go back.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And so I definitely made some one way door decisions.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But the AI decision, I mean that was a series
of experiments, and so I think they were two way
door decisions much safer and really easy to test what
the appetite was.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So it just shows you how powerful doing this reflection
piece is because we got to this the nub of it,
which is actually about decision making and intuition and you know,
trusting yourself. There, Amantha, I think with some of these
big decisions, so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I don't need to set of time time to reflect,
We're just doing it now. Some other questions that this
is the year compass that gets you to think about
who are the three people who.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Influenced you most? And who were three people you influenced
the most? And I think they are two really interesting
questions to think about, because I mean, it reinforces just
how interconnected we are. And I like with the three.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
People who influenced you the most, Like I'm reminded of
that quote. It's you know, it's bit of cliche. You know,
you are the some of the you know, what is
it five people that you spend the most time with?
And I think that's really important. And I know for me,
like really the last couple of years has been a
bit of.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
A year of shedding, I would say.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
And you know, and as an only child, I always have
friends the family that you choose, I choose you.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I was lucky. Wasn't it that I set it back?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Would have been really awkward for the rest of this interview?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
But like, for example, you know, there were a couple
of people that were close friends that I thought, no,
like these relationships are not leaving me in a good state.
And so you know, when I think about the three
people who influenced you most, I feel like I've kind
of changed who in some ways. In some ways that
the inner circle has remained constant, but there have also
(24:21):
been some changes that.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think for me have have been healthy ones.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And so that's a really good prompt because often we
forget about the people. So it's nice to focus. And
the why you're asking that question makes me think that
you could put both good influence and bad influence.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I guess, yes, yes, you totally could.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I was just thinking good influence. Of course bad influence
as well, I think.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So, and I think paying attention to that, and you know,
bad influence, I mean that's in quotation marks because often
you know, people are just being themselves and it's how
we choose to interact with them. And some people's energy,
I mean, I know you love energy. It could be
good for someone else, but just not good for us.
So I think just looking at the people around us,
(25:06):
and you could widen that question then, so to look
at your circle in a circle and then think, okay,
so what were the interactions how did it make me feel?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
And I do love thinking about who were the three
people you influenced most? Because I know most, like both
of us were, We're very motivated by having a positive impact.
And I think you know our work that you know,
both our careers a careers that are designed to have
a positive impact on others.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And so I like the way that question gets you thinking.
How was it phrased again? Who were the three people
you influenced the most?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, and I think that would mop up our daughters.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
One percent, Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Lucky there a lucky then, But it's also I think
when you are a parent, and particularly a working parent,
it's easy to forget that our daughters are very much
of course, they are one of our answers.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And that's why I mentioned it. I think you know,
no to self. No, I've been very conscious about that
because my daughter's about to turn eighteen as well, so
you know, I'm just sort of in that beautiful period
where she is becoming her you know, the adult and
independent woman that she is, and so thinking about that.
(26:25):
And she has actually mentioned role modeling to me, which
is really where no matter what you say, it's how
you behave and so you know, thinking about that in
terms of a wide interpretation of influence as well. So
is it a halo or is it a shadow?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Okay, So back to the year Compass and a couple
of other things that I think are cool.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
How long would this will take? Because pages and age?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I know, I know, and you can see me like
leaping through the pages and skipping some So.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You're still going.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I know it's still going. And we haven't even got
to the looking ahead part.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So yeah, because have you ever done it?
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I've done parts of it, but you know what, I've
never done the whole thing front to back.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah, because that would actually take you a whole year
to do it, and then.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And nothing's happened and you've got nothing to reflect on
other than your repletion. Compass, in all seriousness, I think
they do have recommendations on their website, which is Yearcompass
dot com, and we'll link to that in the show notes.
I think they recommend half a day or a day
or something like that. And this is a process that
you can do on your own, with a group of friends,
(27:36):
with your partner, you know whoever. That's pretty flexible. So
a couple of other things in this process. One is
that there is a whole page about letting go, and
oh I love this, and it asks is there anything
you have to let go of before you can start
your next year?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Draw? All right, then think about it and let it
all go.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There's no interpretive dance. That's all very good.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
We're all carrying so much baggage at any given point
in time, and it's nice to go, what do I
actually want to leave behind?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
And you know, I'm doing this massive decluttering process anyway,
so emotional decluttering is part of that. And also what
a great question that I could just throw into the mix,
given that I'm decluttering my life. So I love this
so much and it's a hard one, but it's a
good one.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It is. Yeah. And one of the final things that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
It asks is it asks you to choose three words
to define your past year.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
About doing that as a process, Well, you know, often
I set an intention, which is a word or two
for the year ahead, So it makes sense to check
in and ask myself what words would describe it and
see if there's any gaps between what I thought my
word of the year was going to be mm hmm
and the year that was. I love that and interestingly,
(28:56):
as I mentioned, I think in the middle of the
year I would have used different words than the end
of the year. So I think that's that's not a
bad practice. I mean sometimes I think with those things,
if it comes naturally, all good, and well, if nothing comes,
I just don't think force it. What do you think,
because this is all meant to be helpful.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, I think if you choose to do this process,
you don't need to do it all. I found some
of the questions incredibly helpful and thought provoking, like some
of the ones that I've shared, And then there were
others that I just thought, I don't know that that's
not really inspiring much in me.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, and it may be the different years, different things emerge.
So it sounds like a good process. Yeah, to flip through.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I would love to note some of the retro tools
that you have discarded. And I can tell you one
thing that I totally failed at this year.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You might remember, you probably don't.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It was a year ago we recorded a conversation like
this to design a perfect twenty twenty five a good
twenty twenty five, And one of the things I think
you mentioned it, or maybe I did but it was
something that I committed to doing, was having.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
You're lucky I didn't remember this.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I remember it because it's literally on my wall.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
So I bought a calendar that is a big wall calendar.
It must be I don't know a one size that's
like really big, isn't it? And every day has a
little box. And what I was going to do is
I was going to every single day, right, just a
few words about the day, so that when I was
reflecting on the year, I could just have it all
(30:36):
that kind of what you do with your calendar.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
So you've brought it in and it's all filled.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Out, remember no, no, so is it still on your wall?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
It's still on my wall?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
How much is filled out?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Seven days worth?
Speaker 3 (30:50):
And it was it the first seven days or did
you randomly pick seven days in the year where you
felt like, right.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
It was the first seven days of the year, and
then maybe I did one or two more days towards
the end of the way.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Wow, you know this is a great you know an
equals one. But it's you know the news resolutions. How
long does it last?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
One week?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Exactly seven days? Doctor Amantha Imba has actually figured this out.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Go oh my gosh. Anyway, tell me, what are some
processes that maybe you've used in the past but you
decided not to use it for this year. Bit, but
you've got some value from the past.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah. So apart from the life flow exercise which I
had done, the other one which I found useful was
Don Price's three l's So what did I learn? What
did I love? And what did I loathe? And what
he says is that looking at what you loathe is
another way of doing the letting go exercise, because if
(31:43):
you really didn't like it, then if you want to
add something in which is actually long for so yeah,
so it's long what did you long for? And so
often if you can let go of something which is
in loath and then replace it for the long full
I think that's a beautiful process as well. It just
(32:05):
overlaps a little bit with the retrospective, so I thought
I don't need to do both. And also, you know,
every so often I'll just think, oh, no, actually I
really want to fill out this the foil. So that's
another one which is useful. And once again it's with
just feeling like, oh, what sort of tool do I
want to use and how deep do I want to
go as well.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, well, there's been heaps here for people to cherry
pick from. What we're going to do in the next
episode is talk about how we are future planning, yes
for the year. Looking back on a year is never
really about the events themselves, It's about what they reveal.
If you want to try something yourself, maybe just pick
(32:48):
one small entry point. Maybe start with what genuinely surprised
me this year. It is amazing where that one question
can take you. Now, make sure that you follow How
I Work wherever you listen to podcasts, because next week
Lisa and I will be sharing how we're preparing for
the year ahead and some more useful strategies and questions
(33:10):
to help make twenty twenty six a brilliant one.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Thank you for listening, and I will see you in
part two next week.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
If you like today's show, make sure you get follow
on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the Warrangery People, part of the Cooler Nation
Some years don't unfold the way you expect, and when
you finally pause long enough to look back, you realize
the things that shaped you weren't always those big milestones.
They were the tiny moments of energy gained, energy last,
and the choices that you made when no one was watching. Today,
(00:22):
I'm sitting down with my very good friend and ABC
broadcaster Lisa ly On to unpack our methods for reflecting
on the year that was twenty twenty five. If you've
ever wanted a clearer, kinder, more structured way to understand
your year in terms of what worked, what didn't, and
(00:43):
what actually mattered, this conversation will give you tools that
you can use right away. Welcome to How I Work,
a show about How It's rituals and strategies for optimizing
your date. I'm your host, doctor Amantha imber.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So, Lisa, you're back. I think it's fair to say.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That you and I are self development junkies, and we
love a bit of structure and reflection and all that
sort of good stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yes, let me just stop and reflect on what you
just said and my behavior throughout that. How's I listening? Yes?
I agree.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
What we plan to do is we're going to do
a two parter, and today we're going to be looking
at how are we both reflecting on the year that
has been twenty twenty five, because I know we've both
got different ways of approaching it. And then in part
two of this episode, we're going to look at how
can you set yourself up for a really great twenty
twenty six? So let's get into this. I think we
(01:53):
both use the term retro like, let's do a retrospective
on twenty twenty five? Yes, So tell me, Lisa, how
are you approaching this?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So I have different ones that I use for different years,
and I can talk about the ones that I discarded
and why I discarded them for this year later, but
first the one that I chose for this year. So
I've actually been using it quite regularly to just check
in with how I've been going on projects, in particular
my radio shows. So it's called the retrospective. It comes
(02:27):
from Agile, and it's very well known as a quadrant
kind of way of looking at things. So I'll describe it.
So it's what went well, what did we learn? What
would we do differently? And then in the fourth quadrant,
I use something a bit different what still puzzles us.
(02:48):
And so the way you usually use it is you
might experiment with something and do a sprint, so that's
a very short way of testing something, and then you
check in and you do a retrospective on how this
sprint went. And the reason why it's so powerful amanther
is that when you do it as a team, instead
of somebody having to give you direct feedback on how
(03:12):
you went or things you would change, because you're actually
focusing on the project itself and just asking these brilliant questions.
It comes out but all sort of bubbles up. Does
that makes sense? And even when I do it on myself,
I find that it keeps me off the hook a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So this is something that you do at work in teams,
and also you basically take that same process and use
it for yourself when you're doing solo reflection on the year.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, And the reason why it's useful for doing things
through the year is because at the start of the
year might be trying something different and you want to
just know how it goes. So I actually launched a
radio broadcast version of my show at the beginning of
the year, right, And so I really wanted to make
sure that we were testing and learning, and so after
(03:59):
every show we did a retrospective, me and my producer.
So every week, every week, right after the episode, we
would literally do a retrospective. And it was really great
because then we could tweak things. And so I've just
found it so useful. I thought, you know what, I'm
going to use this for the whole year. So instead
of just asking what went well for a particular episode,
(04:23):
I actually asked myself, well, taking a step back, now,
what went well? What did I learn? What would I
do differently? And what still puzzles me?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So when you're taking that process and thinking it to
reflect on twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Five, how are you going to do that?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Like?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Where are you going to be? Are you going to
be on your own?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Will you be with your daughter Billy?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Like?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
What paint a picture of what that's going to look like.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
So my first pass was I was sitting in a
hotel room because I was traveling, and I thought, do
you know what, this is the perfect time to reflect
because I did need a bit of quiet time. I
still think with these reflection pieces that you should actually
just go with what comes to you naturally. Because I
think it's when we overthink things that we get away
(05:07):
from a true reflection. So I actually just, you know,
wrote down all the things that really occurred to me first,
and then I pay attention to, Oh, that's really interesting
that I didn't put that in what went well, because
I think you pay attention to that as well, because
maybe it's lesser of importance than you think in doing
these retrospectives. And the reason why you would do it
(05:29):
individually first, or do it with post it notes if
you're doing it with another person is to avoid group think,
because it's incredible how even the vibes of someone looking
at you as you're suggesting something can actually put you off.
And so even if you ended up doing it with
your partner or your best friend, I still think doing
it yourself first and then doing it quickly going with
(05:53):
your first feelings is interesting and instructive. What do you think.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I've got couple of processes that I am using, So
let me talk about where they're both inspired by. So
one of the processes that I have adapted, I guess
for myself and my husband, we're going to do this together.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I don't think i've told him that no I think
I have surprise he's into this.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So I don't know if you're familiar with the work
of Bill Burnett and.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Dave Evans, Yes, design your Life.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So Designing Your Life is very very well known books.
The Stanford professors, they teach design thinking, and then they
decided to apply design thinking principles, which are traditionally applied
to innovation in workplaces, to our lives. And they've got
a new book coming out called How to Live a
Meaningful Life. I'm actually trying to get them on the show,
(06:48):
but I love their approach, I love their thinking. And
so what I did actually is I worked with AI
and I prompted them to take some of their concepts
but also to you know, weave in some of the
things that I felt were important.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So it's a bit of a hybrid process.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So I was like a partner, like a coach.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So prompted AI to take on the persona of those
professors and their work and prompted it to just you know,
capture their work. And then I had a few things
that I wanted to put in that process, and so
together I worked with AI to come up with something.
And then another process that I reckon I'm going to
(07:28):
steal from because I haven't done this for reflection process yet.
It's called the Year Compass, and if you Google your compass,
I will put a link to this in the show notes.
But it's been around for many years and haven't you Okay,
So there's a pdf booklet that you can download. It's free,
and it has all these really great prompting questions to
do a retro on the year that has been and
(07:49):
also future project think about into the year that will be,
which of course we'll go into in part two.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So let me talk.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
About some of the things that I've got from that
AI kind of meshed approach. So energy has been a
very big focus of twenty twenty five for me because
I've been working on my fifth book, The Energy Game,
and that is coming out to mid twenty twenty six.
So one of the things that myself and my husband
will be doing is an energy audit where we are
(08:23):
going to reflect on a few things. So we're going
to reflect on what were the things that energized us
in twenty twenty five, which which is pretty broad and
you know, thinking about all the important categories like work
and personal life and family, I'm going to think about
what drained us, what gave us flow, the things that
we resented doing, what we avoided doing, and just what
(08:46):
lit us up unexpectedly.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yes, and as you said, so this is for everything.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
This is not just free thing. Yeah, not just work.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So yeah, meeting, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's so important.
And then I think the process of comparing notes will
be really interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
So you're obviously going to do it privately.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We're going to do it privately, Yes, so privately individually.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
First, are you led to comment on the other person,
like or is it just you? I think we'll be
in the same location when we do it.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Well, I was thinking, okay, so it wasn't meant to
be you drained me. I was actually thinking, I noticed
your energy was drained when oh I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I love that build.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay, so yes, so what are our observations about the
other person's energy? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Really, because sometimes you don't notice.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, sorry, that's true.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
The other thing that I reckon I will do is
when I'm trying to unpack a problem. And this has
become a bit of a I guess a workflow of
mine this year, and you know, sometimes I will sit
with the teammate or I was with my husband or
a friend. But other times, what I will do when
I feel like I just need someone prompting me is
(09:56):
I will use credit a bunch of GPTs this year,
but I'll use this one that isn't interviewing GPT and
I will get it to interview me because that way
you've got someone prompting you and digging deeper, and it
just like it means that you don't have to.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
It's so much example of this when you have to
make a decision, is it or oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Generally I've used it when I'm problem solving or like
when I'm trying to think creatively about something.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Occasionally I've used it for reflection.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You need to interview me, but certainly for this energy audit,
I think I will also do.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I love that, don't you, Because maybe you did questions
last year and you found them really useful. I think
you had about one thousand, two hundred and fifty nine
questions that you found you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, so that's how you're going to approach this brainstorming energy.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I also want to share some of the things from
the year compass because there's I mean, it's very comprehensive.
I've just sort of highlighted a few things that I
will share and I'll just I'll shuffle these papers around.
So one of the things that I really like is
it asks you to go through your calendar week by
week and write out what were the most important significant
(11:11):
things that happened. And I love this because obviously recency
bias is a real thing where we remember the things
that were you know, that happened recently, and we forget
about everything else, particularly in the middle.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Of the year.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
That helps me a lot with life.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Having a calendar, and I just like being a.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Gold fishing guy.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Today's a great day totally. So I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So I'm going to actually open my calendar and sit
down so that I can write out the significant things
that happen.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I think I know what you're going to say.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
What am I going to say?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I think, because it's something that I think we should share,
is you have a process that you write about in
your book, this working Life, and I can't like the
lifeline is that what it's called.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I can't believe we knew exactly what I was going
to Okay, so yes, it's called the life flow. That's
what I Yeah, that's what I call it. But I
think it's got other names. I thought I created it,
and then I realized, you know, when you I'm like,
oh Jesus, I've created this thing, and then yeah, it's
a very common thing. So just google life flow and
(12:16):
you'll find it. But I was going to say, this
was one of the things that I had well rejected
decided not to do because I do it every year.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Can you explain what the process is and why you've
decided not to do it?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So the life flow is when you go through from
as far I'm going to tell you the one that
you normally do, So you go as far back as
you can remember to today, and you actually do it
in increments of time on the horizontal line, and then
subjective levels of happiness on the vertical line, and you're
(12:50):
basically mapping out the highs and the lows of your
life on the big milestones. So I use it as
a retrospective in the sense that I use it usually
at the end of the year to map out the
highs and the lows using my calendar, which I have
converted to you know, how you have the month view.
(13:12):
So even though I have my Google calendar, I actually
every day will just write the main things that happened
in the day so that I can do the life
flow at the end of the year on the month calendar.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That is so organized.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I love that, and often as I go I might
put things in either red danger or you know, green happiness,
just so that I remember those things, and then I
map it out and I do the highs and lows.
And the reason why I didn't do it this year
is because in the middle of the year, I was
(13:47):
feeling like it was literally the worst year of my life.
And now I have a different feeling about it, and
I actually don't want too much to go backwards into
the past because the past has happened for me. I
actually wanted my retrospective to be forward looking. And the
(14:09):
amazing thing about asking what went well, what did I learn?
What would I do differently, is there's questions are actually
forward thinking reflections, and so that's why I've chosen, just
for this point in my life to take a different
approach to the year that was.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I like that view. I think that's cool.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's cool for listeners, though maybe you know, be open
to that because I think it's.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
A very good exercise. It's so powerful and why I
have used in every other year because first of all,
as you said, you forget what has happened, and also
you can really spot trends. So as you do the
highs and the lows of the year, and you reflect
on what made that a low for me? What was
I doing? Who was I weird? Where was I And
(14:56):
then you do it with the highs, and if you've
done it year on year like I have been doing,
then you really do get a sense of am I
just repeating myself? Or is this just life? Sometimes life
is life? And so how did I bring myself to that?
And even if it was a difficult situation, did I
behave better than in the past? You know, I think
(15:17):
that's a win.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I really like that exercise because of the themes that
it shows, Like I think for me and I reckon
I will do that exercise is that I know for me,
I feel like, look, I know that how energized I
am through spending time with friends, and I know that
when I can be organized enough to bring my friends
(15:38):
together and they're kind of, you know, all in disparate
groups and areas of life. I'm not one of those
people that has that.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
You know, that group of six.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
People and we've all grown up together and you know
that we all holiday together.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
That's not me.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
But it takes a lot of work organizing my friends
because they're all really busy, and I guess everyone's really busy,
but they've been some of the most real warding times
of this year, and through going through the life flow process,
I think it's a really good way to be reminded of.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Okay, that took a lot of work, but the payoff
was incredibly high.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Like you know, I think about you know, it was
like a birthday lunch that you were at this year
that took a bit of organizing, but it was like
it was one of the most special days and I'm
so glad I did it.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
That if you didn't pay attention to that and you
just let life roll on for next year with all
the projects that you have on, then you could easily
miss something that was an obvious high for you and me. Yeah. Yeah,
So I think that's a beautiful reason to do this
reflective piece the life flow or the past year. Do
(16:49):
they do the highs and lows in their version.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
No interestingly, what they say, these are the instructions. So
going through your calendar, go through last year's calendar week
by week.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know it's if you're doing this in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
If you see an important event, family gathering, friendly get together,
or a significant project, write it down here so they
don't actually get you thinking about the highs and lows there.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
How do you reflect on it? Then?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, Well, like there's lots of other questions, I think
the life flow process is better. Coming up next, Lisa
and I will be talking about more powerful questions and
tools that you can use to unpack the year that was.
And I'm also going to be sharing my answers to
the biggest surprises of twenty twenty five because I had
some big ones, which incidentally is a very useful reflection
(17:38):
question along with the power of deciding what to let
go of and what to leave behind in the year
that was. If you're looking for more tips to improve
the way you work can live, I write a short
weekly newsletter that contains tactics I've discovered that have helped
(17:58):
me personally. You can sign up for that at Amantha
dot com. That's Amantha dot com so one of the
things that they ask you to do is there are
six sentences about my past year, so things like the
wisest decision I made, the biggest lesson I learned. One
(18:18):
sentence that I particularly like is the biggest surprise of
the year. And I really love that because oftentimes when
when I've just been naturally reflecting on the year that
has been, and you know, I really love twenty twenty
five for lots of reasons, but it was surprising some
of the really good things that happened.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Like and you're so organized, I can't believe anything slip.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Through the net to surprise you.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
But that Thine an example.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, look, I think one really big surprise was I've
spoken on this podcast, you know, on a few episodes
about just how horrible twenty twenty four was and that
the culture of Inventium was not the culture that I
knew and loved. And I think often when we're thinking
about the culture of an organization or the culture of
(19:08):
a team, that it's just like it takes there's years
to rebuild culture. But what I found this year is that,
you know, we made some changes, and literally as of January,
the culture felt different, and it just kept getting better
and better and better every month. That just kept getting better,
and it reminded me, and that surprised me because I've
(19:29):
seen this happen a couple of times before with my
journey with Inventium, that culture can rebound incredibly quickly, you know,
with some good decisions being made and with the right
people on board and with trust being there, and so,
you know, I just felt so buoyed by.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
That and witness seout that on so many different levels.
I think first of all, that it's heartening that culture
can change so quickly. And also what's happening for you, Amantha,
is often when you're made making really difficult decisions and
they're very complex, the hardening part is knowing that you
(20:06):
can make good decisions. Yeah. Yeah, Sometimes I reflect on
that and go, you know, I went through this process
and I just wasn't sure, but I made some hard
choices and I did everything that I could to make
it a good decision. But you never know. And so
I'm proud of how I made that decision, and I
(20:27):
know in myself that I can make good decisions because
sometimes I don't know. In the past, I might have
questioned the way I make decisions.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That is such a good point and you know what
like that really really resonates. Like one of the other
big surprises of this year is just how the AI
training and programs that invent Humors started offering, and we
started offering them late twenty twenty four and it's just
completely taken off. The business has grown, I think like
(20:58):
fourfolds or something crazy like that. And it's funny because
it was his decision that I wanted to make quite
some time ago, but I got quite a bit of pushback,
and I thought, well, maybe my instinct is wrong, and
there are some things that are different you know now
than you know a couple of years ago, when when
I really wanted to know, double down on AI. But
I kind of go, yeah, my instincts were really right there.
(21:20):
It was the right time. We had the right team
for it, We had the right mix of capability.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And it's kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
To because my decision making confidence was probably at an
all time low at the beginning of twenty twenty four, suspected,
which then led to, you know, a really tough year,
and so it is nice to take.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
You make smaller decisions to improve your decision making confidence,
like would you just be.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
That would be sensible. But I didn't end the.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Choice, really no, I had to just make a whole
lot of really big decisions, and that was one of
the big decisions.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Was there something that you had to say to yourself
to enable you to go with that intuition?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Well, I mean, I think in any kind of workplace
or in life, there are what some people refer to
as one way and two way door decisions, where the
two way door decisions, if you get.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It wrong, you can reverse back. Yes, and that's fine.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
That's the reverse back.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's the truck truck reversing.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
There are other decisions that are one way door decisions
where you make that decision and you really can't go back.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And so I definitely made some one way door decisions.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But the AI decision, I mean that was a series
of experiments, and so I think they were two way
door decisions much safer and really easy to test what
the appetite was.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So it just shows you how powerful doing this reflection
piece is because we got to this the nub of it,
which is actually about decision making and intuition and you know,
trusting yourself. There, Amantha, I think with some of these
big decisions, so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I don't need to set of time time to reflect,
We're just doing it now. Some other questions that this
is the year compass that gets you to think about
who are the three people who.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Influenced you most? And who were three people you influenced
the most? And I think they are two really interesting
questions to think about, because I mean, it reinforces just
how interconnected we are. And I like with the three.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
People who influenced you the most, Like I'm reminded of
that quote. It's you know, it's bit of cliche. You know,
you are the some of the you know, what is
it five people that you spend the most time with?
And I think that's really important. And I know for me,
like really the last couple of years has been a
bit of.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
A year of shedding, I would say.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
And you know, and as an only child, I always have
friends the family that you choose, I choose you.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I was lucky. Wasn't it that I set it back?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Would have been really awkward for the rest of this interview?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
But like, for example, you know, there were a couple
of people that were close friends that I thought, no,
like these relationships are not leaving me in a good state.
And so you know, when I think about the three
people who influenced you most, I feel like I've kind
of changed who in some ways. In some ways that
the inner circle has remained constant, but there have also
(24:21):
been some changes that.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think for me have have been healthy ones.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And so that's a really good prompt because often we
forget about the people. So it's nice to focus. And
the why you're asking that question makes me think that
you could put both good influence and bad influence.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I guess, yes, yes, you totally could.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I was just thinking good influence. Of course bad influence
as well, I think.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So, and I think paying attention to that, and you know,
bad influence, I mean that's in quotation marks because often
you know, people are just being themselves and it's how
we choose to interact with them. And some people's energy,
I mean, I know you love energy. It could be
good for someone else, but just not good for us.
So I think just looking at the people around us,
(25:06):
and you could widen that question then, so to look
at your circle in a circle and then think, okay,
so what were the interactions how did it make me feel?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
And I do love thinking about who were the three
people you influenced most? Because I know most, like both
of us were, We're very motivated by having a positive impact.
And I think you know our work that you know,
both our careers a careers that are designed to have
a positive impact on others.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And so I like the way that question gets you thinking.
How was it phrased again? Who were the three people
you influenced the most?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, and I think that would mop up our daughters.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
One percent, Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Lucky there a lucky then, But it's also I think
when you are a parent, and particularly a working parent,
it's easy to forget that our daughters are very much
of course, they are one of our answers.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And that's why I mentioned it. I think you know,
no to self. No, I've been very conscious about that
because my daughter's about to turn eighteen as well, so
you know, I'm just sort of in that beautiful period
where she is becoming her you know, the adult and
independent woman that she is, and so thinking about that.
(26:25):
And she has actually mentioned role modeling to me, which
is really where no matter what you say, it's how
you behave and so you know, thinking about that in
terms of a wide interpretation of influence as well. So
is it a halo or is it a shadow?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Okay, So back to the year Compass and a couple
of other things that I think are cool.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
How long would this will take? Because pages and age?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I know, I know, and you can see me like
leaping through the pages and skipping some So.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You're still going.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I know it's still going. And we haven't even got
to the looking ahead part.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So yeah, because have you ever done it?
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I've done parts of it, but you know what, I've
never done the whole thing front to back.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah, because that would actually take you a whole year
to do it, and then.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And nothing's happened and you've got nothing to reflect on
other than your repletion. Compass, in all seriousness, I think
they do have recommendations on their website, which is Yearcompass
dot com, and we'll link to that in the show notes.
I think they recommend half a day or a day
or something like that. And this is a process that
you can do on your own, with a group of friends,
(27:36):
with your partner, you know whoever. That's pretty flexible. So
a couple of other things in this process. One is
that there is a whole page about letting go, and
oh I love this, and it asks is there anything
you have to let go of before you can start
your next year?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Draw? All right, then think about it and let it
all go.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There's no interpretive dance. That's all very good.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
We're all carrying so much baggage at any given point
in time, and it's nice to go, what do I
actually want to leave behind?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
And you know, I'm doing this massive decluttering process anyway,
so emotional decluttering is part of that. And also what
a great question that I could just throw into the mix,
given that I'm decluttering my life. So I love this
so much and it's a hard one, but it's a
good one.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It is. Yeah. And one of the final things that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
It asks is it asks you to choose three words
to define your past year.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
About doing that as a process, Well, you know, often
I set an intention, which is a word or two
for the year ahead, So it makes sense to check
in and ask myself what words would describe it and
see if there's any gaps between what I thought my
word of the year was going to be mm hmm
and the year that was. I love that and interestingly,
(28:56):
as I mentioned, I think in the middle of the
year I would have used different words than the end
of the year. So I think that's that's not a
bad practice. I mean sometimes I think with those things,
if it comes naturally, all good, and well, if nothing comes,
I just don't think force it. What do you think,
because this is all meant to be helpful.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, I think if you choose to do this process,
you don't need to do it all. I found some
of the questions incredibly helpful and thought provoking, like some
of the ones that I've shared, And then there were
others that I just thought, I don't know that that's
not really inspiring much in me.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, and it may be the different years, different things emerge.
So it sounds like a good process. Yeah, to flip through.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I would love to note some of the retro tools
that you have discarded. And I can tell you one
thing that I totally failed at this year.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You might remember, you probably don't.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It was a year ago we recorded a conversation like
this to design a perfect twenty twenty five a good
twenty twenty five, And one of the things I think
you mentioned it, or maybe I did but it was
something that I committed to doing, was having.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
You're lucky I didn't remember this.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I remember it because it's literally on my wall.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
So I bought a calendar that is a big wall calendar.
It must be I don't know a one size that's
like really big, isn't it? And every day has a
little box. And what I was going to do is
I was going to every single day, right, just a
few words about the day, so that when I was
reflecting on the year, I could just have it all
(30:36):
that kind of what you do with your calendar.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
So you've brought it in and it's all filled.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Out, remember no, no, so is it still on your wall?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
It's still on my wall?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
How much is filled out?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Seven days worth?
Speaker 3 (30:50):
And it was it the first seven days or did
you randomly pick seven days in the year where you
felt like, right.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
It was the first seven days of the year, and
then maybe I did one or two more days towards
the end of the way.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Wow, you know this is a great you know an
equals one. But it's you know the news resolutions. How
long does it last?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
One week?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Exactly seven days? Doctor Amantha Imba has actually figured this out.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Go oh my gosh. Anyway, tell me, what are some
processes that maybe you've used in the past but you
decided not to use it for this year. Bit, but
you've got some value from the past.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah. So apart from the life flow exercise which I
had done, the other one which I found useful was
Don Price's three l's So what did I learn? What
did I love? And what did I loathe? And what
he says is that looking at what you loathe is
another way of doing the letting go exercise, because if
(31:43):
you really didn't like it, then if you want to
add something in which is actually long for so yeah,
so it's long what did you long for? And so
often if you can let go of something which is
in loath and then replace it for the long full
I think that's a beautiful process as well. It just
(32:05):
overlaps a little bit with the retrospective, so I thought
I don't need to do both. And also, you know,
every so often I'll just think, oh, no, actually I
really want to fill out this the foil. So that's
another one which is useful. And once again it's with
just feeling like, oh, what sort of tool do I
want to use and how deep do I want to
go as well.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, well, there's been heaps here for people to cherry
pick from. What we're going to do in the next
episode is talk about how we are future planning, yes
for the year. Looking back on a year is never
really about the events themselves, It's about what they reveal.
If you want to try something yourself, maybe just pick
(32:48):
one small entry point. Maybe start with what genuinely surprised
me this year. It is amazing where that one question
can take you. Now, make sure that you follow How
I Work wherever you listen to podcasts, because next week
Lisa and I will be sharing how we're preparing for
the year ahead and some more useful strategies and questions
(33:10):
to help make twenty twenty six a brilliant one.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Thank you for listening, and I will see you in
part two next week.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
If you like today's show, make sure you get follow
on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the Warrangery People, part of the Cooler Nation
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