Episode 31: Reflecting on 2021

Hannah:
Hey everyone. And welcome back to the Burn Pod and this one’s coming at you right at the start of our brand new year 2022. And what an insane year 2021 has been. I think we all anticipated that after crazy 2020, that 2021 would actually come through with the goods, or it’d be a little bit more back to normal. And I guess down in Tassie, we’ve been lucky enough to escape majority of what’s been going on in the world, but yeah, it’s still been a strange year. And I think we’re all hoping that this year the 2022 year will start to move us towards some sort of normalcy or the new normal, and less of this sort of constant change and adaptation that we have to do in our lives at the moment. But all that aside, this podcast guys is all about reflecting on 2021.

Hannah:
We’re going to work for a reflection exercise together. It’s a really nice way just to stop and recognise your successes, understand the things that maybe didn’t work so well and why they didn’t work so well. And it really helps to set yourself up properly for a better or a difference year ahead, when you’ve just taken that time to reflect. So that’s what we’re going to do today. Big reflection. And then we’re going to move into a little bit of planning out 2022 year. So, first let’s talk about reflection. We barely ever give ourselves the time or the space to stop, and to sit, and to just consider what we’ve just gone through or how it’s made us feel. We are pretty bad at to be fair as women we’re always so busy and hectic, and there’s always something going on in our mind.

Hannah:
So to have a quiet, relaxed mind, it’s tough. And even to be in the moment is hard enough. So to reflect is something that I really don’t think we do enough of, I know I am an [Ashshocker 00:02:42] for it. It’s, one of those smell the roses kind of things. And we really don’t sit down and just revel in what we’ve achieved that often and just really sort of feel grateful and feel that sense of accomplishment that comes with fulfilling goals and that sort of thing. Because we’re usually straight onto the next goal, the next goal, the next goal, we’re always forward looking, we’re always planning, we’re always moving, moving, moving, and it’s really critical that we stop and we reflect. So this I guess you could kind of say is a chance for me to force myself to do it too and doing it with you guys.

Hannah:
So yes, thank you for being here and listening to me as we go through this reflection exercise. Now let’s just start going through a few of the key areas in our life. Now I’m sure that there’s plenty of other areas that we or I don’t talk about during this reflection exercise, but these are sort of, I guess you could group the key ones together, and this is what comes up and what we’re going to do guys, is where we’re going to go through and we’re going to rate each area out of 10. 10 being you absolutely just smashed it. You couldn’t have been any better, you were in flow. It felt easy, it seriously could not have been any better if you tried. Your 10 might be different to my 10 or your friend’s 10, you’ll know if something… If you were just like, “Yes, I absolutely just destroyed that.” That’s awesome.

Hannah:
So, don’t second guess yourself, what does your gut tell you initially? And obviously down at one, not so great. So you’ll know a number in your gut as we work through this, and I want you to go with that initial reaction. And once we’ve picked that number, we’re going to then just start analysing why we picked that number. So here we go.

Hannah:
Our first one guys, our big one… And to be fair, if any of you did this reflection exercise with me last year, I would love, love, love, love for you to go back and actually, maybe look at the notes that you’ve written down or try and remember what you gave yourself. I’m hopefully you wrote this down and that’s a good point, guys, if you do have a chance to please listen to this podcast with a notepad in front of you and just jot things down, cause it’s pretty cool to go back and look at the changes and improvements in particular areas that you might have given yourself a lower number from last year and is now in those the higher numbers between your sevens and your 10s.

Hannah:
Okay. So the first section we’re going to look at is your physical health. Now this is a combination of actual exercise and fitness, but it’s also physically guys, how you actually felt this year. Have you been frequently sick? Have you been injured regularly? Generally in terms of just your physical health, where does this sit for you. Now I think some of you’re probably considering, “Oh, does this include like my healthy eating?” No, this is nothing, this is you physically moving your body and being active. Now for me, it’s a tricky one. I would say that initially at the start of the year, it was okay. I’d give myself probably let’s say six and a half at the start of the year, I’m going to admit it dropped to probably a four during the middle part of the year.

Hannah:
And as a lot of you are aware that was partly to do… Well, to be fair, it was completely to do with the fact that we opened our second location and it was just the biggest amount of work and the craziest time of year ever, ever, ever for me. So usually for me, my first thing that goes, which shouldn’t, and I know I tell you guys not to do this. And then I do it myself anyway is my fitness. So when I get really busy, it’s sort of the first thing that gets dropped off the list.

Hannah:
And we all know that moving your body, even if you’re taking that hour, which you think you should be doing the emails or whatever for, it’s going to be beneficial in the end because you work more efficiently. But anyway, but I’m going to say that over the last few months at end of the year, I really focused on my health, but in particularly moving my body and that potentially might have something to do with the fact that I’m getting married and kind of got the old, “Oh crap, I’ve got to get into a wedding dress and hope it looks good. And so I should probably do some exercise.”

Hannah:
But it’s also been really beneficial for my mental health too. So I’ve been getting out and I’ve been running a lot more, also for some of you, you may know that we got a little puppy back in April. And so he is now at that point where he’s not so puppy anymore, and he’s a bit of a destroyer of everything. So if I don’t run him or if I don’t get him exercised, if I don’t wear him out, basically then I can say goodbye to part of the couch or a shoe. And it’s some things I just don’t really want to have to replace. So it’s kind of forced me to get off my butt, get moving. And so what I’d suggest… what I feel like it should be for me is probably an eight, eight to a nine actually to finish off on, which is kind of nice. It’s sort of finishing strong.

Hannah:
I feel like I’m in a good place and I’m going to continue this through into the new year. So that’s me. But now I’ve given you that number, I want you to dig a little deeper why did you give yourself that physical number? Like I went through there and I sort of talked you through, the reasons why mine ebbed and flowed six and a half at the start of the year dropping down to a four. And I’d say we’re probably finishing at a nine. So it might not be an overall perfect number, but why is it that your number is there, is it from injury or is it because your motivation is not there. I’d love you to jot this down. This is going to be important when we come to our planning, and our goal setting for next year that you actually have that listed down as to why you’ve given your physical health, that particular number.

Hannah:
Cool. So let’s move on to the next one and it’s nutritional health. So we’ve done the physical, we’ve done the movement of the body. Now let’s look at your nutrition and your food. What number do you give this? And why do you give yourself this number. Now, I’m like any woman here, I love wine, I love food. And so I have good weeks and bad weeks. I have good months and not so good months, but generally I’m going to say… And I think it’s one of those things once again, I started the year off okay. It slipped a bit when I was a bit busy, I just went for your easy takeaway meals and just to be fair, I was probably drinking a lot more wine because, that’s what we do generally when we get a little bit frazzled and stressed, we usually kind of hit that glass of red wine or two in the evening during winter.

Hannah:
But I think I’ve really cleaned that up. So I’d say I to give myself an eight, which if I look back at what I gave myself last year, I gave myself a six. So I feel like I’ve improved, which it’s really nice, and the reason that I’ve give myself an eight is because I’m getting into a routine, not necessarily perfectly healthy meals all the time, but overall, I’m going to say I’m an out of a 10, eight out of 10 rather, or 80% of the time I’m picking some good options.

Hannah:
And I’m taking the food guilt away when it comes to my weekends and I go and have a few glasses of wine, I’m not sort of kicking myself that have done that. Or after those few glasses once, if I need to have a couple of… Or a bag of chips just to get myself through, then I’m not kind of killing myself over that. So how did you guys go? What is that number for you? And why? Once again, I really need you to write this down, because we’re going to come back and we’re going to reflect on it. We going to see how we can set some goals around these reflection pieces for 2022. Cool.

Hannah:
So the next one guys is your mindset. This is going to be slightly different for each of us. There’s some areas that you might be more focused on others. Some people are really into meditation and that’s a really major component for them. Others, you wouldn’t even consider meditation as something that anyone does. Mindset might be more having some self care time or some space or some good sleeping nights or you’re sleeping well, that sort of thing, or just having some time where you’re not feeling too full in the mind. So mindset’s going to be very different for each of us. And this is something I need to work on guys. I’m going to give myself a seven. Last year I gave myself an eight. I do not have any issues sleeping. So I’m sorry for the guys that listen to this and sleep comes not naturally to you.

Hannah:
I’m like a nine hours out, like a light full nine hour sleep, wake up. So that’s not a problem for me, but what is, is that I’m just full racing, mind, crazy, crazy amount of information and planning and organising that I’m doing in my mind before I’m even needing to organise anything I’m like organising to organise. And it’s something that I would like to focus on, which is just to kind of calm my mind down a little bit. And I know when I take some time to do some gratitude practise and to do some visualisation and some quiet time, it does make a huge difference to me, I feel more settled, more focused, I’m more efficient. So it’s definitely something that I do want to build back into my life and something that was missing a little bit in 2021.

Hannah:
So, what are these for you? Is it you’d like journaling but you didn’t do it enough. You only did sort of that gratitude practise in those couple of minutes at the end of our class. And it’s something that you’d like to move into doing a little bit more of. Did you have crazy racing mind and busy, busy mind? Like I did. What was it for you? Now write that down as well. Cool. All right, we are kicking through this guys. Now, the next one professional. So this is all about your professional life or your work, your job, your business, whatever it is for you when it comes to your professional career or your professional part of your life, let’s rate this. Now, once again, this will differ depending on what you do and what you’re focused on.

Hannah:
For me, when it comes to my professional life, my professional life is completely tied up. You can’t split it with my business, with BurnTheory. So, if BurnTheory is feeling loved up and easy and it’s flowing, and we are growing, and it’s fun, that for me just means that my professional life is going really well too. But when things are feeling clunky or it’s a bit stressful because of COVID, or whatever, that means my professional life is being impacted. This one’s an interesting one.

Hannah:
I would say it’s been a huge, huge year of learning for me this year. I got told this, but I didn’t believe it at the time, but when you go from one location and you open into a second location, the growth, the increase in your systems and your modification of your processes is just tenfold. Because it’s hard to come explain, but now you’ve got two different locations that where at Moonah and Hobart and the systems that might have worked for just one location now have to be completely kind of revamped and trialled and tested and worked out what works for multiple locations.

Hannah:
So it’s been psycho. So on the scheme of it, I guess I could say opening Moonah was like this most incredible, incredible experience. And I give it a 10, like my professional in business wise, professionally, it was just the most incredible experience. But then on the flip side of it the growing pains, I’d call them the growing pains since opening Moonah I guess you guys are seeing a little inside into the back end of the business. I feel like I’m probably more like a six or a seven, there’s so much that I need to do and grow and be better at, in order to support those two businesses. So if I’m going to take like an interim, I’d say probably we are looking at an eight and I’m going to say that’s pretty damn good really overall.

Hannah:
So what is it for you? How did your job feel this year? Your professional, your career or your workplace. Are you feeling stagnant in the role that you are in? Or you’re not feeling lit up and that’s something that’s big, that’s pretty major. And I think COVID kind of gave us a chance to sort… Forced us all really to stop and go, “Oh, what’s actually really important to us.” And maybe you’re not quite through that yet, or haven’t found that thing yet, but maybe it’s something you’re working towards. So you might give yourself more like, I don’t know a six, but don’t see this as a bad have been giving yourself low numbers. It just means it’s… Think of it as an exciting opportunity to improve on that, or to really focus on that area for the year moving forward.

Hannah:
And the last one I’ve got on my list, unless I mentioned, I’m sure there’s other ones that you have that you’d want to add to this, is a really important one, and it’s our social life, family and friends. It’s our social health. Now, this will differ once again depending on what’s important to you currently and where you are in your life and family, kids, won’t be an issue or thing for you at all, if you know say 18 or potentially in your late fifties, the kids are off doing their thing, but it might be more social thing for you guys and vice versa. It might be, you’ve got kids and family and young kids and family is something that’s really critical for you. And so that social aspect is something that you’re focusing on more, or you’re giving more attention or weight to then maybe, growing your circle of friends and going out and doing dinners every two days or whatever.

Hannah:
So, it differs, as I said for everyone, and look, this can be a mixture. I think of social health as a mixture of the amount of time that you are able to spend with your friends and family, or you have been able to spend with friends and family. How you feel when you are with your friends and family. For example, are you stressed because you should be working? You’re feeling guilty because you should be doing something else. Are you a good friend? Are you spending enough time making new friends or acquaintances? And are you spending quality time with the people that are important in your life? So this one can be… It might take a little bit of time. There might be different ratings, depending on the different aspects you might give family a separate rating versus your external friends and your social network, social group.

Hannah:
For me, this year it’s been pretty wonderful. So I’d say it’s probably a nine or 10, really there’s obviously always ups and downs and things that you feel like you could do better, but all in all, I think this for me was something that I really wanted to focus on, at the start of 2021. I didn’t give myself a very good score last year, that partly did it because of the fact we were all locked down, but trying to deal with the business coming out of lockdown and stuff, I sort of threw myself into business. And my physical health suffered a little bit, but also importantly my time for my enjoyment, with my friends and family really suffered. So that was just something that was really key for me to really focus on.

Hannah:
And I think I’ve done that. So what was it for you? Why have you chosen this rating? Was it because of time spent or quality time? Would you like to make some new friends? Grow your family? Invite a fur baby to join your family? All those sort of things? So write this down guys, and once again, write down the reason why you’ve chosen that rating. Cool. Alright. So we’ve now completed the health and wellbeing audits across your whole self health. And hopefully you can see where the gaps may fall. It should be pretty clear to you once you’ve worked through that. But if you’ve given yourself like tens in all areas, and then there’s like one area that’s got a four. Well, clearly that area is something that you need… or maybe you should focus on into this year.

Hannah:
And now it’s not to say that if you start focusing on one area, the other areas will have dropped off. Hopefully the areas that are high, for example, my current physical health and my current social and family, my social health are sitting quite high. And I think that’s something that is easily maintainable moving forward. I don’t think I need to necessarily have to focus on that to keep it at that level. But it’s something that should just naturally continue that way. So there’s other areas that I can then focus on that are a little bit lower. And then I want to lift up. I maybe like lift up my healthier eating, my nutrition and things like that.

Hannah:
So there’s a few other questions that you could ask yourself that are just more encompassing before we move into the planning stage. And they’re kind of just really lovely questions. What was your biggest triumph? What was the smartest decision that you’ve actually made this year? What one word best sums up and describes your experience through 2021? One word. What was the greatest lesson that you learned last year? What was the most loving service you performed? What was your biggest piece of unfinished business? Now, these questions they’re really great to write down guys because they will actually then inform our goal setting as we talked about already, for this year coming up. So definitely please write down if you can. What are you most happy about completing? And who are the three people that had the greatest impact on your life last year? What was the biggest risk you took? What was the biggest surprise? And what important relationship improved the most?

Hannah:
And also the final one, which I really love. What compliment would you have liked to have received? Or what compliment would you have liked to have given? So these are some really, really lovely questions that you can ask yourself just to dig in a little bit more into the year that was. And to help us sort of improve or look into the year that will be. So thank you so much for joining me on that, guys, if you are listening to me in the car right now, please, when you get a chance, Chuck me back on and re-listen to this podcast, because I’d love, love, love for you to write this down.

Hannah:
It’s something that’s really special for me to be able to go back and look at what I said last year and reflect on how far I’ve come in certain areas, reflect on areas that might need a little bit more improvements. And it just does set me up completely for what I need to do or what I want to focus on, or the goals that I want to set for my year ahead. So thanks so much, guys. I want you to join me on the next one, if you can, because we are going to plan out this year.

Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to the Burn Pod, real-life tips for helping real-world women like you, live healthier, happier, and thrive from the inside out. If you’d like to learn more about our incredible fitness and health culture, head to burntheory.com.au, where you can join a class, sign up to one of our online programmes and find out more. If you felt like this was the breath of fresh air you needed, share this podcast with another real-world woman and leave us a five star review. Until next time, go get your thrive on.