Goood morning 👋
How often do you reflect on the past? Do you find it useful to do so?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, while I was in Suffolk with some friends, I ran a session on this theme that I wanted to share with you all today. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
Over the last three years, I’ve led activities on all sorts of topics during weekends away with friends. The theme of the most recent one was Purposeful Action, and that is where the idea came from.
Elliott and Niraj, who hosted the weekend, asked me to focus my session on reflecting on our past selves, either by giving ourselves a friendly kick into action or by giving ourselves more compassion and forgiving ourselves for things.
So, that’s exactly what I did.
With a little bit of planning, I split the session into three parts, which worked a little differently on the day compared to what it will now, but it should still be just as useful 🙏
To start off, I want you to pick one of the following groups (any of these are good; it depends on what you want to get out of this). After you do, there will be some questions that come along with each one:
Group One: The last 12 months:
- What have you prioritised over the last 12 months?
- Is there anything you’re particularly proud of?
- Is there anything you wish you’d approached differently?
Group Two: The last 5-10 years:
- How have your priorities and expectations changed over the last five years?
- Are there things you used to worry about that don’t seem nearly as important now?
Group Three: Further back, think back to when you were a child:
- Think about your younger self. What did they imagine life would look like today?
- What would you want to tell them, knowing everything you know now?
I don’t want you to rush this; do this in your own time – if you want to work through all three sections, please do be my guest. Spend some time thinking through your answers. If you want to write them down to remember them, by all means, feel free to do so 🤝
As we were all in a big house doing this, I next got people into groups and encouraged them to have a little chat over their answers and what the initial things were that came to mind when they started to think of these questions.
We’ll do this a bit differently, so instead of chatting with people about them, let’s be a tad introspective.
Look back over your answers and think: Do I need to be more compassionate with myself? Do I need to change something to take more action? Am I a little of both options, or something else entirely?
Regardless of what you pick, remember that there is no right or wrong answer for sessions like this.
They’re all about reflecting on some moments of your past a little differently, understanding what really happened, accepting them for what they were, and using the learnings to help us in the present and as we look to the future.
This was a load of fun to host back in October, and is something I might start doing more personally every couple of months or so. I can switch up the questions to keep it fresh. Who knows where it can lead?
Anyways, thanks a lot for coming along on the journey with me. I know this has been a little different to a lot of the blogs we’ve been doing lately – what do you think of this little switch-up? Would you like to see the odd blog like this mixed in?
I’d love to hear what you think 😊
Until the next one,
Sweeney
