Year end reflection time? Or…

New Year question time?

Another year put to bed. Another year kicking off. Time for reflection. Time to plan. Maybe.

Or maybe not - because there are wines to be supped, beers to be slurped, snags to be barbied, sun to soak up, and family and friends to hang with.

But now seems like a good time - as we have time away from what we toil at to fund our existence, time to distance ourselves from day-to-day activities, time to indulge in our leisure, time to play with our whanau and mates.

This poses an interesting question - which of the above factors currently has the biggest influence on your quality of life?

And which should?

The best answer to many things is often not a solution, but a better question. Rather than setting out your resolutions, try asking some good questions first.

For example, ‘What could I achieve this year that would give me a wonderful sense of accomplishment?’ And go deeper.
‘Why would achieving this give me that sense of accomplishment?’
‘Is it internal or external validation?’
‘Are there things in other spheres that could give a similar sense of accomplishment?’

Or, ‘What things make me happiest?’ And go deeper.
‘Why do they make me happy?‘
‘What are the enabling conditions?’

This way, not only do you identify the joy-inducing activities, but you also get a better picture of the environment required for them to exist - which gives you the roadmap to engineering your environment to be more conducive to spawning more of these happy moments.

I'm currently very content, relaxing in a hammock at the beach, sipping a cold ale, ruminating on thoughts, and trying to assemble them into share-worthy sentences. It’s a happy place for me. Therefore I need to organise my time to ensure I come here more often. Life by design.

Another thing I’m wary of is the list of goals that one is encouraged to create. I would rather nail one big thing than succeed at a few and fail the rest. Being able to simplify is becoming a superpower in today’s fragmented, misinformed, busy, choice-ridden lives.

Don’t add, remove. Or if you do add, make sure it’s replacing something. I think the new battle is going to be pursuing simplicity. A war against complexity.

‘No’ will be the new black.

Understanding what is enough will become trendy in our consumption-driven world - particularly with the younger generations.

There you have it, my predictions for 2025 and beyond. Doing less shit better. And knowing when to get off that hedonic hamster wheel.

Don't wait. Ask better questions. Get ahead of trend.