That time of the year is fast approaching when people start talking ‘New Year Resolutions’. Most of them don’t go beyond talking. When the entire junta (public) starts talking something – I know that something is fishy. It either makes no sense, it is half baked gyaan or it is just outright bull shit. So that is what I also think about the New Year Resolutions – have a life – if there is some change you want to see in your life start working on it right away and don’t wait for the New Year.
And for me the New year just happened right after Diwali in November – The Jain New Year. So technically, for a large number of us who follow other cultural calendars – we already had a New Year.
Whichever New Year it is, the fact still remains that you need to do some Self Evaluation. Give some meaning to that often used expression, “How are You?”
Ask yourself – How am I?
Really evaluate.
At an ad hoc level you will have some thoughts about How you are doing when you think about it. But I urge you to go one step beyond. Figure out the metrics, figure out how to measure your well being!
Those ad hoc feelings about How you are – can be highly misleading. Has it ever happened that someone around you is very happy one moment and just a few moments later they go ballistic – angry/sad? I am sure you have seen someone or have experienced it happen to yourself. So those ‘feelings’ about yourself are often just not true. And even if they are overall true, doing a more thorough evaluation will help.
To do an impact-ful evaluation one needs some clear metrics.
For example: When I run a digital ad campaign, I have clear metrics which I measure to evaluate whether it was Awesome, Good, Ok, Bad or Terrible. I see the number of clicks it gets, the business gained from those clicks, the price per click and so on. For each ad campaign the metrics may differ a little, but more or less the framework remains the same. Even without seeing them I have some idea about the campaign, but looking at the actual numbers & doing the analysis most of the times delivers surprises, insights I didn’t realize. It is really important part of the work.
I would urge you to set up this framework for self evaluation. But I am also going one more step beyond this and offering you a framework. This is something I made for myself. Previously I had blogged about the need for self evaluation. I had also then shared some of my thoughts about the various aspects of life I look at for self evaluation. Here I have added a lot more details within each aspect so we can evaluate how we are doing in each of those aspects….
You can download the document here,
The benefits of such an evaluation are immense. I cannot under-estimate the value of this practice. Another evaluation exercise for me happens because of all these blogs that I have. This one, my Travel blog & Work blog. I write a year-end post for each of these blogs & that becomes a mini evaluation in itself of the various spheres of my life. I truly look forward to these year-end blog summaries.
All in all these evaluation exercises are truly wonderful. So, take at least one step towards self evaluation – and share with me how the experience was, I am curious. 🙂