It is my favorite time of year. Fall is near in the Midwest. The air is fresh and crisp, which serves as a cool juxtaposition to the warmth of the sun. The leaves on the trees are blushing with hints of orange and burnt auburn. The earth is letting go of that which has already bloomed, allowing a cycle of renewal and regrowth to follow.
While I am not Jewish, or a religious scholar, the idea of Rosh Hashanah has always resonated with me. Late summer/early fall feels like a great time for introspection. It is a great time to ask ourselves tough questions, to review the past year and look ahead to the next.
We are near the end of third quarter. If you have not yet done an in-depth review of your annual strategic plan, now is the time to do it. The visions and ideas that you planted in January have either bloomed, or they have not. You have taken the action steps to bring your vision to life, or you have not. You have openly embraced mistakes and revised your plan as needed, or you have not.
If you have not achieved what you intended to do, what better time than fall to take pause and ask yourself why?
- Why did you spend endless hours creating a strategic plan only to stuff it in a drawer for the year?
- Why are you more excited to create a vision than to execute it?
- Why did some of your goals come to fruition and others did not?
- Why did your team appear to be excited about the plan, but then resist executing it?
It is not the answer to these questions that we should fear, but rather not asking them at all. Not asking the tough questions keeps us from consciously creating the results we desire. It encourages us to hold onto the past. By not asking the tough questions, we allow our failures to define us. We cannot succeed, because we are too drained by our past mistakes to have the energy to create the future.
With introspection, we identify the gap between ideas and results. With reflection, we learn from our mistakes so we are not doomed to repeat them.