Sam Grayston

Category: New Year

  • 25 Lists for a Meaningful 2025: Reflection and Planning

    25 Lists for a Meaningful 2025: Reflection and Planning

    The start of a new year is the perfect time to think ahead. While I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions, I do find value in using lists and prompts to set out what matters to me. Each year since 2021, I create a series of lists that help me prioritise, reflect, and plan. Every week or two, I revisit these lists to check my progress and make adjustments.

    Here are the 25 lists I’m compiling for 2025:

    Self-Reflection and Values

    1. Who am I?

    This grounding question is inspired by a coaching session with the brilliant James Victore. Set aside an hour, ask yourself “Who am I?” and jot down everything that comes to mind. Then, go back and reflect on each statement—keep what feels true, and let go of the rest.

    2. Things I Value

    As part of my VAPOR planning framework (Values, Activities, Plans, Organisation, Reflection), I identify my core values and the daily activities that help me live them out.

    3. Sayings I Live By

    A curated collection of quotes, mantras, and sayings that inspire and resonate with me—featuring Dieter Rams, Miles Davis, Tolkien, Maya Angelou, Nancy Kline, and, yes, even Ted Lasso.

    Looking Forward to 2025 and Beyond

    4. What I Want to Happen in 2025

    Rather than resolutions that I ‘resolve’ to do, this is a list of aspirations, goals, and ideas for the year—a mix of the intentional and the hopeful.

    5. What I Want to Leave in 2024

    Life isn’t just about adding; it’s also about subtracting. This list captures habits, behaviours, or practices I’d like to leave behind—like people-pleasing or apologising unnecessarily.

    6. Things I’d Like to Achieve in This Decade

    Turning 40 has inspired me to think long-term—whether it’s writing a book or becoming conversational in Italian.

    Fostering Creativity and Ideas

    7. Fragile Ideas Worthy of Reverence

    In Jony Ive’s commencement speech for the California College of Arts, he talks about the reverence for ideas his design lecturer inspired in him. Ive talks about how fragile and fleeting ideas are and how quickly they can dissipate if not treated with kindness and reverence. Whether it’s a good idea or not, appreciating that the idea itself is worthy of some reverence and exploration before being implemented or dismissed. 

    8. Moments of Resonance

    A new addition for 2025, this list tracks moments that deeply resonate with me—from personal experiences to art or design. I then reflect on why they resonate and how to invite more of that into my life. Mine’s a mish-mash of minimalism and mess, of modern and old, and I’m looking forward to working on it. 

    9. Creative Things to Do

    Creativity is one of my core values, and this list ensures I prioritise it by giving me a go-to bank of creative ideas.

    10. Ideas from the Web

    A place to store intriguing ideas, apps, shortcuts, automations, etc, I encounter online that I’d like to try out.

    Daily Practices and Tools for Growth

    11. ‘Got a Minute’ List

    For those small pockets of time when it’s tempting to scroll mindlessly, this list offers alternatives—like stretching, reading a page of a book, or reconnecting with an old friend.

    12. What I’m Grateful For

    While I practise daily gratitude, this list captures the big-ticket items that anchor my sense of abundance.

    13. What Have I Learned?

    From small insights to significant lessons, this list ensures I don’t forget what I’ve gained.

    14. Things I Do Better Than Most

    For those tough days, this list reminds me of the unique skills and talents others value in me.

    Relationships and Social Capital

    15. Social Capital

    A reflection on the relationships I want to nourish and the people I want to stay connected with.

    16. Personal Board of Directors

    This list includes trusted individuals (real, fictional, or idealised) who I can advise me in my best interest.

    17. People I Should Know

    A guide to intentional networking and building meaningful relationships.

    Achievements and Memories

    18. Biggest Accomplishments

    A go-to reminder for when I doubt my progress, this list celebrates what I’ve achieved so far.

    19. Career Bucket List

    From keynote speaking to publishing a book, this list captures the career milestones I aspire to reach.

    20. Shows I’ve Been Involved With

    A nostalgic look at the plays and performances I’ve been part of—it’s quite a list now!

    Gratitude

    21. Gifts Given

    It’s rewarding to remember the gifts I’ve shared and the experiences I’ve created for others.

    22. Gifts Received

    Practising gratitude by recalling the kindness and thoughtfulness I’ve been lucky enough to receive.

    23. Nice Things I’ve Got for Myself

    Acknowledging the moments I’ve treated myself and appreciating my ability to indulge occasionally.

    Practical and Aspirational

    24. Places I’d Like to Go

    There are so many places to explore—this list keeps my wanderlust alive.

    25. Things for a Quiet Day

    When an unexpected quiet day arrives, this list ensures it doesn’t slip away unnoticed.

    Personally, I keep these lists on Notion, adding comments, pictures, and tags to stay organised. Every couple of weeks, I review them, check my progress, and make small tweaks to my plans for the fortnight ahead.

    I hope these lists inspire you as they’ve inspired me. They’ve proven far more effective than New Year’s resolutions!

    What’s on your list for 2025?

    This revised structure starts with introspection and flows naturally towards actionable and aspirational items. Does this feel more cohesive?

  • Is there a Place for Seasonality at Work?

    Is there a Place for Seasonality at Work?

    One of my favourite places to walk is Westonbirt Arboretum near our home. It’s a great way to get back to nature and clear my head whilst supporting conservation work. On my most recent visit, I was marvelling at the structures of the trees now that all the leaves have fallen. These marvellous, decades-old organisms are saving all their energy and growth for spring: fresh buds, flowers, leaves, fruit. And it got me wondering if nature can teach us something about this time of year away from the pressures of ‘new year’s resolutions’ and towards embracing seasonality in our working lives?

    From the first of January, the start of the new calendar year, we’re often encouraged to set new goals and resolutions, and yet it’s a very arbitrary date. If we look to the rest of the natural world, it’s not starting afresh – it is midwinter! Plants are saving energy for fresh buds; animals are hibernating and hunkering down to be ready for spring; and here we are ‘getting after it’, ‘living our best life’, making radical changes…then not sticking with it, getting ill, and burning out. It doesn’t make much sense, it doesn’t appear to be very sustainable, and yet LinkedIn is full of people ‘bringing it on’ and ‘owning 2023’.

    We are connected to nature too – being human beings.

    Yes, reflect on the lessons of the previous season, nourish yourself with wholesome food, more knowledge, and enjoy movement; clear out unnecessary clutter and excesses of the past, but also be gentle, warm, kind and compassionate to yourself too. And when the first buds of new ideas and new goals arise, they will do so with greater clarity and fresh energy too.

    This is an invitation to not feel as great a pressure to set all those big goals and get started on everything now. Listen to yourself and to the natural world and respond appropriately. Reflect on what’s worked, what hasn’t; think about what you want to try out; maybe even explore a couple of ideas and experiments but consider that there may be a genuinely more invigorating time for renewal later.

    I am not saying do not do anything now.

    I know that life continues, that business thrives, that organisations endure. I’m merely advocating for observing more seasonality in our work and life – to acknowledge that there is ebb and flow, rather than being constantly ‘on’. For when we are ‘on’ 24/7, we run down to nothing and have nothing wonderful left to give the world. And I know that each and every person does have something extraordinary to offer.

    Personally, I’ve set goals for the next quarter and have a vision for the longer-term, but I’m not worrying about new year’s resolutions.

    And when you are ready to make the connections between those big, far-away goals and the experimental actions you want to start with today, then check out my Outcomes Tree idea. It’s an agile, responsive, and natural way to live in alignment with your purpose, bring value to your work, and change outcomes for the better.