How To Properly Do An End Of Year Review - Chris Sparks - #262

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, beautiful humans, welcome back. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas, and I got a very timely episode today. Planned on this one for quite a while to just slot it in, in the weird kind of nothing no man's land exists between Christmas and New Year. We're often thinking about how did this year go? What do I want to achieve in the coming year? And the end of year review is a process that very few of us have properly, not formally written down, but almost everybody kind of gets this sense that they should be doing it. So today I got old buddy of the show, Chris Sparks, former top 20 online poker player on the planet and a wonderful productivity and executive coach to CEOs, founders and many other high performers to come on and give us the exact process that he gives his clients to ensure that they get the best clarity around what they want in the coming year and that they can close all of the doors to the open loops from the last year. So, today you will get to see absolutely everything that he uses and also, you know, you've got the next, whatever, you got the next week. You can get this done before the new year. Follow it through. Chris gives a worksheet. He's created a worksheet for us for free and the URLs further on in the episode. So stay tuned for that and just get it done. You know, it's going to take you a couple of days, but it will give you so much clarity and purpose and perspective as we enter this new year. And you know, 2020 has been a year of challenges and difficulties for almost everyone. This could be a fantastic way to utilize those to power you forward rather than finishing it with a little bit of a loss. I really enjoy doing these timely episodes that are tied in with a particular period that we're all at in the year. And hopefully this will provide tons and tons of value to you. If that's the case, then let me know how you get on at ChrisWillX wherever you follow me. And if you enjoy it and think it would help other people, then please give it a share. The only way this show grows is by people like you sharing it with people like you. And it really could help. So yeah, crack on, press the share button. Just a little share, share, share away.
But for now, it's time to learn how to do an end of year review with Chris Sparks.

**Chris Sparks** (2:25)
Good to be back.

**Chris Williamson** (2:27)
So good to have you back on, man. How's 2020 been your end?

**Chris Sparks** (2:31)
You know, it's, there's been a lot of bright spots this year. I think everyone's aware of the craziness and all that's gone on, but I would then be pleasantly surprised how well I've thrived. I think the big news was I got engaged, realized that my partner, who some would say I was stuck with, is like, wow, this is amazing. We get to spend all this time together and we're having a blast. And hey, if it's so good when things can't appear so bad, let's take this to the next level. So that was a super silver lining. You know, this really made me refocus on priorities, which I think we'll get into, particularly being closer to family. So moving closer so we could spend a lot of time with our respective families. My just born niece has been incredibly meaningful. And also just, I've been fortunate that, you know, the way that I earn a living, the way that I serve the world, both of those were already online based. So I've had lots of really meaningful and interesting opportunities to support entrepreneurs and executives through all of this turmoil. So, I mean, all external craziness aside, I think it's been a very cool year.

**Chris Williamson** (3:52)
You are one anti-fragile son, aren't you?

**Chris Sparks** (3:57)
That is the goal. I mean, the world is going to get weirder. It is just going to get weird. It's not going back to normal. What happened this year was not just like a glitch in the matrix. Weird stuff is going to continue to occur.
And my goal personally and how I try to help clients is, how can you put yourself in a position to thrive no matter what the world throws at you? And I think it's really encapsulated by that concept of anti-fragility is while many systems, people, organizations are threatened with, hey, if things change a little bit, if the tide rolls out and, oh no, I have my pants down, any change becomes bad and becomes a threat. But you can position yourself with your habits, with your relationships, with your learning to be someone who not only does okay when things get weird, you can actually thrive in those environments because you are well positioned. You are already surfing before the wave comes. So yeah, I think this was a test. And that's what I come back to is it's all a practice. It's all an opportunity to put the things that we've learned and know into practice.