This month, I’ve spent time reflecting on the last 20 years. In August 2004, I sat in the garden with a friend, debating the name I should use for my fledging freelance business and decided that using my surname would work. Twist Consultants was born.
Weighing everything up back then, I decided that doing my own thing was worth a punt, despite it feeling quite scary. Just a few months after that, I found myself working on a large-scale transformation programme and found the world of people change, where I’ve pretty much been working ever since. And I love it.
Image: Michael Skok, Unsplash
I know it’s a real achievement to get this far. There have been ups and downs – and sideway moves too. One of those sideway shifts included a brief time spent as an employee and doing some Twist work on the side. That was a big learning opportunity to be explored another time...
One of the biggest things I’ve learned in those 20 years, aside from the importance of making people a priority in any change, is the need to take regular time out to both look back and forward to what might be coming up.
These opportunities to reflect have been priceless for me, and have stopped me just ploughing on with whatever’s next on my to-do list. I’ve found that this approach has had lots of benefits, helping to reduce stress by recognising where I have control over circumstances rather than being a victim of them and have been essential in working out my finances too.
There are so many situations where reflection is useful, including when:
We reach big milestones – like 20 years of Twist or a birthday with a zero in it
We’re considering a big move – like making a decision to take on a new role or project
We’re investing our money or time in something big like moving house or taking on a long-term training course
We’re making any kind of big decision either on our own or with others.
I’ve found that the whatever I learn from reflection can help me make better-informed decisions and see and shape my longer-term view as well as often helping to answer the question, “why am I doing this?”.
The next twenty years (it’ll be 2044 by then 😳) are going to be packed with change. It won’t stop. If you can find some time to think about where you’ve got to and think what you'll need to keep going so you can enjoy life as the years fly by, I promise it will make a big difference.
If you want to find out more about the power of reflection and some ideas to get started, here are a few previous posts that you might find useful. And I’m always up for a chat too if you’d like to get in touch.
https://www.twistconsultants.co.uk/blog/2022/4/4/three-ideas-to-help-you-build-resilience-in-change