Defining Your 2020 North Star

Representative of the North Star. Photo by Mike Setchell on Unsplash

Have you been working on 2020 vision projects to define the future of your work products? How long has this been going on—3 months, 6 months, 3 years? While at Facebook, I remember a team working on an inspiring 2020 sprint to redesign News Feed. And this was all the way back in 2018! The 2020 sprint eventually evolved into a facelift for Facebook that launched earlier this year showing the power of visionary design sprints. Think of the hours & effort you’ve spent dreaming of a future for your products. But what about for you?

How might you apply a 2020 North Star to your own life?

I’m not talking about making a New Year’s resolution that’s kept up all the way through the end of January. Yet starting a new year is momentous. Whether we embrace it or not, the year is based on our planet’s journey around the sun. We share a common physical environment that changes due to seasons, weather, daylight savings, etc. Summer feels lighter with more sun and longer daylight. And even though I haven’t been a student in decades, fall still evokes a feeling of the start of a new school year.

So with this new milestone year, have you thought about making goals, including 5-year or 10-year plans? Maybe you make them? Or maybe you don’t and feel guilty about it? Or perhaps they’re an expectation about what you’re supposed to do?

There are expected paths for many of us to take, with an understanding, often from others, that these are things we should want.

• In school, we want to get good grades. And also show leadership in extracurricular activities. 
  Goal: get into college

• In college, we also want to get good grades and perhaps experience the world through a semester overseas. 
  Goal 1: Get a summer internship (to land a good job) 
  Goal 2: Get good grades to apply to grad school

• In your first job, you’ve made it! But wait, now there’s anxiety about performance and imposter syndrome. And you’re supposed to have a goal? What is it? To be promoted? To become a manager?

• On the personal side, there’s other conventional milestones and goals. First kiss. First date. First dance / prom. Getting a boyfriend/girlfriend. Moving in together. Buying a house. Getting engaged, married, having kids.

Have you ever stopped to think about what you want as opposed to simply meeting other people’s expectations?

Early in life, as a student or a young adult, it can be helpful to have a defined path, especially if you’re a pleaser and your learning style fits well with book learning and test-taking. Yet it’s not the only way. Increasingly, more paths are available, whether it’s entrepreneurship, learning a trade, traveling, or working a gig economy job.

What if you’re now in the working world and you feel that there’s something missing?

What do you truly & deeply desire for your 2020?

I’ll give you some examples of common wants. Some of them might apply to you, but the exact want is less important than why you want it.

• Lose 10 pounds

• Be healthier

• Get more exercise

• Get a promotion

• Achieve work/life balance

• Make a job transition

All of these are valid, however, it’s more crucial to know why it’s important to you. Knowing why the need matters, how it relates to your identity & values, and being able to visualize how your life will be different — all of these will help make the need a reality.

And if you don’t know what you want for 2020, try a number of experiments to see what might work for you.

• Make a bucket list of all the things you’d like to do before you die. Notice any themes?

• Try sketching out a mind map. List out hobbies or activities that you enjoy. How do they relate to each other? Does it help you think of other skills?

• What are values that you’ve held through your life. Example of my values. Which values are currently being honored in your life and which ones are being stepped on?

• If you’re still stuck, consider using the next couple of weeks to gather data. As your go through your days, notice your energy. When are you at peak positive or negative emotions? What triggers that? When are you in a state of flow?

Setting Intention not a Resolution

Rather than setting a New Years resolution that’s supposed to last the entire 12 months, instead try setting an intention. Think about a single word or phrase that represents your best self and how you want to show up for the next couple of months. Ones that I’ve used in the past have been kindness, patience, curiosity, receptive to new beginnings. Feel free to scan through the list of emotions at the end of this article to see if you want more of any emotion in your life.

My 2020 North Star

And for me, it’s the first time in my career and my life that I don’t have a 1-year or 5-year or 10-year plan. This is quite atypical — many know me as a type A mega-planner.

My 2020 North Star is to embrace the unknown and become more comfortable with uncertainty. I have a coach who’s supporting me with that. I am in the midst of reconnecting with many people I’ve loved over the years and simultaneously meeting many new people. I’m especially curious as to where my 2020 year of leadership coaching will take me.

Along the way, I’ll do other things. I’m a natural planner and I have a fierce drive. But these things aren’t giant challenges for me like finding comfort in the unknown. They will have hard aspects but they’re simply a part of what I do. More tactics than the core of a North Star.

• I’m talking to business coaches and will likely embark on a fresh journey with one in January as I tweak ways to build my coaching business.

• To complement the individual coaching, I’m working on co-creating workshops with some awesome collaborators. I’m also planning on doing more speaking around topics that blend coaching and design.

• I continue to love & support my girls, as well as build stronger relationships as a co-parent with their dad. I nurture & learn how to love my partner more.

• I’ll take my girls back to Burning Man this year. I’m excited to have the time to be an artist and builder, not just a financier.

Want some help?

Do you have a sense of what your 2020 North Star is? I’d love to hear more and help you co-create it if you need support. Drop me a line or book some time to chat with me.

Appendix of Positive Emotions