• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Susannah Fox

I help people navigate health and technology.

  • Home
  • Rebel Health
  • Blog
    • greatest hits
    • health data
    • peer-to-peer health care
    • public Q&A
  • About me
    • Bio
    • Now
    • Curriculum vitae
  • Events

Public Q&A: Impact review

December 21, 2022 By Susannah Fox 17 Comments

Public Q&A: Impact review

I conduct an impact review at the end of each year, looking back at how I spent my time. In 2018, I published a shareholder letter listing the questions I ask:

  • Was the work (whether paid or pro bono) useful, soul enriching, or on my mission path?
  • Did it have a positive impact on the world, an organization, another individual, myself?
  • Would I seek to do something similar in the next five years?

I’d like to hear from other people who take stock around this time each year. What questions do you ask yourself? What measures do you use?

Please share in the comments.

Featured image: “green” by 권 오성 on Flickr.

Filed Under: public Q&A

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Eva May says

    December 21, 2022 at 7:38 am

    HI Susannah, Your questions are very similar to mine. Additionally, I ask:
    * Do I feel that I am a valued member of the team?

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      December 21, 2022 at 9:13 am

      Ooooh, I love that question. It can be answered in multiple ways: Was I paid fairly? Were my ideas listened to? Was my time respected?

      Reply
  2. Dee says

    December 21, 2022 at 8:44 am

    This is from a blog post I wrote in 2018 “Taking a Look at the Bigger Picture”. (http://womenofteal.blogspot.com/2018/01/taking-look-at-big-picture.html)
    So my next step was to look at each advocacy opportunity and asked myself:

    -how effective am I at doing that work?
    – am I the only one doing that work?
    -if I am the only one can another advocate/person do it?
    -how much does the work benefit other survivors/patients? 
    -how many people are effected by the work I do?
    -do I ever regret having agreed to do the work and feel that way when I am doing it?
    -does the work ever prevent me from doing other things – like hang out with my husband, grand-kids or dog?
    -does that work bring me JOY?

    These questions still hold true for me today.

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      December 21, 2022 at 9:16 am

      Thanks, Dee! You capture the spirit of “highest and best use” and apply specificity to it. I’m going to add these questions to mine this year.

      And I’m honored that my Letter to shareholders got a mention in your post.

      Reply
  3. Lisa Suennen says

    December 21, 2022 at 10:59 am

    Hi Susannah! My other question would be, “Do the people I’m working with feed my soul or deflate it?” Another way to put it, “Am I doing the work well, at least in part, because of the quality of the people I work with or in spite of them?”

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      December 21, 2022 at 11:48 am

      Fantastic question! Thanks, Lisa.

      Reply
  4. Dave deBronkart says

    December 21, 2022 at 1:01 pm

    I need to drop a preliminary note here, because this has kept tugging at me since it first popped up hours ago.

    You know my bewildering past and bewildering path into unplanned advocacy. I’ve constantly wondered what’s going on, what forces have swept me up, and what I want to do about it. You know that I didn’t start any of it *except* perhaps by the simple act of asking questions about “What the heck is going on here??” It started with discovering garbage in my chart in 2009 and has continued through years of witnessing the culture of healthcare resisting change with gyroscope-like tenacity despite mounds of reasoning and evidence.

    I don’t have a formal process like yours, at least not yet. I do ask myself that same question, “What’s going on here??” (yes with a double-?) then ponder my other eternal question: “What could be said that would make any difference?”

    It’s not a year-end process. I guess my “cycle,” such as it is, is more continuous.

    Reply
    • Dave deBronkart says

      December 21, 2022 at 2:25 pm

      I should add that part of those recurring questions is to ask, “Is it working? Is it getting anywhere? Is anything changing?”

      I just went back to your original 2018 post and re-read my comments there (and your post). Sobering – and I *did* post there about a retrospective series I’d just done called “Evolution.”

      In subsequent years I’ve realized that in 2017 I figure out the “Gordian knot” nature of American healthcare, which I then summarized as “a malignant tumor that can’t stop killing its host.” And it was at that point that I stopped seeking understanding, because I’d found my answer.

      There’s more reflecting to be done, so thanks for this post.

      Reply
      • Susannah Fox says

        December 21, 2022 at 2:28 pm

        Hooray! Thank you for sharing your reflections. Remember to include all the other ways you spend your time — as a caregiver, as a parent, as a grandpa — and weigh those activities up as part of any reckoning. That’s what caring for my dad taught me in 2017 and I’ve carried that forward since.

        Reply
  5. Ryan Prior says

    December 21, 2022 at 4:24 pm

    I love this. And especially having been born in Omaha (where our financial advisor still lives), I always appreciate a shoutout to Warren Buffett’s annual letters.

    Today I’m drafting my article for volume XL of our family’s annual “Priority News” letter. My parents, Mary and Tom Prior, were married 40 years ago, and have sent out this letter every year since. Today I’m summing up the year.

    In December 2021, I had two goals:
    1.) Be present for my friends and family at major life events (2 bachelor parties and 7 weddings).
    2.) Release my book “with my head held high.”

    I made it to 1 bachelor party and 6 weddings! And the book is now released with endorsements from Senator Kaine and Ed Yong, along with coverage in the LA Times, Newsweek, and Science. I feel ready to take some time off.

    I can also relate to your other post about making decisions based on panic that were off-mission and paid below market value: I had a misadventure dog-sitting a Great Dane for a week for $350 I thought I needed — the puppy destroyed a good bit of property and I learned why people crate their dogs. Evidence here: https://twitter.com/r_prior/status/1576957588763475968

    A reminder for me to stay on-mission and stick to writing!

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      December 22, 2022 at 12:08 pm

      Legit lol at the pictures you included with that tweet. A misadventure off-mission indeed!!!

      Thanks for all you do, Ryan! And if anyone reading has not yet read his book, THE LONG HAUL, I highly recommend it. One reviewer called it a “gripping, fast-paced history of the present moment.”

      (OK, yes, that reviewer was me.)

      Reply
  6. Burt Rosen says

    December 22, 2022 at 3:09 am

    I love this. Since I am a patient, my three themes (which I also use as filters and questions for myself) are:

    1. am I helping myself to heal
    2. am I helping others to heal
    3. am I helping those who can help others

    These have served me well to target where I am volunteering and where I want to spend my time working. They are what I refer to as my own personal strategic plan.

    Reply
    • Dee says

      December 22, 2022 at 8:59 am

      Barry – I like you list. especially #3.
      Dee

      Reply
      • Susannah Fox says

        December 22, 2022 at 12:06 pm

        Me too! #3 is community-building — which is so you, Burt, and so you, too, Dee.

        Reply
    • Dave deBronkart says

      December 22, 2022 at 10:17 am

      Burt, I love those questions, and they show up clearly in who you are for us all! Inspiring.

      Reply
  7. Maneesh Juneja says

    December 22, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    Have I been true to myself?

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      December 23, 2022 at 9:56 am

      Six words of wisdom! Thank you, Maneesh.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Explore

Don't miss a post

Enter your email address and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Topics

  • Seekers
  • Networkers
  • Solvers
  • Champions
  • Health Data
  • Peer-to-Peer Health Care
  • Public Q&A

Recent Comments

  • Susannah Fox on Jean Nidetch, Rebel Health leader: “Yes! I have enjoyed learning more about her personal story, which is a parable of midcentury feminism. WW was a…” May 9, 10:10
  • barbara figge fox on Jean Nidetch, Rebel Health leader: “Jean Neditch helped so many of us! She changed the landscape for weight reduction by leveraging peer support.” May 9, 08:11
  • Susannah Fox on Public Q&A: “I received scary test results. What questions should I ask my clinician?”: “Thanks, Samantha! I love your signature line/bona fides list — you tick the boxes for “learned and loved experience” described…” May 6, 15:33

Copyright Susannah Fox © 2025 · WordPress · Log in