Planning and Preparation: Are You Stuck?

Do you have a plan?

Planning for the Future

It’s the end of the year. You’ve wrapped up your evaluation of your progress for the year only to realize that you’ve been spinning your wheels. You haven’t made any forward movement. It’s been a year of status quo.

While you’re not really sure how that happened, you know that you aren’t happy with keeping your life the way it is. You work way too hard to live this little. Once upon a time, you gained great satisfaction from your work. It gave you a sense of purpose and fulfillment; you were excellent at what you did and you received the recognition you deserved.

Preparation

You’re a planner. You have a plan for this year, next year, and five years from now. But somewhere along the line, things went off track. You’ve hit what feels like quicksand—the more you struggle to get out of it, the deeper you go. What do you do? You need to hit your goals now to be able to build upon that success to meet the next goals.

Plan Differently

It’s time to plan differently. This year’s plan has been met with resistance at every turn. How do you change that? Let’s take a different approach to planning.

Creating a Plan

When you were mapping out a plan, how did you determine the goals in your plan? Did you determine specific goals, or was it more about taking a new approach to things?

Before you determine a goal, first take stock of your personal values. What do you value? What means the most to you in your daily life? Is it making a certain amount of money, or is it having the flexibility in your schedule and life to focus on the things that inspire and recharge you?

Start with figuring out what makes you tick. Determine what makes you happiest.

Omozua, you say that like it’s so easy to do. 

So, it might not be a simple task. Many times this is the hardest part and, most often, this is the first thing we begin to work on when I am working with a new client.

For the purpose of creating a plan, though, we can simplify things a little. Start by making a list. Write down all the times in your life when you were the most content and happy. Now, start examining your feelings in each situation. Are there any recurring feelings? Think carefully about each situation and see if there are any similarities.

Choosing a Goal

If you’ve been able to see the common denominator in the situations in life where you’ve felt your happiest, then it’s time to choose a goal. Choose a goal that is multifaceted.

To be true to yourself and what you’ve learned about what makes you happiest, you need a goal that is:

1. Flexible
2. Result-based
3. Focused on the journey

So, what does such a goal look like? That’s the key—it’s a goal that is completely unique to you. It’s a goal that’s all about staying true to you, your values, your strengths, and your happiness.

Plotting Your Path

Switch your focus to the journey that will lead you to the goal. Primarily, your focus will be on the path on a daily basis. What do you truly want in life? What are you striving toward?

I can say with certainty that the path you need to take will mean shedding yourself of patterns and mindsets that do not serve your best interests. It will mean silencing that inner chihuahua, or at least flipping the narrative so the inner chihuahua is much kinder or there is an answering voice that is fully confident in who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish.

Firmly focus on patterns and mindsets in your life. This isn’t an easy process; at this point you may want someone to help you to identify patterns and mindsets and then determine if they are still serving a positive purpose in your life. I am here if you choose to seek assistance. Click Contact to get in touch with me.

Once you’ve identified patterns and mindsets, then determine how you plan to break the pattern or what you will replace the mindset with. You must have a plan of action ready to see the most success.

One Step at a Time

As you’ve already discovered, creating a plan that will result in a happier, more fulfilled you isn’t something you can do in a day. It takes quite a bit of work to take things to a deeper level to gain clarity. But the result is so worth the work. Living a purpose-driven life is invaluable to your happiness.

Start off right with a Discovery Session.