Vanessa Smith wrote it all in such a perfect way, I am sharing, with her permission her check-list!
The New Year is upon us and if you are like most of us
with value-centered businesses, you may want some new tools to put some new
revitalised energy into your planning for 2015. And don’t forget that this
planning is the same when planning your own life goals.
Ask yourself ‘What if you could create a plan that is
infused with energy or “potential wanting to happen” in a greater sense? What
if, as I prepared my plan I started from a big picture perspective
incorporating not only the now and the past but the future as well?
Wouldn’t it be exciting, energising and very
empowering for all concerned?
Planning should involve an inspired action plan which
is infused with vital energy involving intuition, creativity, flexibility,
soul, and potential rather than only operating from the left side of our brains
(form, transaction, intellect, ego, outcome.)
When we operate from a more holistic place using both
sides of the brain, we create from a place of connection to what exists rather
than only operating from what we can see and what has come before us. Certainly
if we don’t allow wisdom, imagination and challenge into our planning, we will
only re-create what has come before. It will never have the potential to be all
that far reaching.
As you create using left and right brain the plan will
emerge from your talent and skills as well as from the wisdom and power of all
that is unseen and undefined.
Check list:
1. Work out your ultimate destination in a really big picture sense. In the
biggest sense, what is it that you really want to achieve by what you are
doing? What is your overall mission?
Just note down the overall rich, inspiring, exciting stuff. If, after discovering this, it is not exciting you, then it probably doesn’t have the power to move you, your life or your company forward. Think again and think big and mostly, enjoy the process! This is really important as this stage.
Just note down the overall rich, inspiring, exciting stuff. If, after discovering this, it is not exciting you, then it probably doesn’t have the power to move you, your life or your company forward. Think again and think big and mostly, enjoy the process! This is really important as this stage.
2. Make sure you have your values (and the values of the team) in alignment
and stated clearly, and also make sure that everyone understands what this
means. Sometimes we each put different meaning behind words, so talk this
through.
3. Now look at your goals. How many goals do you have for the next year? Are
they doable at a reasonable and invigorating stretch? If it’s just you and your
life, or your company is small, don’t overdo the number of goals. What we are
looking for here is quality not quantity. Remember that less is more and that
you can get enormous mileage from fewer goals done well. One great success fans
out and expands if done well.
4. Now pick a date for next year and one or two goals that you are involved in
now.
What do you want to have achieved by that date? Remember, don’t think small, and don’t only think doable. If your goal is easy to achieve, and you know you can do it, then you are thinking too small. By nature we tend to want to be right. So if we set ourselves a bigger challenge and a date to have it done by, we tend to stretch ourselves that little bit more because we want to be right.
What do you want to have achieved by that date? Remember, don’t think small, and don’t only think doable. If your goal is easy to achieve, and you know you can do it, then you are thinking too small. By nature we tend to want to be right. So if we set ourselves a bigger challenge and a date to have it done by, we tend to stretch ourselves that little bit more because we want to be right.
5. If you like, plan a celebration for that date. Perhaps the date is a
special date for some reason in your country or in your life, or perhaps it is
significant for your company. This makes getting there all the more inspiring.
6. Next, ask yourself who you need to be to achieve that goal? What qualities
do you need to evolve in you to reach that new place you have never been
before? In other words, what’s it going to take? You are creating something new
and it’s going to take someone new to get there. Start now to identify and evolve these
qualities in you
7. What do you need to have achieved by then to reach your goal? Imagine now
that you are three months off reaching your goal in the future. What do you
need to have achieved by then? Note these down and then step “back” in time to
the present moment. That is, three months, one month, one week, 24 hours or
whatever feels right for you.
8. Remember to be kind to yourself especially if you are a driven achiever. If
things are not working out the way you planned – maybe there is a bigger thing
wanting to happen that you haven’t put in your plan! Go back to the big picture
at the beginning and make sure you are in line with it. Give yourself a break
and loosen the reigns when needed so the energy leads you.
We are not only our minds; our intelligence stretches
way beyond our heads. Wake up to them and use them. Infuse your plan for 2015
with all the wisdom, creativity and intuition you walk around with each and
every day and remember that if it feels exciting, inspiring, a little bit scary
and challenging, it will have the energy to move things into a far more
inspired future.
Vanessa Jane Smith, Leadership Coach, Visual Facilitator, 0031 (0) 646598328, www.craftingconnection.com
