I’m surprised to see how much negativity gets thrown around about planning and ‘the wrong way to plan.’
Some are saying you’re using the ‘wrong’ method. Some are saying it’s best to just go with the flow. Others are saying you must plan now to get the most out of the quarter and others still say it’s the wrong time to plan due to the seasons or the moon. Plus every woman and her sister seems to be talking about, or running a planning workshop or boot-camp of some description. For me, there’s no right or wrong to planning, and it’s not a static process.
Planning is simply a way to organise our thoughts and ideas, to help us to create momentum on the things which are important to us in business and life. We then need an implementation process in place. Together they keep us out of overwhelm, enable us to get the stuff done, as well as to feel accomplished on a daily basis. It helps us balance the yin and yan, the being and the doing, it helps us be intentional, to create space AND get stuff done.
How we do that evolves over time as we and our businesses do. We’ll do it differently at different times, but the basis is the same – dream and vision our heart’s desire, identify the good feeling action steps that take us towards that dream business and life, do that, review how it’s going, and repeat.
Having some sort of framework, system, process or workbook in place to help you do all that consistently, enables you to continually have a CEO overview of your business and life.
That sounds incredibly dull to many people, but I promise you it can be really really fun!
My clients and I meet every Monday morning for a group co-working session so that we can plan our week together – no more missed or forgotten appointments! Plus I pick a NineTomatoes.com Unlimited Freedom or Peace and Harmony inspirational card for each of you to guide you through the week.
Every quarter we complete your 90-day plan together – you get to share out loud your hopes and dreams for your future as you see them right now. It’s always so exciting to hear what people have in store for them!
And then I support you whilst you get down to the nitty-gritty of prioritising what you’re choosing to work on first, and when. You schedule breaks and holidays, as well as work, launches and offerings – more white space phew!
And every quarter your plan will look either a little or a lot different, but you’ll have made progress regardless of what unexpected things life has thrown at you.
Plans are not set in stone, plans can change, we NEED to be flexible with our plans, but it’s actually pretty incredible how much your plan can support you in times of unexpected crisis.
It can serve as a stabiliser, a welcome distraction from what you’re going through. Equally, it can be a welcome reminder of where you were before when you’re ready to get back in the saddle and reevaluate from your current position.
I feel sad when I hear people slagging off planning, partly because even though I know I ‘shouldn’t’, I take it personally, #human!
Partly because I think being negative about planning does a disservice to the many people who could really benefit from it and it might well just put them off giving it a go.
And partly because sometimes the people who are slagging it off are doing it in order to make sales in their own programs “# state your point of difference – said every marketing teacher out there.” And I don’t understand why we as women need to slag off other people’s methods to sell our own.
And there lies the dichotomy because by writing about this at all, I guess I’m being negative about the ladies who are being negative about planning, in order to sell my own services! We’re all in this together right???
But what I really want to say is, there’s no such thing as the wrong way to plan, there’s no right or wrong way, or right or wrong time to plan.
Any time is a good time to plan, and if you’ve made a ton of plans and never stuck to them, it’s as simple as, you’ve not made plan implementation a priority or a habit yet. And that’s what I enable people to do. So that people can see their dream life and business, intentionally come to life, step by step. With fun and challenge, and transformation. I LOVE it!!!!
If you’d like to embody planning, getting organised, and getting stuff done so that you can manifest a really good feeling life, drop me a line at heather@getaccomplishedwithheather.com I can help you do that.
