Tis the season of personal lives and business lives that are brimming with activity, extra spending, and expectations for finding a little bit of magic. The end of the year for some can be a wonderful celebration and farewell to a year filled with memories and milestones but for some it can echo moments of darkness and pure agony. Regardless where you fit on this continuum, we wanted to introduce a new thought and word into your vocabulary. Planure. How do you planure? Plan for the future.
As 2020, will quickly be upon us and the new Star Wars will be released and some of us will revel in how society, communications, work, well just about everything has changed. Nostalgic watchers will remember the original movies and gleam satisfaction in knowing that the legacy of such a dynasty will live on for generations to come. Now has there always been a story, a set of films, that has been able to last as the Star Wars films have throughout the years. Probably not. But, we'd like to learn from Star Wars and what it can teach us about Planure.
Here are 5 steps to rock Planure for the new year:
Step One:
Review your past. It is incredibly important as you are planning for your future to be able to look back over the past year and look for things that worked and didn't work. Were you a Jedi and decide that you really wanted to be Yoda? Looking at the past, especially reviewing your data, you'll notice trends and meaningful information you can use as you Planure.
Here you would be looking for trends around:
- cost and spending
- income and where it came from
- success and engagement in any program you did
- return on investment around software, services, etc you are using
- productivity and how well you are enjoying life opposed to how much you are working
- quality
Step Two:
Digest your results. You've captured a lot of data and found trends, now what? How will you use what you've found?
Excellent insight gain you will. Information is only as good as the change it has inspired. If you've noticed that you are working too much and not making as much money as you should, take a moment to feel the insights. Is this something you want to change or is this something that you are ok with staying the same.
Why do I say this? There is a lot of wisdom in knowing what to change and leave the same. If you are constantly trying to fix something that is working, then what have you just done? Probably wasted a whole lot of energy, right? There are also plenty of problems and issues that just can't be fixed or changed right away, so digesting the results will help you keep these issues in mind as you do your long term planning. It will help you create a meaningful roadmap. And one can't go from Jedi to Yoda without a plan, right!
Step Three:
Choose wisely. What is the biggest truth that we all experience every day? Limited time have we! How do you spend yours?
Building a roadmap with the most important goals for your future is so incredibly important. It will focus you, it will provide the most impact, and if done right some of the smaller goals will get done along the way as well. It is like one book I read mentioned.
Let's go back to Step Two and look at how we felt about each of the data points and areas where we found change needed to happen. A great tool for deciding which change to focus on is to rate each by level of importance. You keep doing this until you get down to a small manageable list of priority goals for the short and long term. As you identify these goals you'll want to broadly define them so that you can then plan how to set them as a priority and then determine how to implement as we discuss in Step Four and Step Five, but for now we are talking about them as a broad idea and definition. Once you've made your choices you are ready to head on down to the next step. The best part of this step is it is all self driving, you aren't being forced to join the rebellion or hide from an enemy.
Step Four:
Set priorities for short term and long term goals. If you are flying an Xwing you aren't going to just fly out into the universe without a plan, no you are going to use your tools and robot friends to help you get there. Just like the Jedi did you need to set your priorities and understand what you want to accomplish and how you are going to get there. Whether you are fighting for freedom or planning out next year's marketing strategy, always start with the top priorities for both your short and long term goals.
Setting priorities based on what will deliver the most benefit for you now and in the long run helps you focus your energy in places where you will see change. When we are working on plans for the future, if we plan a whole lot of the same thing that wasn't working before, something interesting can happen, we lose interest and then everything falls apart. However, if we are strategic, if we pick the top three most impactful goals to achieve, we will see far more movement and experience a lot more success.
Step Five:
Implement your Planure. Now that you're in your Xwing and you know the different milestones to defeating Darth Vader, it is time to implement your plan. You gather up the short and long term goals and then you start to assign tasks to each, so that you know exactly what you will be doing when.
For example, if you are flying to another planet you will need to make sure you have enough fuel, the right money, alliance of people who can help you. Planning for each of these is its own task.
Why do we break it down this way? If Yoda asked a Jedi to eat a frog, do you think he'd have him eat it all at once or in small bite size pieces?
If you said small bit size pieces you are correct. It is much easier to implement a plan that is broken out into many steps.
But how do you know what tasks to do, how long will they take, and how do you know when they are done? You track them? Just like with any war or mission you need to keep track of exactly where you are going and where you have been. You can do this using lists, project plans, or even sticky notes. I know a lot of people who just love Kanban Tables. It makes organizing data in a visual way super easy.
Lastly, it is never good to go it alone. A solo mission is never a fun mission. Finding an accountability partner is an amazing way to stay on track and to keep you motivated to meet your goals. Let's face it would Hans Solo been able to do what he did without the help of others probably not so why should you.
So how will you embrace your Planure? Do you have big goals for 2020? Do you envision the year to be out of this world?
If you'd like to join a community, where you can quietly sit and plan out your next year or two, we have plenty of space for you and would love to have you join us. All you have to do is come for a tour and see if we might inspire a fix or two for your Planure.
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