Planning 2012 Part 1: The Big Picture
Over the last few years, I have made a concerted effort to plan in December for the upcoming year. It is much more than setting a few New Year’s resolutions.
It typically includes determining a theme for the year, my key goals and objectives, my priorities, and how I am going to spend my time. I do this for my personal and professional life.
I am starting the planning process now and it will run to the end of December. In early January I have a solid plan in place and I am energized to get things rolling. I then do monthly goals and check-ins to keep myself on track. I hope you will join me on my process.
Week 1: The Big Picture
This is the big picture stuff – the visioning of your life. It is inherently individual. So, put on some tea, light a candle or incense, and find a comfy spot. Note that you may have to do the steps in a few sessions, but you could do it all in an afternoon.
This week you will need a journal. I typically get a new large moleskin at the end of each year. It is what I use throughout the year. It includes my monthly dreamboards, notes from sessions and classes, journaling, and ideas. Use whatever you have or whatever will work best for you.
Step 1: Visioning to December 2012
I start with a big picture view on my life and your business. Where am I right now and where do I want to be in December 2012? I journal about all aspects of this including:
- Where am I living?
- What am I doing?
- What work am I doing?
- How am I feeling?
- Who am I with?
- What has changed?
- What did I not like doing in 2011?
- What activities filled me with joy and energy?
Journaling may help ground you before doing the next exercise.
Ask yourself the same questions for both your personal and professional lives. As entrepreneurs our personal and professional are often intertwined. So be sure to consider all aspects of your life – career and business, finances, education, personal development, health: mind, body and spirit, relationships, , environment, play/enjoyment, etc.
The outcome of this exercise should give you a sense of how you want your life to be a year from now. It can be general or specific.
Step 2: Top 10 questions
Do the 100 questions exercise from Michael Gelb. Read here for more information and a video that walks you through the exercise.
- Write the 100 questions that are meaningful to you. Do this in one sitting. Don’t worry about repeating questions, spelling or grammar. You won’t be tested on this.
- Read the questions that you wrote and highlight the major ones, the ones that summarize several, etc.
- Select your top 10 questions.
- Rank your top 10 questions with 1 being the most important.
Take the time to do the exercise fully. Notice the themes in both the 100 and the top 10. How can you work through the top 10 questions in 2012? You will need to allot some time – I expect it to take about 2 hours in total, but will greatly depend on how fast you are in your selection. You can break it up into a few pieces as noted above.
The outcome for this exercise is to provide you with those key themes and questions that are most important to you. For many of us, themes will emerge that you wouldn’t have considered right away. By doing the 100 questions you will go deeper into what is significant and meaningful to you and your business.
Step 3: Selection of words
For the past few years, I have selected 2-3 words that have been guides for the year. In 2011 my word and overall goal was transformation. I also had a couple other words including freedom and balance. These words have been a key theme in my life over this past year.
What themes emerged in step 2? Are there a few words that sum it up – these words can help remind you and keep you focused throughout the year?
I have already been toying with the words I will select for 2012: perhaps faith. However, I will be going through this first week’s work and see where I end up.
It is worth noting that throughout the process, my selected words may change as I get into more detail and other ideas present themselves. Remain open to the process and opportunities that arise.
Outcome:
At the end of this week’s exercises you should have a vision for your year, some major questions that you want to work towards answering, and some words/themes to guide you. Hopefully at this point, you are excited to get into more details and you have lots of ideas percolating. In the coming weeks, we will be gathering those ideas, creating some major goals and objectives, and starting to roughly schedule out the year.
Next week’s post will be Part 2: Big Goals and Objectives
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