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My Year Planning Process (And Why I Don't Wait For January) : Lesson 46

 

 

“I had to extricate myself from the pressure of becoming” - Jim Carrey. 

In this rewind episode, I am on vacation in Mexico, reflecting on the changes in the quality of my mind from when I was last on vacation the year before, and how much things have changed in my mind and life since then. There’s something to be said about learning and knowing ourselves. 

In this week’s episode, I talk about several things. Like the inner critic that many of us have, that tells us how we should or shouldn’t act in a certain situation. For instance, while on vacation, I kept getting the urge to work and get organized about my next steps in my career, and kept telling myself that I shouldn’t work while on vacation. But what actually came after I gave myself permission to work for a little while, was clarity. The clarity that I felt after I stopped listening to my inner critic, and allowed myself to get organized, so I could truly enjoy my vacation. 

So for this episode, I wanted to share my system of yearly organization and planning. This is a system that allowed me to have more freedom in my mind and life, because the more organized I am, the lighter my mind is. Organizing and planning for the year ahead gives me more confidence to go forward in life and with my passions, and helps me better support myself both professionally, mentally, and physically. 

“What do I even define as magic? It’s the ability to dream big, to match the frequency of that dream, and bring it to life. If not me, then who? If not now, when?” - Komal Minhas 

Without further ado, here is a brief overview of my yearly organizational process. To get the most out of this episode, make sure to download our free worksheet for yearly planning so that you can work through it as you listen to this episode!

Step 1:  Look back and celebrate [13:59] 

Ask yourself: What is a recent dream you’ve accomplished? What is a recent benchmark or goal that you have hit? This can apply to both work and personal life. 

  • Revel in the thing that you accomplished in the past. Remember what it was like to bring that to life from an idea into something you executed. This will show you how being consistent with your planning and goals will allow you to complete them 

“No one is going to celebrate you for you. Celebrate yourself.” - Komal Minhas 

 

Step 2 - Braindump  - [22:04] 

  1. Get a journal
  2. Separate two pages in our journal for two separate goal lists: personal and professional. 
  3. Write down everything that comes to mind and get it out of your system. Take the pressure off to commit to things you have written down, and just get it all out. 
  4. Once you have had a second to breathe and look at it, decide what feels great for the next right step. You can do this all at once, or one step per day. 

 

Step 3 - 22:11 - Narrow Down Your Brain Dump [24:20] 

  1. Underline the things that stand out to you most, based on importance
  2. Look at the “most important” section again, and highlight things that are even higher in importance or priority to you. Ask yourself: What would make you feel most excited if you accomplished this in the next year?
  3. Try to map out how long each of your goals will take, and if some need to be broken down into smaller dreams or goals
  4. Try to narrow down your list to 3 major personal goals and 3 major professional goals. 

 

Step 4 - Name Your Goals and Your Action Plan For Each [26:23]

  1. Ask yourself:  For these 3 goals, what can I do in the next 3 months to achieve these?
  2. Make a to-do list for the next 3 months/quarter. 
  3. Continue to build out this list, split it up into tasks and time frames, and frame it in a way that will fill your calendar with chunks of time to work. Getting granular and scheduling in time to work on your goals makes things go from a piece of paper, into making things happen and bringing them into reality. 
  4. Make a to do list for making the thing come to life. Divide it into action items, chunks of time, and schedule it. 

"Go from dream, to action,  to completion." - Komal Minhas

Step 5 - Schedule in Time At The End of The Quarter To See How You Did [28:54]  

  1. At the end of the 3 months, take a look back at your list of goals for that quarter.
  2.  While giving yourself grace and understanding, look at what has been accomplished, and what your next 3 goals are
  3. Ideally, you want to schedule in about an hour of time every 3 months to check in on your quarterly goals, and an hour of time every month to check in on your monthly goals. 

"Planning is required in the execution and making of the reality of our goals." - Komal Minhas 

 


Click below to download this week's quote

 

I hope that sharing this process that I have worked out for myself can be helpful to you and allow you to gain some clarity on how you can begin to map out your next steps as we come close to the end of the year. Stay tuned on my social media in the coming weeks, as I will be sharing more details about my yearly planning process and tools for you to begin to map out your next steps. 

Head to our Lessons Learned IG and share with me on our DM’s: How do you plan? What works for you?

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