So, in our back-to-school themed week, yesterday we went through some questions to help review your last quarter, season, or even year. Today, is about looking ahead! Hurrah!
Over the next couple of posts, we’re going to get specific, but before diving headlong into goals, what might be a good theme for the year, season, or even just the next month?
Your Guiding Theme:
Think of some words that would up your game a bit, and guide you in an intentional way - in any area of your life. It could be ‘playful’, or ‘focus’, ‘curious’, ‘engaged’, ‘simplify’, ‘pioneer’, ‘wealthy’, ‘trust’, ‘delight’, ‘leader’, ‘release’, ‘impact’…..and about a thousand other possibilities.
Don’t try to force this word, but play with ideas and see how they feel. The one that makes you a bit uncomfortable and sticks right in the middle of your ribs….but doesn’t totally freak you out….that’s probably the one. :-)
This might take you some days, so don’t hurry it. You can also type into google: Word of the Year. Several people have resources on this. It doesn’t have to be for the whole year, but those resources might give you ideas.
Once you have it, write it down on a big sticky note. Attach it to the wall in the bathroom or next to your computer or somewhere you see every day. This is going to be a theme that keeps showing up for you, I promise.
It’s an oddly powerful exercise!
Now….
Your Momentum Map
Part 1: Vision. (Part 2, implementing, is tomorrow)
So, first of all, this is YOUR next chapter. Not mine. You get to adjust whatever you want for whatever purpose you see fit.
This mapping process is designed to help clarify, and provide focus. For lots of us (myself very much included), we have so much that we can do and want to do, that we end up not starting (or not finishing) things that would take us a tangible step further, because we haven’t properly prioritized or mapped out the actual tasks. We don’t even always know what ‘success’ in a particular are would look like and feel like.
So this is designed to inspire balance, but also actionable progress.
This is also not just about work. In my view, a balanced, interesting and fulfilling year has to include some combination of these seven focus areas:
Work or service: This can be raising kids, doing a job/running a business, or volunteering, and it also includes all the chores that you do outside of a paid job that keep your household and car running etc.
Health: This can be about fitness, scheduling maintenance appointments, or dealing with niggly (or more serious) problems etc
Play: Doing something for the pure enjoyment of it. There is no other purpose to these activities. These are things you get lost in.
Learning: There might be an overall goal to these elements (like learning Photoshop so you can better edit your photos to sell on iStock), but also maybe not. Reading interesting things, going to a museum, watching a Masterclass video - you can just learn something because it’s interesting. You do not have to justify learning for any other reason.
Rest: This is not just about restoring your energy so you can work harder, it is also just about restoring your energy. No other goal necessary. You get to rest just because we need to rest.
Relationships: Sometimes these goals fall into play, or rest, or work, but often they don’t quite fit neatly anywhere else, so I break them out in their own category in my planning.
Finances: Budgets, income goals, and expenses
Each of these will have different levels of attention at different times, and they will overlap in some cases, but they must all be in your plan to some degree most of the time.
Here’s how I start to map out what seems important: I write down each of the seven categories on the left side of a piece of paper going down the page, and I add three columns across the top:
Be, Do, Have
For each of the categories down the left….let’s take ‘health’ as an example….what is something you want to Be(or feel), Do, and Have by the end of the quarter or year (whichever timeframe you’re working on)?
So it might be:
BE: stronger | DO: Hire a trainer, go the gym 2x/week | HAVE: clothes that fit.
or for finances:
BE: wealthier | DO: Increase clients (2 more) | HAVE: $500 more/mth
Try to make the ‘do’ and the ‘have’ categories as specific as you can, so you would know when you’ve accomplished it.
For each of the categories, you might have several things. For example, in the ‘work’ category, I have some household goals and some paid-work (client and marketing goals). But try to keep it to one main thing, especially if you’re planning just the next few months, because what we will do tomorrow is calendarize!
Yep, we’re going to give ourselves the actual tasks to make these things happen and timeframes that are doable - we’re not just going dream about them.
But for today, I hope you are able to work on developing some vision and clarity!