In the corporate world, planning is often all about setting objectives, then going straight into action…
Or SMART goals that can feel dull and boring which you struggle to connect with.
Over the years, I’ve developed my own approach, all based on Feel Good Planning. So not creating more pressure, expectation and benchmarks to judge yourself against.
Yet instead, starting with feelings first. This is my Pause and Passion plan process, not your traditional way of planning but an incredibly impactful one that gets great results.
Feeling first is incredibly powerful because it sets up a system within our brain that is called the reticular activating system.
By setting up that system we are short cutting ourselves to achieve the goals we want. It’s almost like adding rocket fuel to get you there even more quickly. It means that the more you feed the goals, the more you create clarity on what you want.
The brain will cut through the millions of bits of information received from all the different centres and focus on building those little connections and find different ways of bringing things together that you hadn’t seen before to help you to get to where you want to be.
Generally, we don’t really utilise this system and it isn’t triggered unless we’re super clear on what and how we want to feel… It is very much a feeling led process.
The Seven Steps
There are seven steps to help you plan in a way that feels good and make that move away from the more corporate, fire-draining goal planning structure and January resolutions.
Because let’s face it, no one feels good about those and everyone expects to fail them. In just over a month 80% of people have failed them and that just makes you feel even worse.
Feel Good Planning is a flexible framework, that helps you put in place your own plan built around how you want to feel… which is MASSIVELY powerful.
Step 1: Don’t put yourself under pressure
A lot of people put themselves under huge amounts of pressure to have absolute clarity on everything they want to achieve in the next year by 1st January.
Remind yourself that you don’t need to put yourself under that pressure of having everything aligned and ready at the start of the year. You’re not a failure at all and you’re not unusual if you don’t have absolute clarity.
If you take time to think, we’re setting you up for the whole year, 365 days.
So give yourself a little bit of grace and a little bit of time to make sure that you’re really thinking about what you want and making sure you’re spending those days wisely.
I often see with women at the top that they very easily get straight into action mode because that’s your comfort zone, it’s what you know because that’s where you’ve done so well before.
But if you think of the analogy of climbing the corporate ladder, it’s about making sure your ladders against the right wall before you put your energy in.
Inspired Action: Remove the pressure and take the time to really pause and think! Review and look back before you start to look forward.
Step 2: Objectives and goals can be whatever you want them to be
It doesn’t always have to be tangible like a promotion, new role or a higher salary, objectives and goals can be a feeling. They can be anything you want them to be.
In the corporate world there’s a lot of focus on SMART objectives, where they’re specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timed.
For me SMART objectives are a bit of a snooze fest and I find them really boring. They don’t excite me and never connect to my heart.
It makes everything seem smaller and we want to be realistic, but we also want to dream big and allow ourselves to really go big.
Inspired Action: Allow yourself to use the universe as a wish list and think about everything that you do want, those things that you get excited about.
Step 3: Think about the things that you DON’T want
If your planning feels too overwhelming, like you’re feeling a bit stuck in your own head with everything that’s happened over the last few years… just really think about what you don’t want.
Think about the things that you really don’t want in your life that you have right now, or you have had in the past.
And from a brain perspective, the brain has a huge negative bias. In fact, it has three different biases: negativity, recency and our story over other people.
With that negativity bias, the brain will always attach itself more to something that’s potentially negative, puts us in danger or could lead to us being injured or loss of life. The brain focuses there because it’s the brain’s primary job to put safety first and make sure we wake up tomorrow morning.
What it means is that if you’re struggling to think of what you want, your magic day or your wish list for the universe, try starting with what you don’t want. They could be about setting boundaries at work, how you look after yourself, even what time you wake up in the morning… from here you can work out what you do want.
Inspired Action: And if your planning does feel too overwhelming… talk about if it feels too much… with a partner, loved one, colleague or even a coach like me – I promise you’re not alone!
Step 4: Pause and reflect
You can’t look forward until you have looked back. So if you look back over the last year, what were your wins? What were your lessons? What were those real heartfelt, brilliant moments?
Then flip it… what were your struggles? What were your challenges? What don’t you want to carry into the coming year?
What we’re doing here is looking for the diamonds in the rough and those lessons you’ve learned over the year… whether that’s in a negative way or positive way.
Inspired Action: Take some time to reflect, look back and list out what you’ve achieved and what you’ve done. And if you’ve not done something that you wanted to, why not? Be really honest about what you’ve done well and those things that haven’t gone as planned.
Step 5: Set a theme for the year
When it comes to setting your theme for the year, think of something like a hashtag or a headline.
The reason this is so powerful is because the brain loves clarity and by having a set word, hashtag or headline you have something to question everything that comes into your life against, even those things already in your life. It helps you say, does this fit? Is this the right step? Is this where I want to be?
It provides you with a framework to benchmark against and gives you a way of almost sifting through opportunities that come up to ensure they align.
Inspired Action: Keep reminding yourself of your theme and use it as a weekly check-in e.g. this week how have I scored out of 10 for your word, hashtag or headline? How could I add one to that next week?
Step 6: Lead with your feelings
Once you’ve done the reflection, pausing, and looking back, it’s then time to look forward. But before we get into any goals or actions, we start with feelings.
This is because the brain doesn’t care about goals, it looks for feelings.
Think about this year and how it’s felt. And then look forward to next year and think, what is the antidote to that? How do I want to feel next year? Then you can start to think about what your ingredients are to feel that way.
So get super honest about how you want to feel and start there for the feelings.
Inspired Action: If you want to read more about how you can do this, author Danielle LaPorte has an incredible book called The Desire Map which talks all about leading with your feelings first.
Step 7: Be a woman of action
When I say a woman of action, this is really about moving at a pace that is right for you. I talk to my clients a lot about pace and what feels right for you at that moment in time.
Sometimes it might feel like you’re going a hundred miles an hour and you’re incredibly career focussed. Other times it might feel like you want to slow down and really focus on home or your family… and all of that’s okay. It’s just different chapters of your life and your pace is going to change.
So when you’re being a woman of action, think about pace. And if you’re starting January feeling tired, slow down the pace. If you’re starting January feeling energised and really excited, it’s okay to have a slightly higher pace.
Life happens in ebbs and flows, and even as a woman of action you don’t need to do everything all at once. Take a step at a time and trust, create a great foundation that you can build huge long-term progress on.
And don’t underestimate the power of small steps as women at the top… the smallest steps create momentum. Enjoy the journey more rather than rushing through life!
Inspired Action: Look at your diary for the week and if the pace feels too much for your energy levels… think, how can you slow that down? What can you let go of in that week to match your energy? Or if you’re feeling great, how can you pick up the energy?
And that’s it! Feel Good Planning in a way that feels good for YOU.
Give the steps a go and message me here to let me know how you get on – I would love to know what your hashtag or headline is going to be for 2022!
I have created space for 5 women in senior roles who want to append the first 4 weeks of 2022 getting clear, confident and fired up ready to make some serious changes in their organisation. So click here to book a call NOW if you want to lock in your January self-development.
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Big love
Nic x
