Planning 2015 – are you ready?

It’s time to start planning 2015!  The old adage that if you fail to plan you plan to fail starts to gather momentum at this time of year. As we advance towards the festive season, the busyness leading up to the big day takes over our lives and we often start to lose our way with our good intentions and plans. Couple with this, the increase in entertainment, food and general good cheer and it’s no wonder that things get a little out of control!

But as we all know, come January the 1st, we will all be feeling the effects of a tighter than usual waistband, our fitness levels will have succumbed to the allure of too many late nights and our good intentions to keep up with our homework, keep the clutter at bay or just be more mindful have drifted into no-mans-land!

We may also feel that we have run into an impasse and be questioning our life direction. We may want to make changes, but as yet we have not surfaced those changes into concrete plans and a list of actions.

Whether we like it or not, January is the time for planning 2015! Not just any old plan, but a life plan that specifies the things we want to have, see and do. We need a list of actions that will bring us to that place and we need to be ready to take action. But first and foremost, we must get planning!

Why is it so important to plan?

We all know that it’s good to plan, after all, we plan our annual holiday, we plan major purchases we even plan a family (mostly!). But why is it so important to plan our lives? Here’s the easy answer: have you ever noticed how your days rush by in a blur of (other peoples’) emergencies, appointments to attend, jobs, daily chores to keep on top of and falling onto the sofa at the end of the day exhausted? In amongst all that, were you even able to think about the things you wanted to achieve that day, leave alone actually get around to doing any of it?

Instead you think to yourself things will sort themselves out, or maybe you think that when you have time you will… <fill in your personal blank>. But the reality is that there’s never going to be enough time. Ironically there will always be enough emergencies, enough chores and enough appointments to keep you going indefinitely which is why it’s so important to plan.

A well thought out plan will give you comfort in knowing that you are driving your life in the direction you have chosen rather than allowing life to push you along a windy road with no finite destination.

It’s all about the strategy

In the business world, making strategic plans for the future is normal. Planning the direction the company wants to move in is not only sensible but an absolute necessity if the company isn’t going to fall prey to every economic bump and obstacle that comes its way.

It’s the same for us as individuals. We know that life has a way of throwing curve balls our way when we least expect them and before we know it, we’re off down a rabbit hole not really knowing where we’re going to end up.

We eventually emerge from that dark place, eyes blinking at the sunlight, trying to remember exactly what we are all about, what were we doing before that thing hit us, and where do we go from here?

But if we’ve already taken some time out to gaze into the future at what we would like our life to look like a month, 6 months or a year from now, then we have only to check back on our last landing point, refresh and pick up the pieces and then get going again.

This may sound simplistic because in the real world, some of the curve balls we deal with can change our whole landscape, but that doesn’t mean to say that we must also change our goals. Sometimes we just need to re-assess the validity of our goals in the light of the changes we’ve experienced. If they still fit, great!, keep going. If changes are needed though, work through them. What needs to change, how does that affect the original plan, how can I move forward on this? All these and other questions should be addressed, a new plan written up and off we go again!

What if I’m not sure what to plan for?

This can be a tough question that can lead us into overanalysing our needs and wants, our coulds and shoulds until we become paralysed by the number of choices that are available to us. This can lead to a classic case of procrastination, making us give up even before we really begin.

There are some useful tools and techniques to overcome this problem, my favourite being to look at different areas of my life to determine where I’m either most dissatisfied or where I’d like to see things develop. Once I’ve taken the time to assess my current lifestyle and achievements ‘from a distance’, I can then objectively begin planning 2015 and all the things I would like to change and, most importantly, what that change actually looks like in its completed form. After all, there’s little point in working towards an ambiguous target…how would I know that I’d achieved my goal?!

So what’s to be done?

Believe me when I say that the festive season is going to creep up on us in an instant and will take our lives over for the duration! That’s great, and I wish everyone a wonderful time, but before you descend into the joyous chaos, why not find a quiet time to just start thinking about your plans for 2015?

I bet that right now you already have some thoughts beginning to take shape, but they’re mixed with your Christmas plans! Get them out of your head by scribbling them down at the back of your diary so they are ready to pick up once the melee has quietened. Then, if you want some structured and light-hearted help on getting your goals together using my favourite planning technique, take a look at my eBook, Ignite Your Motivation. It’s the perfect time to download the book to your Kindle so that it’s ready and waiting as January the 1^st arrives.

[huge_it_slider id=”2″]If you already have the book (thanks!), then consider a re-read.  Planning 2015 should be a priority for your personal development and happiness in the New Year and beyond.  Don’t forget you can contact me with any questions you may have and I will be very happy to help.  Make 2015 your  most successful year yet and get planning!

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Photos: EpicFireworks , Linus Bohman , Tsahi Levent-Levi