How do we plan now?!

How the world has changed in such a short amount of time. I’m writing to you as the the country goes on lockdown in an attempt to stop Covid19 spreading. Although I’m not too worried about the health of my family, I am worried about the vulnerable members of my family and community, and the wider effects of the impending recession. Auden has had a temperature so we are self isolating in an attempt to not be part of the spread. The sheer scale of the change both at home and internationally is dizzying, which is compounded by the speed at which it’s happened.

I have talked a lot about why it’s so ineffectual to make goals that make you feel bad, and about why it’s so important to be kind to yourself. But I wanted to go in to a bit more detail about how I learned this. I have shared snippets of the following stories before but not fully.

So, I have decided to share 3 goals I totally failed. You’re welcome! I love a failed goals post as much as they next one!

You’ll notice that each of these “failed goals” are not really failures at all, which is kind of the point. I still call on and teach from these experiences now, and how they shaped the whole Life Book process.

I have packaged everything I have learned so far about making goals that stick into a free downloadable checklist to promote the new self paced version of The Life Book e-course. The checklist makes it as practical and as applicable as humanly possible!

July marks the start of the second half of the year!

We are somehow, astonishingly, half way through the year of 2019! The Summer Solstice has passed and we are deep into Summer (in the northern hemisphere anyway!).

The mid point of the year is the perfect time to review the goals we set at the start of the year and see how we are doing, assess whether any of our goals need to change, harvest the lessons learned and figure out some practicable action steps for the second half of the year.

Whether you have been checking in on your goals regularly, or you can’t really even remember what they were, this process is useful.

I am in the middle of doing my mid year/second quarter review. Just like in previous quarters I am celebrating the positive change and steps taken (even if small!), adjusting or pivoting goals that haven’t gone to plan (with joy and grace) and cancelling others that now feel wrong.

A personal review:

Yesterday, I talked about why I love planning, my unpredictable and sometimes messy life, and some of the principles that underpin HOW I plan. Click here to read that post which covers why kindness and flexibility are essential (and kinda radical), a note on toxic productivity and why planning needs to encompass both appointments AND wider life goals. I also mentioned that I’ve launched the planning and productivity part of my e-course as a separate resource too (whoop!)

Today i’m going to go into how I manage my everyday planning. Because my system is connected to my wider goals, I can’t start talking about everyday planning without first talking about yearly goals, so i’ll start there! I know that’s quite the leap, but bear with me, it make sense, I promise!

I can’t remember a time when I haven’t written down my thoughts, hopes and dreams. I write in my journal regularly, I love writing and I make lists and plan in every area of my life. I use planning for the daily minutiae of family and freelance life, but I also use it for inching towards my big dreams and goals too. I’ve had a lot of questions over the last few years about how I do so within the reality of a pretty unpredictable, slightly messy life (anxiety + dyslexia + young kids + 2 freelance parents) so I have written it out here. I’d also love to know if you also plan in this way too! The post got really long so part two is coming tomorrow.

Planning is a critical part of The Life Book, the planning and review process my husband Dave and I came up with 10 years ago. The system has been tried and tested first by us, then by friends, then by others who caught wind and have since joined hundreds of Life Book alumni. The process begins with wide open dreaming, and finishes in really practical planning. The Spring chapter of the e-course just finished and I’m not currently planning on opening the course again until the new year. But I have received so many questions about the more practical aspects of planning and goal setting that I wanted to write a blog post about it.

The quarter points of the year (March, June, September and December) mark 4 natural points to take a step back and review your life and goals. Quarter point reviews are in everyday parlance in the corporate world- 12 weeks make very good accountability points, and a great project timeframe. But these quarter points also happen to align with the equinoxes and solstices too, and doing a review that takes inspiration both from the corporate world and from mother nature makes for a wonderfully meaningful and seasonal deep dive.

Spring is a great time for goal setting so I have opened the doors to my Life Book E-Course , which is all about dreaming and planning, and enrolments end tomorrow (Friday) at midnight. I have been emailing my list with some excerpts from the content and my top tips for making and keeping to goals. I wanted to share some here on the blog too.

Read How to make goals that stick here.

Spring goal setting- it’s a thing!

So first up- why Spring?! I know January is the traditional time for goal setting, new starts and resolutions. And when I first ran my E-Course in January over 100 people joined me to do just that,(but using my much kinder approach!) I actually like the quiet of winter for dreaming and planning and always have...

Buuuut…

Spring is, in many ways, a much MUCH better time to set some goals and intentions and make them happen!

Heres why

Have you ever made a goal only to completely forget about it?!

Yeah. So have I.

I've always loved dreaming and making plans and have always written in a journal. It’s just part of my make up, and I love hearing about other peoples too. For years my hopes and dreams brought me a lot go joy and filled reams of pages in my journal….but they stayed as just that. Hopes and dreams written in a journal.

It wasn't until Idid the following things that I began to actually start taking steps toward my goals. Pretty mega steps actually. (quitting my job, moving house and figuring out motherhood sort of steps 😱)

Despite designing a whole e course about (amongst other stuff) January goals, I am only just now starting the process of looking ahead!

I talk again and again in my Life Book, January chapter e-course and on instagram/to anyone who’ll listen about not rushing. About refusing the pressure and noise of this time of year; the could/musts/shoulds. So I am taking my sweet time, following my own inner rhythm and juggling my hoping and dreaming and goal setting with home and family.

I know I don’t feel ready to spring into action until Spring (see what I did there) but I do love this month for the planning and dreaming. I take the whole month to do this, I don’t rush it, and I really enjoy the space this creates to focus on me a bit.

I have been talking about my journalling process a lot on instagram stories (my favourite place to be!) and have been promising a fuller blog post about it for ages. I have also had lots of questions about the process so I’ve put my thoughts into a fuller blog post. First things first...

My history of journalling:

I have written in a diary (as I used to call it) for as long as I can remember. I have some of them still (some I have burned!) including the one I wrote in aged 10, the year my mum died, which I wrote about. Oh how my heart breaks for 10 year old me.

I am naturally a high energy person. I am passionate, feel things really deeply and am also very empathetic. The flip side of this is being pretty anxious, overwhelmed by other people’s feelings, and having a very ‘buzzy’ mind. But writing about it has always been immeasurably helpful. As soon as the words are out of my head (written or spoken), I feel calmer. Writing down and processing my feelings in a non judgemental, totally unbiased blank book been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It's one of the best ways I can support my mental health, and it's free!

We spent last weekend at our favourite place, Elmley Nature Reserve, retreating from January, going through our January Book, resting, talking, eating, laughing and just connecting again. Oh my, it was a sweet piece of heaven on earth. We have been doing our January book for 9 years but for the last two we have gone away for a weekend in January to do it; something we have now decided we can't do without

This year, I also finally made a downloadable guide to my January Book so that others can go through it too and I have been blown away by how many people have downloaded it, it has far far surpassed my hopes! Thank you so much to those of you who have downloaded it, and also to those who have sent such lovely emails and DM's too. I have had a surprising number of messages from people who have done it with their partner with amazing results, quite a few formally not very talkative boyfriends/husbands have been really into it. Amazing. (The January Book can be done alone or with your partner/family. Link to download below)

Elmley

But, let me think back to Elmley. To The Damson, their newest hut. To the huge