| In
this issue: Current Events: • Learn a new technique for making better decisions in the moment. • Apply this approach to create your own strategic planning process. • Start using this new process right away, during the class. • January 31, 7:00 PM ET. • Via telephone conference. • For Current of Life subscribers only, fr*ee of charge. • Register by sending an email here. Are you thinking about changing careers? If you received this issue from a friend and you would like to read Current of Life regularly, you may subscribe here. Read prior issues here. Contact Ginny here. |
The Planning Paradox “… I have always found that plans
are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Is Planning Worth It?
The Power of Three Here is a planning approach I invite you to try for the next several weeks. Each week, identify three focus areas for your personal life and three relating to work. Different than a detailed task list, these Top Three focus areas do not encompass all your to do’s. Rather, they are the items you have selected as most important to drive forward that week. Example #1: Personal Business Example #2: Personal Business
Once you have established your weekly focus, view it as a worksheet, something that you can edit as the week moves along. Striking the right balance between planning and leaving room is a key to success. Plan and Go The planning paradox is that as soon as you attempt to take control, you will be required to be flexible and keep loose. To use a football metaphor, the team has a game plan, but can’t know exactly what will happen until they’re on the field. Trusting their instincts, they react skillfully, and adjust the game plan accordingly.
Plan and go. Allow your plans to be edited…because they will be anyway! Deviating from the plan is okay, as long as you do so consciously and keep your main priorities at the forefront. Additional Resources Join me this Thursday, January 31, 7:00-8:00 PM ET for a teleclass entitled: How You Can Use 3 Questions to Move From Overwhelm To Momentum. The technique I’ll discuss is another approach you can incorporate into your planning process to help you get unstuck and move forward with your goals more swiftly. This is a repeat of the class held earlier this month. Those who participated were glad they came and walked away with a tool they had already begun using by the end of the class. The class is “virtual” (via telephone conference), is fr*ee of charge, and is for Current of Life subscribers exclusively. To register and receive the call-in number, send an email to: SubscribersEvent@inthecurrent.com. Have you checked out my new website?
For other resources on the topic of planning, take a look at these
two sections: Here's to you, Notes: |
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“The
best-laid plans… often go awry.”¹ What looks
good on paper doesn’t always work out as envisioned. So
why bother planning at all? I used to think that the point of
planning was the satisfaction I got by checking off completed
tasks. While this still makes me feel good, I now see that the
main reason for planning is to get you into purposeful action
and to make progress.
Notice
in these examples that some of the items are task oriented (e.g.,
contact Martin), some are projects (e.g., research kickboxing
classes), and others are reminding you of an intention (e.g.,
healthy dinner choices). Keeping these areas to three gives you
a clean focus so that you are not overwhelmed. Remember to take
into account other appointments and activities already scheduled
when selecting your Top Three for the week.
The
desire to plan is inherent in being human. Even as far back as
~100 BC, Publilius Syrus provided the maxim: “It is a bad
plan that admits of no modification.”
Virginia
Kravitz, Career
and Life Coach, has always
had a fierce desire to be
in the full current of life.
She founded 