Going Beyond the "same old" Annual Planning Process:

A Year of Wholness -- Five Steps to Make This Year Be Truly Different

(Instead of Merely "more")

January is a time many of us associate with fresh starts and clean slates: A whole new year to map out and grow into. Often as people consider each new year, they are thinking of how to have the “more’s” in life: More time, money, love, joy, freedom and peace.

As an alternative, as well as a foundation for creating the “more’s,” I invite you to think about more wholeness. This will substantially change your planning process for the year.

In the chasing of the other “more’s,” you run the risk of fragmenting yourself. Portions of your awareness and your creative energy become invested in chasing each respective “more.” Part of you may be scrambling to manage time and productivity more, and part of you may be concerned you don’t have enough love or aren’t giving enough love to those in your life.

This state of striving, scrambling or chasing in different areas of your life can become the catalyst that has you declare, “This year will be different!” However, you continue the same old patterns, thinking and strategies, the year may be simply more intense, frustrating and depleting – an entire set of “more’s” no one really desires!

To minimize the opportunities for fragmentation, consider what it means to be “whole” and unfragmented, to have all the parts of yourself - mind, body, emotions, spirit, all the “voices within” - truly aligned and in harmony.

Much of my work with clients centers on wholeness, even when that is not why the client hired me in the first place. This is because being deeply connected with and conscious of one’s self is essential for having your internal life support your external experience – and vice versa. In other words, wholeness, or alignment with self, is required for a truly sustainable life.

If you have a roller-coaster effect in any area of your life, that may be an indication of fragmentation, or some way in which you are not fully aligned with yourself. Check the sidebar for additional indicators of fragmentation.

Now – enter your annual planning process from a different place. Instead of merely setting goals and targeting accomplishments, start by getting aligned internally. If you want your year to be different, you want to be sure your planning process for this year is different.

In other words: You want to be very clear your planning process does not reflect - or perpetuate - any current state of fragmentation.

1) Start this process with getting truly present with yourself. Take a deep breath and go inside yourself. Allow a few moments of stillness. Use this practice as a beginning place in deepening your self-connection, which is fundamental to wholeness.

2) Ask your internal team to come together in support of creating a very different year. (Listen to this month’s companion audio to support this process)

3) List the key aspects of what you want to experience this year: i.e. personal space, complete freedom, an expansion of personal peace, deeper love for self and others, lightness, unlimited self expression and joyful creativity….just to name a few possibilities. The point here is to get in touch with the intrinsic qualities of your year as a starting point for creating the material components. (The Nine Days to Peace program provides a useful framework for this process.)

4) Begin to list what will support and reflect each of your key aspects.

a. Identify outcomes: How will you know when you have (the personal space you crave, the complete freedom…..)? What needs to be happening, what do you need to see, feel, hear, experience, that will confirm you have reached your desired outcome, or that you are en route?
b. Identify actions: What one action can you take this week, to support that journey?
c. Identify required support: What support or resources do you need to keep you on track and in movement as you desire?

5) Now go back inside. Check in with your internal team to see how the things you’ve written align with the parts of yourself:
a. Does anything you’ve written as an outcome, action or support trigger any resistance from any parts of yourself?
i. Do you hear any discordant voices or feel any drops in your energy as you review what you’ve written?
b. If you encounter any resistance, meet with your internal team to negotiate an alternative.

At the end of this process, you will have created a vision and an action plan for the year that is more connected with who you truly are at this time. If you are a work in progress, a soul in expansion, why would you use outdated planning methods? This approach keeps you in touch with the ongoing internal developments, so they are in turn reflected appropriately in your planning.

This month, you began a process of assembling your inner team and beginning to hear them more clearly. Join me next month to deepen this process as we look at how to create harmony with your internal team.

Happy planning for a Whole New Year and a Year of Wholeness!

For additional resources on going within to access your wisdom and wholeness, go to www.lynallen.com.

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