As excited as I am about the prospect of planning this year, this has been a long and torturous process of learning. Of trying. And failing. And trying again. Planning does not come naturally for me.
And then came Leonie.
Well, kind of…
I started messing around with resolutions I wanted to keep in 2013.
I winged it that year, not doing much more than setting some goals that I never really revisited.
I tried a little more in preparation for 2014. I attended a webinar presented by Susan Baroncini-Moe, author of Business in Blue Jeans: How to Have a Successful Business on Your Own Terms, in Your Own Style and completed the workbook that went with that. And I participated in a 90 day New Year Mastermind hosted by Latara V. Bussey
The year was shaky, but I found my dream job at Community Futures Yellowhead East that summer.
And later that year when I couldn’t find a new version of what I’d done the year before…I found The Shining Year Business and Life Planners. I didn’t reflect on them nearly as often as I wish I had, but I’ve had the best year ever. I’ve made progress in healing, in business, in my job. It’s been magical.
So magical, that I joined the Shining Life Academy last month. And that I’m diving in to the digital versions of the Shining Year Planners.
It’s the Shining Life preparations this year that inspired me to start a private Facebook group to support survivor entrepreneurs, much like the Facebook groups of Elizabeth Klein (who hosts groups for Christian women in difficult marriages and the aftermath of separation and divorce) and Leslie Vernick (though hers are all connected to paid workshops I believe) and like the Shining Life Workbookers group. Or like a cross between them. A place for support going through a tough marriage and on focusing on the positive and building a business you can build a life on.
Feel free to friend me and PM me to be added to the group if you are Survivor Entrepreneur who’d like to share in online group support to set and meet goals. We’d love to have you join us.
What I’ve learned as I embark on my fourth year of planning is that it’s never wasted – and it’s okay not to do it the way others expect you too. It’s your plan…you get to own it.
I’ve also learned you don’t have to wait for a certain date on the calendar to start a new plan or pick up an old one and start working on what you’ve let slide. Progress is still progress even when it doesn’t come on the timeline you intended it to.
Do you have a favorite planner or process for planning? Do you do it at the start of the new year or another time of the year?