Welcome to Spring, 2019!
One of my friends begins each new month by posting on social media, “Whole new month! Whole new month!”
I, too, love a fresh start. Why wait for the next whole new month when we’ve welcomed a whole new season?! Whole new season! And when better to start fresh than after a long, cold, neverending winter? Or a long, cold neverending anything?
I know it is still cold and white for some of you and that Spring brings its own challenges for many – my heart goes out to you, Nebraska – but I hope sunshine will soon smile upon you.
With every fresh start, I feel that same optimism of New Year’s Day. Whatever went awry last cycle can be left behind. The next one is un-jaded, untarnished, and clean — fertile soil for my hopes and dreams. Anything could happen!
Reminds me of the song, Feelin’ Good. “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me.” My favorite version is Nina Simone’s, here.
But New Year’s Resolutions are often external goals, influenced by societal expectations. 80% fail by February, according to Google.
How much more powerful might those goals be if they arose from clear reflection of the prior cycle? And how much more wholehearted, organic, aligned with your integrity, and therefore more likely to come to fruition, if they were crafted from a place of intention?
These three simple transition planning steps can help your next cycle be even better. Reflect. Envision. Action.
Goals absolutely have their place. I equate them with action and achievement, both of which feel great and can create real opportunity and change. But choosing the right goals can be tricky, often leading to fizzling out, failure, or achievement at the cost of burnout.
Intention is more about feeling-state, big picture. How do you want to be or feel as you move through your days? What do you want to know or trust? What are the values you most want to experience, express, and give life to? From this self-knowing, setting an intention for the next cycle can shift it in subtle and dramatic ways.
You might notice a shift from defensive or suspicious relationships to making generous assumptions about your co-workers. You might notice your intuition supporting your senses and knowledge to make decisions you no longer fret over, but trust. Or you might lay down a pattern of carrying other people’s burdens and be able to support them without taking responsibility for their actions and choices. Goals might be accomplished with less effort and conflict.
And from this place of intention, the goals you choose will be more aligned with your integrity, more personal, more sustainable and achievable.
I created a handy-dandy worksheet to guide you through the 3 simple steps to make the next season, quarter, project, or year even better.
Grab a copy of that special free guide here.
Here’s the gist of it, though I highly recommend you download the worksheet and write down your answers, so that you can refer back to it for future cycles.
Reflect: Look Back to Move Forward
Tangible shifts can arise from reflecting on the last cycle. Take some quality time to reflect on the good, bad and ugly. You won’t ever need to look back at this cycle again, so make it count.
What worked?
What didn’t?
Was there a theme last cycle?
What wants to be released?
What did you love?
Notice the biggest shift you experienced or saw in yourself.
What wants to be carried forward?
Envision: Brainstorm Your Big Dreams and Your Intention
After reflecting, the next simple step is to look ahead. Imagine you could wave a magic wand and, just like that, you could co-create your future. What feeling-state, mindset, projects, and new experiences would you say yes to? What would your ideal next cycle look and feel like for you?
Who or what inspires you?
What do you most want?
What do you most need?
Where are your boundaries?What don’t you want? Think: I’m no longer working weekends or focusing on things I can’t control.
What theme are you calling forward?
What is your highest intention? Declare it.
Action: What Will Support Your vision?
With intention, the most important thing you can do is FEEL it. Allow yourself to see it in your mind’s eye, to feel in your body how much you want it and what it would feel like to live that intention. In coaching, we say, “Set it and forget it.” When you get clear and aligned with your intention, mind, body, and spirit, often that’s all it takes. Somehow, without even efforting, the intention comes true. You might not even realize it until you reflect back at the end of the next cycle.
Something else might happen, too. From your intention, goals might arise. There might be action steps you can implement right now or throughout the cycle to create and support the state of your intention.
How will you support your intention?
How do you need to be, to show up, to live into your intention?
What thoughts pop up to ‘argue’ with your vision or intention? Note your decoys, conditions, and stumbling blocks.
What thoughts do you need to think to feel like you’d feel if your vision were true, right now?
What goals arise from and align with your intention?
How will you feel when you’ve accomplished your goals? What can you do to feel that way, right now, without changing a single circumstance?
Grab a copy of that special free guide here.