Planning for the New Year

While I welcome each new year, I always make an effort to say goodbye to the old. On the final day of the year, I consider all that has passed and attend to the thoughts and feelings that arise. Many emotions: relief, gratitude, frustration, gladness. It’s a great opportunity for self-reflection, taking inventory, and anticipating the year to come.

No wonder many of us begin each year with resolutions. Planning is a tool for strengthening our resolve. And at the end of the year, motivation is high for acknowledging unfinished projects, recommitting to big dreams, and prioritizing time and resources for the coming year.

So I end this year with that mix of wistfulness for the year passed and excitement for the year to come. I’m planning for big things.

Toward that end, I’m doing things differently.

Years ago, I left behind most of the organizing practices I’d relied on to structure my days. I set aside my agendas and planners, my checklists and folders. I was sick of organizing my life around To Do lists. They’d become oppressive to me. I wanted a listless life. Literally! So I parted ways with all those tools. I decided that if something was important enough, I would either 1) remember it, or 2) be reminded (after all, I’m a social being in a social world). If neither of those things happened, I trusted it didn’t matter...enough.

It worked!

For a long while I found the freedom I’d hoped for. My days unfolded with greater ease. I learned to rely more on the feel of things, sensing what mattered most in a given moment. I’m grateful that I took the leap into a more intuitive sense of priorities.

But this year I’m making a change.

I’m going back to all that structure I left behind. For me 2018 will be a year of plans, lists, schedules, and all the tools that help me create and manage them. Why? Because my major development for the second half of 2017 was starting a new business: developing online programs to help therapists, counselors, and coaches become more creative.

As a “solopreneur,” every bit of my business so far has been hand-made by me: every graphic, blog entry, Facebook ad, sign-up page, website, social media post, promotional freebie, graphic, etc. Though it’s been borne of financial necessity, I’m not complaining! It’s been a creative opportunity for me, filled with fun, excitement, thrills, learning. I’ve loved every minute of it.

But it’s a lot, and a lot to manage.

So in 2018, I’ll be returning to the way of life and mind I took a respite from. I hope to launch paid products and services in the year to come, and I know all those planning and production tools will help me succeed.

While it might seem ironic, for me it makes perfect sense that what I once rejected, I now re-embrace. Life and time are like that. So it's with a smile that I find myself returning to old ways. 

Is there anything you’ll be returning to in 2018? Welcome it with a smile, and give it a big hug.