Soul-Centered Strategies for the New Year: A Thoughtful Planning Toolkit

If you are like me, you resist the notion of New Year’s resolutions. The whole idea can wreak of performance, pressure, and obligation. But we would be remiss in avoiding the invitation to vision and dream upon the threshold of a new cycle around the sun. The natural turning of a season – be it a new year, or a new phase, is an excellent time to reflect and imagine desired outcomes into existence.

I’ve created an easy-to-implement yet game-changing way to create a New Year’s plan that will ensure your next 12 months are a success. I call it Your Soul-Centered 12-Month Planning Toolkit.

Of course, this process can be done any time you want to herald in something new with more thoughtfulness and strategy, not just for the new year. The process will take anywhere from two hours to a half day – depending upon how deep you take it. You will need a journal and pen, or just your computer. Be sure to do this process in the order that it is outlined below as each step informs the next.

Your Soul-Centered 12-Month Planning Toolkit

Reflect

The reflection process is done in three steps, and is based on the previous year’s information and feedback.

1. Take some time to consider the previous year. Journal answers to the following 11 questions.

• What went well and why?

• What did not go so well and why?

• What did you accomplish in the year that you are most proud of?

• What challenges did you face?

• What important things did you learn that will inform the coming year?

• What loops do you need to close?

• What agreements in work or life feel too loose?

• What dreams have you had, but not given the time or energy towards?

• What stories did you tell yourself about those dreams that prevented you from actualizing them?

• If the present-day you could give the previous-year you any advice, what would it be?

• Who do I want to thank before beginning the next 12 month phase?

2. Do an “energy audit”. An energy audit is a simple process whereby you review the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual energy that is generated or consumed by various aspects of your life. To do an audit, take a piece of paper and create two columns. In column one, you write down all the people, circumstances and projects that fill you with energy. In column two, you write down all the people, circumstances and projects that drain you of energy. What does this process reveal?

3. Design a ‘circles of engagement’ document. Based on your review of the previous two exercises, now take it a bit deeper. On a blank piece of paper, draw four concentric circles. In the center circle write “Me” (or your name). Now you are going to place various people and projects in your life within the various co-centric circles around your “Me” circle, according to priority. Place the people and projects in locations that feel authentic to where you want to expend your energy and prioritize.

Put high-priority people and projects in the circle just next to the center “Me” circle. For example, your children or a spouse might be in that location. You also might place “going to the gym” in that location.

People and projects in the outermost circle are of the lowest priority and need more boundaries around them. These might be energy-draining circumstances or projects, or people who are toxic for you.

Create

Using the reflection exercises above, you will start building your new year plan. This is done in four steps. Keep referring back to the reflection exercises as you do this portion of the plan.

1. Create a self-care plan. You can’t do anything worthwhile if you don’t have the energy to do it. Energy is one of the foundational keys to success. So create a plan that will ensure your vitality.

One of the simplest is to create a page with three columns. At the top, write these headers: Mind, Body, and Spirit. Under each column write daily, weekly and monthly habits that will support you to thrive in that area. For example, under Spirit you may write down “daily meditation”, and under Body, you might write down something like, “gym 3x a week”, and so on.

Make sure these are habits you can and will commit to. and put it somewhere that you will see it and follow it each day.

2. What are your Yes / No’s / Maybe’s? This document, informed by your reflection exercises above, is where you drill into more clarity about what you will and will not do in the coming year. Create a page with three columns. At the top, write these three headers: Yes, No, and Maybe.

Under the “Yes” heading, outline the things you are certain you would like to do (or continue doing) in the coming year. Under the “No” heading, list the things you are clear you will not continue doing, and finally, under the “Maybe” heading, list the things you are not clear about yet.

3. Make your Goals List – Now that you’ve invested the time and energy in all the above exercises, you will notice that you are much clearer about your goals, objectives, and desired outcomes for the coming year. Write a list of between 6 and 12 goals that you intend to accomplish.

• Be sure to put at least one thing down that, if you did it, “would change everything for you”-in other words, for example, it would change a limiting story you tell about yourself, or would change how you feel about your job, or would change your relationship for the better.

• Be sure to put at least one thing down that is in your “dream” category.

• Ask yourself this powerful question: “What are you afraid of?” – and see what comes forward. Naming our fears allows us to see what we really want for ourselves.

4. Reflect on your list above –  look over your list and journal on the following questions:

• What will your life look like after completing those goals and dreams?

• What will those accomplishments do for you?

• How will you feel after completing them?

• What will your life look like if you don’t make any changes?

• What do you feel you need the most help with to achieve them?

• Where could you get that help?

Support

To make anything happen, we need structure and systems that will set us up for success. These systems support our accountability on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Below are several ways to do that. I use all three.

1. Wall calendar for the year – having the entire year at a glance is important for high-level planning that will inform shorter-term planning throughout the year. Based on your Goals List above, now time block important inflection points…what are known as “Dates and Gates” even if you don’t know the details yet. Dates are, of course, those things that have an exact timeframe (e.g., an overseas trip). Gates are various phases or stages of a project.

2. Planner – I’m old-fashioned, and even though I use my digital calendar, I rely on an analog planner to slow myself down and think things through. There are lots of planners out there. My favorite is the Monk Manual [LINK] because it focuses me in various ways – mentally and spiritually.

3. Apps – So many apps have been developed that can support you to achieve your goals whether you are a stay-at-home parent, or the senior leader of an organization – ClickUp, Asana, Time Flow System, and Any.do are some, just to name a few. And consider setting time limits when using one of these apps so it doesn’t become yet another time-sucking distraction.

Communicate and Manifest

Now for the final, and perhaps most important phase of creating your plan. You might be tempted to skip this part, but don’t. It relies on the universal field of possibility that is all around you wanting to support you in your endeavors. This may sound like magical thinking, but it’s more evidence-based than that. Through the two exercises below, you are igniting new neural pathways and pushing your thoughts, ideas, dreams and ambitions into the collective intelligence of all of life.

1. Vision board – create a vision board of your upcoming year and the goals you are going to attain. Design it in a way that implies all of these outcomes have already happened. Depending upon your level of creativity, you can do this with magazine scraps, doodles, and images you find on the internet. The key is in using color, shapes and imagery that ignite a sense of pleasure and connection to your goals.

2. Ritual – there is no right or wrong way to do a ritual. It can be as simple as lighting a candle next to your vision board, or as elaborate as going out into nature, calling in the four directions and ancestors, and making offerings of tobacco and corn meal. In whatever way works for you, take some time to “speak your dreams into existence” by naming them out loud within a context of sacredness, gratitude and asking for support.

It’s never too late or the wrong time to lay out a plan for success. Make this process fun! Put on inspiring music, light candles, lay out coffee and your favorite breakfast treat, silence your phone and imagine what is possible for you. You could share this process with a friend or colleagues and do it together as a kind of “Audacious Planning Party”. Make this process your own in any way that feels authentic to you.

The only way you could fail is by not planning at all.