January is kind of a see saw at times. Looking back, looking ahead. Completing things, starting things. There is a desire to improve life, hence resolutions. But resolutions often fall by the wayside.
So, how can you go beyond that, and get a plan, a brilliant plan, for 2015? One that inspires you to actually keep working it through the year?
NAME THE BIG ROCKS
Have you heard the big rocks story? You’re in science class. You have a five gallon glass mason jar with a lid. Alongside you have say six or eight hand size rocks, a big bunch of pebbles, and a big fat pile of sand. Scientifically, this is all supposed to fit in the jar. Most would intuitively to fill the jar with the sand, then pebbles then big rocks. But this doesn’t work.
The secret to making this experiment work? Start with the big rocks. Then all the smaller rocks, pebbles and sand will fit around the big rocks. This is also true with life. If you name the big rocks – i.e., your big projects for the year, the most meaningful areas of life you wish to improve, create, or devote your attention (i.e., love) to, all the other pebbles and sands of life will just sidle in alongside them big rocks.
OTHERWISE, THE SAND AND PEBBLES BOG YOU DOWN
It’s often counter intuitive to name the big rocks and attend to them first thing. It’s easy to spend a lot of damn time playing with the sands and pebbles, e.g., the distractions or mundane bits of life. But when you make a special effort to wrestle your attention to taking care of the meaningful things first? Often the other pieces of life start to fall into place.
Naming and clarifying your soul mission can be challenging – it keeps evolving! There is a lot of noise and static that try to thwart you, and lots of planetary and personal history that discourages blatant naming of the dream. That’s OK – this torture is short lived. Let’s cover a few other things that can make this process fun, as well as more integrative of spirit and sand, of right and left brain, of the realistic and the imaginal.
HOW TO BEST NAME YOUR BRILLIANT PLAN for 2015
1) Review the last year for wins and suckiness (see last article for more on how to do this, and visit Soul Savvy’s Resources page for the End of Year Review page). Therein lie clues for what to change.
2) See if you can switch some areas you’ve mastered to auto pilot and a “foundations” zone. For example, finances this year for me won’t need too much time because of last year’s work. Now I have room for a new focus area in this year’s plan.
3) Don’t use your left brain/analytic mind alone. Include visualizations – where would you like to be ideally in 5 or 10 years? Meditate and center, and ask your guides/inner wisdom, or your right brain and creative side for symbols of possibilities. Ask before sleep for a dream to give you input. Pull some cards or divination apps. Then craft your focus from these zones. Example: Doing this ideal visualization, I saw a later life where creativity work loomed large. That inspired me to shift my creativity project in terms of priorities for the year.
4) Simplify your target or focus zones to three or six areas, and give them cool names that capture the essence of what you hope to gain through them. These can be called projects, but your name is better.
5) Make a weekly or monthly plan for your “foundations” zone, i.e., the auto pilot areas essential for your success. Scheme how to keep these happening. I know I need to balance my checkbook and check in with my spending plan weekly to keep the money peace foundation strong. Other foundations zone might include fitness, meditation or scheduling fun and social time.
6) Imagine you have one year to live, and 2015 is it. Scan your plan with this in mind to see if it still resonates. Life is short, though it can seem endless when you’re not on board with your soul serving purpose. When you are on board with the soul mission, life’s challenges get easier, as does your work.
Wishing you playfulness as you get your soul squeeze on for 2015!
Warmly,
Denise