Location, Location, Location

To start this New Year, my partner and I embarked on a planning process for 2014.  We used a version of my Life Navigation programme that I’ve developed and refined over time and had fun reviewing 2013 and creating our vision for the future. We brought in some of Jinny Ditzler’s suggestion from Best Year Yet and generally had fun with it.

I’ve often given attention to why to plan and what to do to enjoy the process but until now I’ve neglected the where.

I suggest in Life Navigation that you might want to go somewhere inspiring to work on your vision for the future, perhaps somewhere high-up where you can see an overview.  We live on a hill overlooking the sea and the view from our sofa is often pretty spectacular (as shown in the Sea Sky pictures posted on Facebook).  But this time we discovered location had even more significance.

We started the process at home and then continued in the channel tunnel, not a very scenic environment but a great metaphor for our creative process.  We defined our passions and priorities in the airy Bakkers-Winkel café in Amsterdam, reflected upon our vision journeying across flat green Belgum landscapes and wrote our goals in a refined Antwerp restaurant in a ‘no-go’ part of town.  Finally our lovely local Poffley's Coffee Shop was the venue for the finalising the plan and committing to action.

Now when we think of the different aspects of our plan we have the locations as an anchor points, reminders of the feelings associated with this part of the plan and an image of us collaborating on our journey.  Our plan is part of our story.

So whether you’re organising a business brainstorm, doing some personal reflection or creating your own 2014 plan, why not take yourself somewhere different as part of the process?

Post Holiday Ponderings

I hope you had glorious holidays full of magical celebrations and touching moments.

If you had a wonderful time, I’m curious about the contrast between this and your normal life?  Did you give yourself permission to do anything differently over Xmas and the New Year?

Traditionally this is a time of excess, and eating and drinking as much as this every day would probably be a recipe for disaster!  But sitting down to eat with family and friends, taking the time and care to prepare special meals, decorating the table and creating special rituals.  These are all things that bond families together and create special memories.  Perhaps there are some elements of this you can bring into daily life?

Perhaps you made a special effort to be kind to relatives and those less fortunate?  Perhaps you were kinder to yourself and/or more expressive about what you wanted?  Were you more flexible in accommodating the needs of others?  Maybe you reached out to renew friendships and make new ones?  Are any of these habits worth keeping all year round?  Do any help you to be more true to yourself and more loving? 

If you didn't have a great Christmas, what was missing?  How can you do things differently this year to address the issues, perhaps coaching would help :-)

At this time of striving to embed New Year resolutions, we think we must be focused and disciplined but it is important to balance this yang energy with yin elements of feeling good, being kind and connecting with others.  With this balance, we are more likely to achieve our 2014 goals as well as enjoying ourselves fully along the way.