Ep 36 Planning, goals & the year ahead

In today's episode I'm talking about the stuff that's on a lot of people's mind this time of year - planning, goals & approaching the year ahead.

But of course, you know it's not going to be your usual conversation. Let's talk about centring you in your planning process and about planning when facing a year of unknowns and uncertainty.

Let's dive in.

Links, resources & mentions

Redefining success Episode 11 Dietitian Values Podcast

What is your enough Episode 23 Dietitian Values Podcast

Are you including you in your business Episode 34 Dietitian Values Podcast

There is no one ‘right’ way Episode 25 Dietitian Values Podcast

Episode Transcript

Laura Jean 0:05

Hello, hello and welcome back to the first episode of The New Year of the dietitian values podcast. Which we didn't have a break from, so it's really just the next episode but you know, let's start the year off with a formal introduction. And speaking to that today's episode, what I wanted to talk about was planning goals and the year ahead. And particularly what I want to talk to is the fact that setting, making plans and setting goals in the year ahead is probably going to be a tricky little task. So let's dive in. So firstly, the new year, it often comes with lots of pressures to jump in and do and create goals and make it the best year ever and all of these kinds of things. And what I would really encourage you to do if you would like this encouragement or this invitation is to pause, take a deep breath and pause, and to connect to you and your values in this time and space. And think about what actually works for you. Think about you, know yourself, think about years in the past when it's clocked over to that new year time period. How have you approached it in the past, what has worked and what hasn't? Have you jumped in, gung ho with you know, lots of goals and strategies and meticulously mapped out plans? And if you have how does that make you feel? Do you find this time of year overwhelming because of all the pressure to have all of that in place? I was just actually talking to somebody in my DMs today and we were talking about the real importance of flexible planning. Because often, you know, and they were just mentioning how they're seeing all of these posts around everybody getting everything planned out and it's just not them. And to me what I heard was an embracing of who they are.

And I would really like to encourage you to think about that as well, to know yourself, to think about okay, do you even use a diary or a planner and is that even useful? I, this week, just got delivery of a perpetual wall planner, white board, like a reasonable one, which I've been eyeing off for many a year. And what I know about myself is I like to research and think about things for a long time before I take action. But when I take action, I take action and so I took action I bought the planner I wanted and I know that it's something I will use. What I will use it for is a way to dream is a way to like put in place my big picture vision for the year, put in place the kind of bones of my year. For me, it's not a tool to lock things in to plan things to the nth degree because it just doesn't work for me. What I know I'll do is I'll end up changing plans. And I also know life will end up changing plans for me so I have adopted or embraced a kind of form of flexible planning that really works for me. Where I think big picture, I start with my values, of course because I start most things with my values. And I think about that foundation of my values. And I ground into that and I think about well what values do I want to move towards more? What values do I want to show up in my life and business more? And from that often falls out like what kind of life do I want to be living so there's a lot of like big picture dreaming stuff. And then out of that normally falls the things I want to work on. I don't set them as goals and I don't really even set them as intentions. I just decide to do them. And I decide to give them a try and give them a try and what works works. What doesn't doesn't. sometimes I might decide to give something a try and it just doesn't come off in that year or that timeframe. I don't usually set strict timeframes, because for me, that doesn't work. What I would really encourage you and I could talk to you about how I do things and my kind of strategy, but it's really only useful for one person and that's me. So what I really encourage you to do is to know yourself and that was actually the goal of the New Year's more value more you support fest that I'm currently running. It's still available if you wanted to jump on it. This drops on Thursday, Australian time so there'll be still three more days of reflection prompts sending out. and really the aim of that was to support people to really grounding their values before kind of moving into the new year and also just the future in business. Because it's really easy when a new year comes along to sort of look to the planning look to the 'what am I going to do'. look to the actions look to the changes like you know, what can I change what can I get better at all of these things. and often, and possibly one of the big things that I work with the humans that I work with on, and also what I talk about on this podcast and even over on Instagram @dietitianvalues is actually less about changing ourselves and more about knowing ourselves, more about connecting to ourselves and more about bringing ourselves into our work. And if you are looking for a way to create a start to the new year that actually aligns with you, that's where I'd encourage you to start.

So planning think about you, think about what works for you. Do you like a really tight plan? And also think about that whole idea of like as well. Because sometimes we can like the idea of it and it just doesn't actually work for us. Like, I like the idea of planners with all those stickers and pretty stuff and, you know, colour coded and neat handwriting but it's just not going to happen because my handwriting is absolutely atrocious. I was getting Ds and Cs on my report for handwriting like since primary school. So you know, it's not actually gonna happen and it's just not my style. I wouldn't use the stickers. I wouldn't use the colour coding stuff. I like the idea of it. But it's not for me. It's not something I'm actually going to use. Sometimes I even sit down at the start of the year and plan and write goals and dream and I don't even do any of that and I write out not because I've failed or things but for me the act, the process of dreaming and planning and putting things out, getting things out of my head is where the value is for me. It's not necessarily in the execution. I will execute and take action on the things that I know are important to me. But not everything that falls out of my head ends up being something that's important to me, and there's a difference there. So what I'd really encourage you to do is to know yourself, to reflect back on what has worked or not worked in the past. What you have tried, have you been trying to fit yourself into this kind of mould or this whole look of what you think running a business or being whatever insert your title here, dietitian, physio, PT, whoever you are listening along today copyrighter. You know, have you been trying to fit yourself into this kind of idea of how you should show up in that role? And where could you embrace more of you in your planning and your goals and as you move forward in the year ahead.

So think about that when it comes to planning as it comes to goals. You know what I'm going to say something that's possibly a little bit controversial, but I don't really like goal setting as such in the typical traditional and particularly as a dietitian, how I was trained to support people to set goals like smart goals, I really find them I'm gonna say bullshit and if you enjoy them and that's how you like to do it. Absolutely rock on with yourself and do your goals in that way. But I really find them sometimes they can be quite contrived, you know, I have this goal and well now I've got to set a timeline to it, now I've got to do this thing and now got do this thing. I think there's so much more value in knowing yourself what actually works for you. So think about times when you have set goals or intentions or whatever you want to call them. And the ones you've actually achieved or the ones you've worked towards. Think about those what was the common denominator, nine times out of 10. The common denominator is that it was really important to you that it was driven by your values. And so I'd really encourage you to start there. Often goals encourage us to look outside of ourselves. You know, they encourage us to look around and think okay, well what should I be achieving? How should I be doing this? What kind of timeframe should I set on these verses actually connecting to ourselves connecting to our values and thinking, what's important to me? What's actually going to add value to my life? What's going to move me towards, what's going to move you towards your values, what's going to move you towards your definition of success, your version of enough and I'll link to those two podcasts episodes, which I continually do because I think they're such an important foundation in actually creating a business and a life that works for you knowing those pieces. And so knowing that and then actually creating goals, strategies, or just a general list of things you want to work towards whatever it might be for you. Now, if you enjoy goals and setting those timelines and that's motivating for you absolutely go for it. I find the majority of people, a lot of people, maybe not the majority, but a lot of people often find that when when they set goals in that way and they don't achieve them. That's actually then, it brings like a whole other situation. So if you're someone who can set goals like big, maybe it's big, big number goals, and bring self compassion and bring perspective and bring all those things if you don't reach them, then probably they work for you and probably they're not causing an issue. If they're not working for you. That's the key. So I would really just encourage you to think about what has worked for you in the past and what hasn't, and to really encourage you to let go of what hasn't worked, stop trying to create a way of showing up or trying to put yourself into a role that you see or a version of you or version of a business owner or whatever profession that you are, has to be or should be. There's so much more power in knowing who you are, knowing yourself and actually accepting that and not accepting that as resignation but accepting that as a place to go forward from, to move forward from or to actually just ground yourself.

So I'll share a little bit of an example of like, for instance, with social media, so let's use social media as an example. So I've done social media stuff in the past like I've done the big batch like do the posts for the week ahead. I've done like a whole lot of different strategies and some of them worked better than others and where I've hit on now, the strategy that actually works for me or the way that I approach social media posting like, regular posting is what I'm getting at here, to me is that I do it on the fly. I do it on the morning of usually, sometimes a bit later in the day if I've been caught up with kid stuff or if I haven't really thought of anything that I particularly want to post on that day. And sometimes things come to me later. But for me, that works a lot better. It actually feels more aligned to where I'm at in that moment versus planning ahead. I also have done the plan ahead thing before and that worked okay, but what I found was it was more, I still talked about things in the way that was important to me, but it felt a little bit more scripted for me. And now, if you do the planning and you enjoy that and do batching and you do the whole week ahead or whatever it might be and that works for you then keep doing it. I'm talking to the humans in the middle there who are trying to do that or who are shoulding all over themselves or guilting themselves or shaming themselves because they're not doing those things.

So as you move towards 2022, the year ahead and you're thinking about planning or thinking about setting goals think about you. create goals that centre you or plans that centre you. Because if we're building human centred businesses, one of the humans involved is you so the planning you do, the goals that you do, if they're just all outward facing, what you think you should be achieving, or what is best for the humans you're working for but not for you, then it's not actually a human centred business. It's not a human centred business if you aren't included in that equation, and I talked last week about including you and your business on the podcast. I'll drop that link in the show notes as well. If you miss that one in the festive season furore.

okay so know yourself and thinking about what has worked for you, what hasn't worked for you and if you don't really know what works for you. Experiment, use it as a big experiment. Try things, see if it works and if it doesn't try another thing. I find that in so many areas experimenting, just getting curious, experimenting, being a bit of a scientist is a great way to figure it out. Going in without an expectation like this should be the approach that works or this is the one that people told me I should do but actually just so I've seen this, I'm going to give it a go and see what works for me. take what resonates, leave what doesn't kind of thing. So I really encourage you if you don't have a bit of an idea of what works for you, experiment, try different things out and see what works for you. but bring the self compassion and bring that curiosity so instead of coming to it from a point of view of like, if it doesn't work, then that's it. like internalising that there's something wrong with you. You know, you can't do the batching or you can't stick to the plan or whatever it might be, it's about just approaching it with that curiosity and just noticing Ah, that's not a tool for me. Okay, what other tools are out there? What did work for me, did anything? Is there anything to take from that? Or is it just something to move on from and leave behind? So really know yourself and if you don't know what works for you start experimenting, start getting curious, get aware of what there is out there and give things a go. Don't feel like you have to squeeze yourself into a version of yourself.

The other thing that I would encourage is to think about creating opportunities over the year to pause and actually do that reflecting, do that awareness and data gathering. to actually pause and think What did work what didn't work and pause and create opportunities to actually think about that to reflect on that and then take that information as you move forward. Because often we go from one thing to the next and we don't always create a space to pause and reflect and I think that could be a really valuable tool. Also the pausing can help you to create spaces to reground in your values. Maybe something doesn't work, It's like well, why didn't that work? Or does it actually align with my values? what pieces do, what pieces don't? What else was going on in life as well?

And that brings me to the next piece of this episode that I wanted to talk about is 2022. It's gonna be a freakin doozy. who knows what's going to happen. if the last couple of years of running businesses and surviving in a pandemic has shown us anything it's that the only constant is change. And really what we have control over is very minimal. And when we're thinking of planning or goal setting or moving forward in our business, it's okay to feel all the feels when things don't go as we planned. So last year 2021 I know for myself, I put things in place, got more support with with kiddos so that I could put some more time and focus in my business and then lockdown hit and all of that planning, like all of those plans had to shift and had to be adjusted. And absolutely there was frustration with that and absolutely I was like 'this is not fair, Woe is me' a little bit. And you know what, I felt into those feelss and that is a super important part of the process I think. so when things go to plan 2022, I'm going to tell you now shits not going to go to plan. stuff is gonna change. Like expect the unexpected. Yep. And the best tools I think we can bring to that is an acceptance of that, an acceptance of that and allow ourselves to feel whatever we feel when things change. feel the frustration, feel the annoyance, feel the woe is me, feel the thing. allow that to be there. You don't have to, like you know, excuse it away because it's not as bad as somebody else is experiencing and at least I've got this and I've got this and I've got this. Let yourself feel what you feel in those situations. so feel the feels, and then 'now what?'. then look at moving forward based on what's going on, based on what I can have an impact/ influence/control over. now where do I want to go? And so for me last year to use myself as an example lockdown hit I was like right, okay, plans on hold. What can I do? What are the things that I want to move forward and I just decided on the things I wanted to do. I wanted to keep up my weekly podcast, I wanted to keep up my weekly email to the humans that subscribe to my newsletter, (And if that's you, thank you for that if you're one of those) and also I wanted to keep posting as regularly as I could on social media. And that's it. That's all I focused on. And so I adjusted my plans, but I still kind of had a plan. I still had a thing that was moving me forward. That was still, it still helped me to kind of, I suppose, not control so much just to connect with my values and connect with what I wanted to move forward on in my business what I could. and so as 2022, as we go into that, absolutely have a plan or do plans if you like plans, I like plans. I'm about to go actually after this call and fill out some of my giant wall planner because I do have plans. I have some rough dates and ideas of when I'm going to do things but I'm gonna put them on in an erasable whiteboard marker, and know that I might have to erase things. I might have to rub things out. I might have to move things around. Things might not go exactly to plan but overall the dream the vision I have for my business, the values based direction I have for my business will still be there. And that's why having that values based foundation is so important because when things go off track, Off Plan, when goals don't get achieved, we can still come back to that base of -this is the work that is important to me. This is the work that is rooted in my values. This is the work that I want to move forward with. This is the work I want to share with the world, even if the world's not making it so easy for me to share it.

Don't feel like there is one way because there isn't one way there's not one way not one right way. I think I've got a podcast episode about that. I'll link it in the show notes. There is no one right way there is just there is the next best way for right now, for this moment based on the resources that you have available and those resources being things like time money, energy, you know, levels of, of, you know, capacity, while we while we still exist in a global pandemic. So, know yourself if you don't know exactly what works for you or how it might work for you, if you've been following those external scripts, but you're ready to figure it out, experiment, play around, gather data, be a scientist and every time you do that, and every time you shift things a little bit to be more things that work for you, you move closer and closer to building a business that includes you and building a business that is for you. So doing that holding in your heart in your mind wherever you like to hold truths or hold things, that this year ahead is unknown. You know, we're not going to know, we're not going to be able to control things. So bring the self compassion bring the flexibilit.y create a way of moving through this year that supports you. make sure you have all the things in place or attempt to have the things in place that support you, your self care routine, the community around you that you need. the things, the supports you need in place to be able to just take care of yourself and know that in this year there'll be moments where just surviving and just getting through the day and just getting through the next day will be the thing that is important to focus on. So bring that with you, bring some self compassion and bring a whole lot of flexible planning in the year ahead and bring that foundation of your values because when you can ground yourself in your values, you know that what you're working on, what you're moving towards, even when it doesn't go to plan, even if it doesn't come to fruition, even if it feels like it quote unquote, fails. Even if the world really feels like it's getting in the way of you doing the work you want to do .know that by grounding in your own values, by building a business based in your values that all the things that you do are going to add up and move you towards the business you want to be building, the life you want to be living and the world you want to be creating. even if it is going to be slower, even if it is going to be filled with pauses and stops and starts. So that's what I wanted to offer up to you today. If you want some support, like you know maybe this year if maybe it's not as much a take action year and things because of all the other stuff and maybe one of the ways you move forward is by really building that foundation by strengthening that, if you want some support around that, then please reach out. know that I do offer one to one support and coaching to support you to build a values based business that works for you, that incorporates all of these things that gives you space to be you and for you to fit into your business and for you in your full humanity to fit into your business.

Okay, that's what I wanted to offer up for you today. I hope that this new year -My wish for you, my wish for me in the new year ahead- is that it offers us opportunities to connect, opportunities to feel grounded, opportunities to feel supported and opportunities to you know just be open to the possibilities of what lies ahead. And definitely also opportunities for joy. Even if they're small ones, even if they're interspersed with less joyful moments, opportunities for us to find, embrace and share our joy. Okay, until next time I will chat to you them. Bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai