How to plan your year in Social Sector life and work

Happy New Year! Thank you so much for reading and learning these high performance concepts with me.  I started this New Year’s post a year ago, and quickly realized that I was still processing and did not fully have the tools to recommend a year-end planning approach. In the spirit of progression I turned to the Mindful Techie, Meico Whitlock to share a post on this issue. His guest post for 2018 on 7 questions for Social Sector Professionals to start the new year off right, is a great way to plan. Here is Meico’s list adapted for 2019: 

• How can I be of service to those in my life in 2019?
• What are the top two goals I want to achieve in my personal and professional life in 2019?
• What will I say YES to in 2019?
• What will I say NO to in 2019?
• How will I play and have fun in 2019?
• How will I seek support in creating the life I desire in 2019?
• What word, phrase, or theme best describes the experience I will have in 2019?

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These questions help us set the right tone and focus areas. They are a beautiful look at your life and its value. They avoid the standard ‘eat less and exercise more’ list that you often read in late December press.  This year I’d like to layer on some ideas around how to answer these key questions. The approach comes in the form of mindsets, strategies, and tactics that I’ve collected over the past 12 months to help us respond to these questions.  While you may recognize some of these approaches, others are newly discovered and remixed for our Social Sector context. 


New Year planning mindsets  
Here at Social Sector Titan we have a mindset of performance. The formula of effort (pain)  + recovery (reflection) = progression is the foundation for the performance oriented humanitarian. This means that we push hard with a specific system, we recover, and this cycle pushes us along our personal and professional trajectories. 

Our society is becoming more goal oriented. Expectations around audacious goals are ubiquitous. Yes, we do need an audacious goal, but that is only one small part of the picture. The progression mindset and the systems to support and move toward our big goals are where the real work and fun happens. Yes, we can identify the goal, but quickly then move into the underlying system that we need to reach that ideal. 

Having a goal is essential. We need to know the direction, or the ultimate destination on the edge of the map that guides our general direction. The specifics of that path from your current location to the hidden valley, high mountain or secret surf spot on the edge of the map are created by your personal system. Focusing on the system of travel in the right general direction then becomes the main focus. The goal provides the direction, the system provides the concrete, daily process for getting you to the edge of the map. 

Consistent practice and strategic adjustment of that  system is the only thing that truly advances our desire to change the world in our Social Sector pursuits. We must  adapt to conditions, and enjoy the moments along the way. 

The year-end review
The strategic process for reviewing the year is:

Review your big picture goals - Are you still focusing on the right things after the last 12 months? If you played out this approach for the next 1, 3, 5 or full career, would you be satisfied with this outcome? 

Look at the systems and strategies that you have in place to reach these goals - Yes we need a big picture goal to orient the direction of travel, but then goals-focus must quickly yield to systems-focus. Focusing away from the goal and downward onto the systems that we have in place to reach that goal is essential. What is our level of adherence or execution to these systems? What needs to change, the system or our level of adherence to that system? Are we really showing up and doing the work?

Pain points - What are our main pain points in work and life? Why are we feeling those and how can we reflect, learn and improve our goals and systems based on that learning? 

Checking in on flow - How many times per week are we getting into a flow state where our focus deepens, and we are fully engrossed in our work or play activity? Are we getting enough of this, or do we need to scale that up to make life more juicy and fun? 

New Year Planning Tactics
Some tactical ideas that we can use in this process: 
Journal! -  Write it down consistently every day. Write what ? In the best journaling approach we are opening up the channel to release what is in our mind to allow for the coherent, helpful to the world ideas to emerge. Sweep out the trash and blow off the dust to get to the core of something that can help other people. 

Time tracking - Recording how we spend our time as a way to understand where our focus is going, is an evidence base for planning and adjusting our systems in the new year. This can be a tech solution like Toggl or a handwritten sheet. 

The journaling and tracking processes help us check in on our mindsets once per year, and our strategies and tactics more often. This helps us see what is really happening, and make the occasional adjustments to move us one step along the path through both the enjoyment and the hard parts. 

Making it work 
Happy New Year! Thanks so much for reading these ideas. I’m thankful for you and your work in the Social Sectors, that is making the world a better place. What works for you? How do you plan and reset for the new year? Leave a comment on the post or hit me back at [email protected]. 

Happy New & Year Trails!