Hubby and I went away on staycation this weekend. The main purpose of this staycation was to just be able to think without distractions of the things that need to be done around the house. From renovations in full effect to 2 new dogs to the boys constantly in need of something or just shouting “mommy” because the quote for 200 “mommy” calls has not been depleted… we needed the quiet and the chill. And boy was it worth it.

We were a stone’s throw away from the house but we managed to set the flow for the next 3 months and take the bigger vision and start mapping out a plan, an action plan.

So why do we plan? Why not just keep going and see where things go? I ask myself this a lot of the time too and here’s the reality: If I want achieve big, if I want real and tangible results, I’m going to need to avoid autopilot mode. Autopilot mode is not my portion because I have a very big purpose and seed deep inside me that needs me to get up and be intentional. And when I empower myself with understanding and wisdom of what to do with a goal and dream, I have to implement and make magic.

I have a book I love which I recommend called Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success. It stems from the idea that aeroplanes have blackboxes not because they fail and because they crash but because they improve, the technology gets better and when something goes wrong and there’s failure, the blackbox, feedback from the blackbox is at the heart of growth and improvement.

Your black box is your journal, your dream jar and your time to check in with yourself. This check in is part of your self care and self love journey. You need to lose and let go of the idea that self care is selfish. Self care is replenishing your resources. Get this: It’s not uncommon for people to feel left out or abandoned when you don’t accommodate them, but realize it’s in your best interest to not stretch yourself too thin. Sometimes in your own self-care journey you will get the push back from people that ‘need your time’. Be it your family, your partner, your colleagues, your boss.

In this week of #TheArtofBalance, we will:

The Art of Planning – Week 1

1. Take your Goals and plan for them – If you haven’t downloaded your Goal Setting Printable Templates. Please do so and fill them out.
2. Go into your Cozi App today and enter in your month’s calendar appointments, events, birthdays, dates your need to plan around (take the time to go through emails, texts and WhatsApps). I have a rule, if it’s not in my diary, it will not be done, and I will not be present. This helps me not to half ass things or autopilot life and go with the flow. I leave room on weekend and Monday mornings ONLY to flow a little.
3. Now let’s Assess Your Schedule – What does your monthly calendar look like? What did you do with your time in the last 3 months? Account for your time from Monday to Friday? Not sure how to do it? Template can be found here: Art of Planning Assess Your Schedule

Once you have done the full assessment of where your time is being used, and you have analysed how much room you have to fit more things in and where you may need to take your time back or open up time to accelerate the work on your goals proceed to the next step. If you haven’t, please take your time on step 3.

It is very important. One cannot build on a wobbly foundation, things will fall through the cracks.

Resources:

• https://shop.artofsuperwoman.com/pages/art-of-superwoman-printables?_pos=2&_sid=0e8251ef2&_ss=r
• https://shop.artofsuperwoman.com/pages/art-of-balance-schedules-tasks-week-1?_pos=1&_sid=0e8251ef2&_ss=r