A computer, calendar and notepad - tool to use to plan your life to live intentionally. — To reach our goals, we must plan.

To accomplish those goals, it is crucial to understand our energy and raise the vibration to create our best, intentional life.

New Beginnings - A Preamble

I love Mondays. They have always represented a new beginning for me - a new start. I have renewed energy and a feeling that my week will be great and I will accomplish a lot. Today is Monday, and I have fabulous plans for this week!

I also like the start of a new month. On the last day of the month, I like to record my victories on the pages provided at the back of my planner. I also like to record what I want to accomplish on the lines provided on my new month overview page.

I have had many victories this past month. But, as I looked back, I was surprised. Things I had planned month after month and even years were finally accomplished. That feels delightful.

This week, we will begin a new month. And this month we will start a new season - Spring - my favourite season. So there is a lot to look forward to. We all feel a renewed sense of energy, and we all feel new beginnings.

So, let’s start fresh and kick these new beginnings off with a sense of purpose and intention. After all, we have committed ourselves to live our best life. And planning is crucial for success. And, then, working on those plans can feel like taking one step after another deliberately.

Loops Of The Past

For me, I was not moving forward like I wanted to. Instead, I felt like life was steering me in specific directions - seemingly not of my choosing, and I was not the ‘captainess’ of my ship. (Merriam-Webster says that is a word.)

Sure, I would make plans and write them in my monthly agenda. I would even write them as my daily entries. But the energy of decisiveness was just not there.

My plans still needed to come to fruition. And the loops were repeating the cycle over and over again. And the hits to my self-esteem were hurtful when I thought of myself as a ‘failure.’ Remember, thoughts affect feelings.

In truth, I was not a failure. But I was learning what I wanted to know the hard way - that I could make plans and carry them out with even greater success than I imagined.

Create Ladders For Your Future

That idea of energy is an important concept to explore.

Deep Patel, on the site Entrepreneur, wrote an article entitled: “9 Ways to Attract Good Energy Today and Every Day”. He talks about the benefits of power and the idea of sending and receiving good energy. He says it is all about energy vibration and learning to raise your vibration.

I love his suggestions for daily practice:

Pay attention to the energy you are emitting.
Change the tone of your thoughts.
Cut off negative influences.
Expand your circle.
Embrace compassion and kindness.
Cultivate gratitude.
Find your inner strength.
Align your current self with your future self.
Act in good faith.

I am grateful to Deep Patel for this article. He put into words what I have been clumsily trying to do. He gave me a focus for this important personal work. These nine tips are deep, foundational practices that help your ladders be firm and steady as you climb.

Continuing To Build Ladders

I found a site - mal paper, for a Swedish company that creates high-quality paper products. They published an article on 7 Effective Ways To Increase Your Positive Energy.

I love their quote: “And that’s why it’s up to us to protect our energy so we can go through our day with the light and positivity we deserve.” They say it is all about where we place our focus. They have seven suggestions:

Practice gratitude daily.
Do things that align with your personality and bring you joy.
Curate your media intake.
Look after your physical health.
Talk kindly to yourself.
Keep your space decluttered.
Learn to set boundaries.

The people at mal paper also believe that positive quotes are a fantastic tool to help you keep your energy positive, and they have many in this article I have cited. And they finish by writing, “Your energy is a finite resource that you need to protect to live a fulfilled life.“ That is a critical concept to live by.

Planning Is An Important Step Up The Ladder

Every time I wrote those plans down, I reinforced them. Then, of course, I would question why I kept that repetition up, but I would still do it. And it supported that what I wanted to do was still important, even if I didn’t have the drive to carry through with those plans.

Yes. It felt frustrating and even futile at times. I would question myself - constantly. And then, a breakthrough happened for me that I was almost unaware of until I looked back on my victories for this month.

I knew I was pleased with the progress I was making. Almost every day, I felt proud of myself for my accomplishments. Of course, I still faced obstacles and challenges, but I now believed that whatever they were, I could sort them out by figuring out how to solve the problems myself or asking for help to work out solutions.

First, my successes came about because I had been doing much of the foundational work articulated in the points above that the authors of the two articles made. I don’t want to sugarcoat that. It was hard work. But then, climbing steps up the ladder of growth is hard work.

Secondly, I planned. I use two planners - a paper agenda and an online app.

The paper agenda is a planner to help me to scope out my day, week, month, and even year. It is more about my personal life. I schedule when to exercise and when my classes and appointments are planned. I am now noting when the Toronto Blue Jays games are because spring training is here. I plan outings. It also acts as a diary for me. It is a big-picture/little-picture tool. I use colours and stickers, and they reinforce my successes each day for me.

My online app is called ‘Monday,’ and I use it to plan the tasks I want to accomplish for the day in my business. It is also a big-picture/little-picture tool, but the focus differs from my paper agenda. It gives me the freedom to dump all the To-Dos into slots. From there, I can rearrange them to make sense to me.

I can put my plans on boards and arrange them into categories. I can create monthly and daily tasks and things are easy to see before me. I can also easily delete tasks that no longer interest me.

The online app helps me see what I want to accomplish for the month, week, and day. Then, I can carry out my plans step-by-step, and when a task is completed, I can delete it and focus on the next mission to tackle.

So What Are The Benefits Of Making Plans For Women 55+?

We are committed to living our lives with intention and purpose. We are women who are coming into a time where the demands of other people are not as prominent in our lives. I am not saying that we have no demands on our time. But we have learned a thing or two through challenging learning experiences, and we have more of a desire to claim our time and life.

We also feel a sense of urgency and want to live as it suits us.

Anthony Bartlett wrote an article called “How to Make a Plan and Get What You Want in Life.” He uses the analogy of building a house without a solid plan and writes: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

I had been doing a lot of wishing, and now I want to do some planning to help make my dreams come true. His quote:

“Creating a plan may seem inconvenient when you want your journey to a better life to begin now. But traversing new territory is easier when you have a map—whether that’s taking a vacation, earning a promotion, or starting a new business.“

He then writes about the benefits of planning and the steps to creating your plans.

Daydreaming is a critical step in this process. Having goals in mind is essential. Creating plans to achieve those goals is crucial. And it all comes down to carrying out those plans.

It Is A New Season For Making Plans

Life gets better when you know where you want to go, when you plan for your journey and when you carry out those plans. And it is the season for daydreaming, creating goals and making plans. For me, it is the beginning of a new week and month. Spring is right around the corner.

And, more foundationally, I have learned that I can carry out my plans. Because of my complex, personal work, I believe in myself. I can carry out my projects. I can find solutions to problems that arise. I can move, step by step, up the growth ladder of life. I feel empowered. I am the ‘captainess’ of my ship.

A Challenge For You:

Create a mindmap of your goals for your ideal life this spring.
Create solid plans for each goal you have created.
Transfer the steps for those plans into an agenda of your choice. They could be written with coloured markers on a large piece of paper you then tape to a wall where you see it throughout your day. Make it work for you and make it easy for you to be reminded of your goals.
Accomplish each step as you climb towards your goal.
Celebrate.
You are amazing!

Please consider sharing a link to this blog or site with people you know who could use it and/or pass it on to others. Also, please share your thoughts with me. And … I would be appreciative of a coffee and croissant.

Coffee and Croissant For Chris

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