Using sensory perception meditation, self-reflection and a detailed visual action step, this plan will guide you to access your deepest needs and support you to live healthier, happier and set more aligned goals.
With a FREE visual planner to download, check it out at the end of the blog
New Cycle, New Year, new plans, new projects and old plans with different actions...
Every new cycle is an opportunity to renew and to bring hope for the future, to set plans, to achieve goals, to reevaluate, to forget and to forgive, to progress in life, and to become the best you can be.
But what do you really want in the new phase?
In this blog, which was part of my Kundalini Yoga classes handout, I would like to share with you a holistic plan that I use and which has helped me to achieve my goals and dreams but also helps me to keep up healthy, happy and courageous despite of challenges. It keeps my mind focused despite unexpected circumstances.
When we set out on a journey, it is essential to know at least where we want to go. Then we'll decide on the first steps on how to get there.
We don't know for sure how things will turn out, but we will have an idea, a compass to guide us. The compass is the "journey plan".
The same happens with life. We need a guide, a compass, an idea, and a plan. However, the complexities of life often require a more dynamic plan; one that is holistic (accessing our needs in different levels and areas of life), and a plan that has a deeper connection with the self. All plans need to be adaptable because the very nature of life is change.
I normally teach a Kundalini Yoga class to balance the body's energies and to stimulate the Vital Energy (Chi, Prana) before giving this Year's Life Plan and Goals-setting exercise to my students. I encourage you to do any activity that brings balance, revitalises and energises you, gives clarity of mind, that helps you to tune within. Doing this type of activity can help you to engage with more enthusiasm when setting your goals.
How to act (to live) in the theatre of life? How to be happy, fulfilled and healthy?
This is a very personal question with as many personal answers… I can only share what has helped my journey with the hope it can guide or clarify yours, but ultimately the path is yours to choose. My wish is that whatever path you choose to take, you will find happiness, health and bliss.
The first 4 Action Steps:
I like to approach the year with 4 main action steps. This helps to clarify my visions, to set targets, " to play the play as I think I would enjoy", and to daily evaluate and consciously become aware of my journey.
STEP 1- Reflection, Gratitude and Evaluation:
Reflect on the year that has gone, being profoundly grateful for the lessons learned, the experiences lived and the opportunities created (even losses are opportunities to create things differently and better).
Reflect on the actions you have taken and the results they had. Be SUPER OK and proud of you in every action you took. Accept every action and acknowledge that you have acted in the best way you could, with the best knowledge you had of that situation.
Be grateful for all you did and the experiences you had. You can make whatever you want from actions and situations, the choice is yours. You can use them to create excuses and be a victim or, you can use those events as opportunities to change, to make a better version of the reality you want to create and the person you want to become.
Evaluate how those experiences have changed your perception of life. Have they defied previous assumptions, beliefs and programs about things, people and situations? How have you changed?
STEP 2-Assessing your needs holistically (mind, body and soul):
Using Sensory Perception Meditation to access your body needs: connect to your 5 senses (touch, sight, taste, hearing, smell) and your feelings. The senses are the doors of perception to reality. The feelings are how we respond to these sensory perceptions.
How to do a Sensory Perception Meditation?
- Choose a place and time where you will not be disturbed.
- Close your eyes, starting by focusing on the inhalation and exaltation, the breath coming in and out.
- Connect to your senses. What is the temperature of your breath? What your senses are telling you? Any particular smell?
- Observe any sensation in your body. Can you visualise anything even with eyes closed?
- Just become the observer. Let sensations unfold freely.
- Now access your feelings: What are your feelings telling you? Dedicate to listening to yourself Allow your feelings to express.
Just observe it, objectively. If you are carried away by your thoughts, come back to the body sensations and to the breath.
Scan every part of your body; from head to toe and from toe to head.
Take about 10 minutes in this exercise.
This meditation is so simple, yet, it is so powerful. It opens the doorways of perception, it allows your deepest needs to be expressed.
STEP 3- Planning:
Now is the time to gather everything, to connect the dots and to translate this experience into words and words into a plan.
-What do your body, mind and soul need?
- Why do you want all this? Connect every answer to a purpose, to a feeling. How would you feel when you fulfil your needs?
- What is important for you to achieve at this stage of your life?
- What do you seek? Be as specific as you can, don't be afraid to set big goals. In fact the bigger the better!
- Set Daily TARGETS for the Goals. Create an urgency to achieve these targets ("Targets are the confirmation that you can achieve your Goals", Grant Cardone).
-What are you willing to give up? You will need to give up certain things to get there.
You will need to reevaluate and let go of certain habits, circumstances, social engagements and so on, in order to get what you need.
Don't be afraid to let go of old stuff that does not serve you anymore. This can be a job that gives a false sense of security, an activity that you think you need, and so on. We get attached to people, habits and things, and attachment is the main reason why we get stuck. Be grateful for whatever you need to give up, say bye-bye, and from now on, look forward.
- Are you willing to hustle? The Universe will pressure you up anyway; expansion requires pressure from inside out and from outside in. Be willing to put yourself under pressure, basically, you will be in tune and in flow with the physics of the Universe, it will feel like there is no pressure at all.
Write it all down, and in the present or past tense!
You must write your results, goals, targets, things you need to give up and attitudes you need to develop as if you have already accomplished them.
"You want to live your life as if all dreams have come true as if you are living them. Then you need to challenge reality to catch up with it." Dan Lok
Set higher goals and seek to fulfil your needs at all levels of your life." If you aim for the moon, you may get to the stars." Grant Cardone
STEP 4 -Scheduling and Taking Action:
“What is talked about is just a dream. What is envisioned is exciting. What is planned becomes possible. What is scheduled is real.”
Tony Robbins,
RPM method of achieving goals.
Start by having an overall LIFE VISION for the YEAR. Every need and goal to fulfil may be connected to a category of your life.
Using categories can be easier to visualise the multiple dimensions of you and to make a plan that is truly holistic, looking at all aspects of life.
- Health and Fitness,
- The environment you live
- Emotions and feelings
- Personal traits or values you would to pursue in life (eg: courage, determination, commitment, persistence, etc..)
- Educational, Intellectual
- Spiritual
- Love, Relationships, Parenting and Social life
- Financial life
- Career
I- Take the overall Life vision for the YEAR. Start by picking one need/goal that you would like to achieve. Follow your intuition to choose the first need you want to work on.
What is the end RESULT of this need? For example:
Need: to move to a bigger house
Result: It improved my environment. It gives me space to have a home office and now I can focus better on the work I need to do without so many interruptions.
Feeling: I feel calmer, more focused and I have this sense of expansion.
Always connect your need to results and feelings (ask: Why do I need this? Feel it!)
II- Now break it down into QUARTERLY action steps.
What is the first step you can take to move towards that result?
Repeat this process of breaking down into smaller action steps:
III - Break into MONTHLY action steps
IV -Break into WEEKLY action steps,
V - Finally schedule into DAILY action steps and even HOURLY action steps.
Keep yourself accountable, and be consistent. Get someone to help you, someone who you can trust, who can motivate you, and who can support and lift you up. You will need that. Accountability is essential and having a partner, a coach and a mentor is fundamental for your success.
Every day reflect: What have I envisioned for myself? Say it out and loud!How did I live my Life Vision Today?
"KEEP IT UP and you WILL be KEPT UP" (Yogi Bhajan)
FAQS
1) After all this, does it mean that the plan will go exactly as you have set out?
No, but it will definitely polish you to shine and put you closer to fulfilment.
Sometimes things do not go accordingly to the plan, simply because in life “Everything Changes”. But if you plan, schedule and take action on it, it is more likely that you will get in the direction you have set out and towards the result you want.
And even if things turn out to be different; the plan was made based on self-reflection, personal feelings and following your needs at that time. Therefore, when there is a change, this will inevitably and eventually guide you to what is necessary for you at that moment, and it will also help you to keep focused on your Life Vision.
2) By following a structure will I miss the flow of life?
Of course not…much for the contrary; you will become even more tuned in with the dynamics of life and your needs.
Download your goal-setting visual planner
Looking for 121 support to help you to connect to your needs, mentoring you through the steps necessary to write your goals, targets and to put strategies in place to achieve them?
I am passionate about this subject and planning is what is behind my achievements.
Every year, I work with my mentors and I know the importance of having someone to support you in the journey. I would love to leverage you in this fascinating and effective way of achieving holistic well-being by setting your goals and targets in all areas of your life.