I love spring time.

Even my 6 year old keeps saying in the evening, it still looks like morning! 

Nature is doing it’s thing and plants are reborn, renewed, ready to start again, with ease, with no input from humans. In fact if we got involved, we’d probably mess it up!

In the winter, nature goes into hibernation. Trees and plants look dead, bare and as though nothing is happening. But underneath they’re preparing for Spring.  They are replenishing, resting, getting ready to launch again.  What looks like hibernation, resting (being lazy if we were talking about our overachiever selves) is actually all part of the process, a very necessary part. 

There is so much we can learn from nature. There are many times in our lives, even on an annual or monthly basis where we might feel that we’re not achieving very much, we aren’t getting done everything we want to do. 

Maybe you want to declutter the house, reorganise your desk or your filing, or do your tax return.  Maybe like some of my business clients, you want to post more, write more articles, attend more conferences, network and business develop more…

Maybe you’re looking at how you do things and wondering whether it’s time to change your approach either for different results, or just because you’re bored of the way you’ve been doing things and want to shake it up a little?!

We can always start again.

I’ve written previously about new year’s resolutions and how we shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we don’t stick to them. If it’s something we want, we just start again.  We can always start again with our monthly or annual planning, with the health routine or the diet we really want to implement, with new habits we want to cement.

There are always times in life we need a reset.

Every day is a new day, every minute is a new minute.  I’m a fan of using Spring as our “new year”. We might be in hibernation and planning mode in the first part of the year but by the Spring, we’re ready to take action. The days are longer, it’s lighter and warmer.

There’s positivity and possibility in the air.

Springtime brings positivity and possibility.   A time to look forward with more optimism perhaps than we have for a while.  Certainly for me, even in the midst of recovering from the trauma of last September, almost losing my sister and becoming a carer overnight, and further family health news since, Spring is bringing us comfort and hope.  

Could this Springtime be a time for you to take some action you’ve been putting off or procrastinating over?  Or maybe a time to start a new routine if the current routine is a) boring you or b) you know you’ve developed habits that aren’t really working for you?

Maybe you’ve been busy looking after lots of other people and need a little time for yourself and things that are important to you. 

If so, my Spring challenge for you is to give yourself the gift of a little time to think.  Time to consider what you want from the rest of 2024, whether this is personal or work related, or a combination of both.

If you’d like a little bit more,  I’ve set out here a goal setting and planning process you might like to try. This process can be used in whatever stage you’re at right now. I’ve used it recently to plan out my simplified (but exciting) business plan for this year, including lots more in person events – more details below if you’d like to join one! 

First – write down your priorities

I would suggest a maximum of three. Which three things are most important to you right now?

This might be:

1. Improving your mental or physical health
2. Getting a better handle on your finances
3. Making a new contact or finding a new client or 
4. Finding a way to make your business work more smoothly! 

Second – write down your long term goal, or your vision

Think perhaps 12 months or 2 years from now.  What do you want life to look like?

What is your “dream” or “plan” for the longer term.  Dream Big!

Third – write down your first milestone towards your goal

For this think 3 months into the future. What could you achieve in the next 3 months that would place you one step closer to the long term goal?

Fourth – write down what barriers are in your way

What is, or could be, stopping you from achieving these long and short term goals?

Is it lack of time, lack of finances, lack of knowledge about the best next steps?  Fear of the unknown or fear that you can’t do it?

Realisation is really half of the battle, understanding what could hold you back, will help you find solutions if and when these barriers pop up.

Finally – what are your 3-month actions towards that first milestone?

Again, I would suggest a maximum of three actions/milestones.

What small steps can you take in the next 3 months to get you to the 3-month goal you’ve set?  There is a lot of evidence that planning in 3-month chunks is the most effective time frame, so use that to your advantage.

That’s it!

For a worked example you can use to create your own planner and a blank worksheet to complete the exercise, click here to download.

Did you know?

If you get clear on your goals and write these down, you will be 42% more likely to achieve them!   Write them down and put them somewhere you will see them often like a post it note on your laptop or by the kettle!

By finding someone to keep you accountable (and check in with you regularly) you will be 85-95% more likely to achieve them, that’s why coaching and mentoring is so powerful!