Plan Like a Rebel

This month’s theme is: Summer like a rebel.

We are officially into JUNE 2019, which means for most of us in the US, we are shifting hard into Summer mode. In last week’s episode I talked a lot about the energy shifts that happen naturally to us throughout the year, and for most of the folks I know, Summertime is a sticky sweet mixture of slowing down in your personal life while still trying to keep up with the breakneck pace of the world around you.

If you have school aged kids, you’re balancing your work with their summer break. You’re more free and less free at the same time. Maybe you’re like my husband, who is working from home part of the week over the Summer. You’ve got weekend trips planned. Maybe you’re outdoorsy and you like to camp for some reason (hard pass for me). But you also still have life’s everyday demands. Laundry. Meals. Bills. You’ve probably got this idea in your head of what you want your summer to look and feel like.

This week’s episode is dedicated to The Strategists out there. You may have figured that out based on the title of this episode, which is How to Summer Like a Strategist.

A quick overview of the Strategist persona for anyone who new here or unfamiliar, The Strategist is a visionary, able to see how all the pieces of the puzzle could come together to get them where they want to go. Strategists are pretty great at planning things out, and they thrive on what they think is routine, but what is really control.

You might think that routine and rebellion shouldn’t go together, but they absolutely do. You see, for our Strategists out there, they are able to find their freedom and live their truths through that routine.

Each of the Rebel Planning Personas has a Plan Like a Rebel strategy - for The Strategists, that is to K-I-S-S: Keep It Simple Strategist!

There’s an energy shift that happens between Spring and Summer. Have you ever felt it?

For a lot of folks out there, it’s the shift to a slower, more playful, more relaxed energy. It invites you to play outside, to gather with friends, to think less about your goals and more on your weekend plans. It’s beer by the pool, grilling out, and letting your skin absorb the sunlight like a sizzling hug from the sky.

And for others, like me, and maybe like you too, Rebel, it’s a different shift. It’s more relaxed, yes. It’s more playful, yes. But it’s also more focused. It’s basking in the air conditioning and introverting your ass off. It’s reflecting on the first half of the year, and looking ahead and what’s to come in the next half. It’s trying something new because there’s something inside of you screaming for it. It’s a bolder energy than any other time of year.

Whichever end of that spectrum you skew more toward, I think that even just acknowledging an energy shift is important in our world of hustle and consistency.

That’s something Rebels tend to struggle with - consistency. Whether that’s because you’re consistent to a fault (aka it’s tough for you to relax) or because in your body consistency = hives, it’s a universal Rebel truth. At least in our little corner of the universe.Today I want to cover first why acknowledging and embracing your natural energy shifts can only help you as you plan throughout your year to keep your actions aligned with your values, and keep you from pulling your hair out with stress, most of the time. Then, we’ll talk about how to know when the energy shifts again around the Fall.

A few weeks ago, I started talking about the Planning Personality framework I was building. And then I abruptly stopped talking about it.

What the hell, right?

Let’s talk about that. I was feeling SO much resistance to it. The creative energy behind it just was not freaking there. But the belief in it still is.

So what’s a rebel to do?

A rebel takes the path of least resistance. A rebel lets things be easy.

So today I want to share what has come out of letting things be easy, following the creative flow, and tell you about the Rebel Planning Personas.

I’ve taken some time to get to know each of these personas, starting with an avatar icon, and letting them tell me what their names are. Their titles. How old they are. What they do for work. Where they live. What they’re afraid of.

What has come out of this, is a new quiz that I’m putting together. It’s going to replace the current quiz, Which Planner Do You Need Based on Your Tendency Type.

This quiz will tell you which of the Rebel Planning Personas you are, and tell you your Rebel Planning Strategy - how you can let things be easy in a way that aligns with your Planning persona.

So...you ready to meet the personas?

Today I want to dig into the concept of Polyamory when it comes to planning.

If you’re not familiar, polyamory is a form of consensual ethical non-monogamy, meaning anyone you enter into a relationship with gives their enthusiastic consent for each person to pursue other relationships that satisfy them be that sexually, emotionally, mentally, or a mixture of those things.

Now I’m not saying you should enter into an intimate relationship with your planner here, but I DO want to explore what creating a planning system that uses multiple types of planners to meet your different needs could look like.

Part of planning like a rebel means doing what you need to do to live your life, for you, on your terms.

What that looks like is going to be different for everyone.

The expectations that SO many people have when it comes to planning is that you need to have every minute accounted for, and that if you aren’t planning every little thing, you’re not doing enough, or doing it “right”.

Boxes. Those are ALL boxes you’re putting yourself in, friend.

And for what? To what end? What good does planning that way do for you?

You might think “well that’s how other people plan” or “that’s how I was taught to plan”, or it might just be what you think of when you think of planning. But you’re wrong. Just straight up wrong.

It’s not your fault, but let’s talk about what it would be like for planning to be easy. And what it actually TAKES to let it be easy. And how you can break the thought patterns that planning has to be one specific thing.

What if, instead of it being a self-fulfilling prophecy, you just didn’t give planning as much power as you do?

What if planning wasn’t this big thing that is either all in or all out?

What if Planning was just the vehicle for you to live life on your own terms?

How good would that feel?

I think we’re all under so much pressure to have it all together and it’s like if you can’t have it all together you’re a big hot mess.

Which just isn’t true.

A few weeks ago I thought this episode would be about one of the other planning pillars...I think it’s actually about how to handle things when your plans aren’t executed perfectly.

Over the years I’ve been able to hone in on about how much time different tasks will take me to do, and I can plan accordingly. But when it comes to bigger projects, especially ones like this personality framework, it’s anybody’s dang guess.

I run into this a lot with my clients before we work together and it’s because of the to-do list oriented way most people plan. And further than that, it’s a simple case of energy management vs time management.

Today we are talking about DRIVE, one of the four pillars of planning that I talked about in last week’s episode. The four pillars of planning are something I’ve been putting together behind the scenes for a while, through conversations with my customers and clients, reading books and blogs, listening to a million podcasts, and really just getting a deeper knowledge of the psychology behind planning in general.

I am going to be completely transparent here a minute - I had a REALLY hard time getting this podcast episode out, because I haven’t fully flushed out the details of these planning pillars yet. I don’t have things as tidy and wrapped up in a bow as I would like. And it’s a little scary to share something that’s so raw and unfinished with you all.

BUT growth comes from stepping outside of your comfort zone, and I am going to share everything I have so far - just know this has a long way to go, but I am excited to be co-creating this planning personality framework along side you.

In today’s episode I’m diving into exactly why you’ve never been able to stick with using a planner consistently.

Over the past few months I’ve been creating a planning personality framework, based on four pillars of planning. I firmly believe that everyone is capable of planning consistently with ease and alignment to themselves, and all you need is to learn the strategies that are actually going to work for you.

In today’s episode I’m chatting with my good friend, Rebel and Lifetstyle Coach Michelle of I’m Owning It All.

I wanted to bring Michelle on the show to talk about being a Rebel from her perspective, and how it has shaped her experience in the world and with regards to her self care.