The Planned Creative

Did you end 2019 sputtering over the finish line out of gas? If you accomplished your 2019 goals did you have the energy to even celebrate your victories? Take a hard look at what your goals are for 2020. Learning, striving, giving, loving, and pushing limits are key parts of a fulfilled and successful life, but don't forget in order to grow you also need nourishment. You can't give what you don't have. You can't care for others as best you can if you haven't cared for yourself. Did you factor in caring for yourself as one of your 2020 goals? Do your goals span a variety of life facets such as family, relationships, health (physical, mental, and spiritual), as well as finances and career? We often get so focused on making more money and advancing careers that we forget the rest. But the rest is what we will truly care about in the end. Advancing careers and making more money are just meant to facilitate parts of the rest - travel, making memories, specia...

Imperturbable Emma Plan for success by keeping a list handy of actions you can take when you notice yourself enter any kind of mindset downward spiral.  This way in the moment you don't need to dream up something to help - you can just grab your list and pick an item that suits the moment! Keep it handy whether it's a note on your phone, in your planner, or wherever you can reach it easily throughout your day. Fill it with anything and everything that's ever worked for you - or that you think might work for you.  Some suggestions for your list: 💗 Listen to upbeat music 💗 Get a good laugh 💗   Walk around the block 💗   Declutter 💗   Give someone a hug 💗   Think about what went well 💗   Allow yourself to vent 💗   Write it down 💗   Help someone else 💗   Smile! 💗   Smell orange or lavender 💗   Look at flowers 💗   Visualize your best self 💗   Write down everything you are thankful for 💗 ...

Don't Forget to be Awesome Ah, fall. Let the mayhem begin! Kids are back to school and the extra-curricular activities are back in full swing, work is wrapping up third quarter and everyone is just realizing they haven't even finished second quarter goals and somehow the year got away from us and we need to pull a miracle out of our butts to accomplish everything in the last quarter, not to mention all the upcoming holidays we need to figure out Christmas gifts and Thanksgiving supper, and... and... and! Stop. Breathe. Reel it in. You've got this. Map it out on your calendar. Decide what you can ask someone else to help with. Ask them. Let go or schedule the rest. And remember this one thing...... Don't Forget to be Awesome!!!

Pocket Full of Sunshine With all the positive vibes hype that's been going on forever it's easy to get lost in the affirmations and law of attraction following.... You know, if we believe firmly enough everything will be awesome! (cue that LEGO movie song my spouse busts out randomly to annoy our daughter) 😁 For someone as deep-rooted pessimistic as myself I spent a long time completely dismissing the whole thing as delusional - and missed the whole point. My motto was always "Plan for the Worst". Over the past few years I've come to accept constant catastrophic is inherently unhealthy and promotes extreme dissatisfaction and unhappiness in your life.  Now, I'm not saying that just blindly believing everything will be great and nothing bad will ever, ever happen to you - that's the other end of the pendulum swing into delusional positive thinking. Bad things do happen to good people sometimes, and refusing to acknowledge or make contingency plans ...

strive for progress not perfection It's a sad truth... But it happens. As much as I love a good plan with timelines and milestones, one of the most difficult yet important skills to develop is the ability to adjust. We don't live in a vacuum and unfortunately the world often does not bend to our will nor is willing to acknowledge our set timelines and plans. Flexibility often does not come easily. With it comes so much fear - fear of not reaching your goal, fear of making mistakes and appearing foolish, fear of the unknown. So what to do with this? The best way I've found to think of it is to equate mental flexibility with physical flexibility. Training to do the splits does not mean just throw yourself down there - that's guaranteed to be super painful!! Plus you're probably never going to want to do THAT again 😱... Start with small actions . Store out of your favourite flavour of coffee creamer? Reframe your thoughts and try to view this as a chance...

I know, I know... We hear it all the time  🙉 S top the eye rolling and just consider this: Declare Your Intention I'm gonna save up enough money to do a weekend spa getaway. When I lose 10 pounds I'm going to buy that cute dress. I'll take some holidays when work is all caught up. I'll start eating more healthy next week. Some day I'll have a side hustle that generates as much money as my day job. I'll spend more time with my family when things settle down. I'll start exercising when I have more time. All of this sounds pretty awesome right? Who doesn't want at least one of these things? I bet you've said or heard something like at least one of these EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. One problem. Do you notice something they all have in common?  There is no HOW. There is no THIS IS WHAT I'M DOING. Like magically down the road these things will just drop into our laps fully formed and ready to rock. So much "I'm going to",...