Your 2014 Plan-A-Rama-Thingy

 Are you much of a planner?Do you think ahead? Ponder? Strategize? Visualize?Or just let things...flow?I happen to naturally be more of the former yet over the years have learned to allow some of the latter.Let me 'splain.Here's what I do: I make a plan. Figure out the building blocks to bring that plan into reality. Get the building blocks in place. Step back and...let go.Because the nature of the world is that sometimes stuff happens which is even better than my plan. And that's exactly what I want to happen.So, this past week I began planning for 2014, using my Personal Planning Tool. Hundreds of you have downloaded it in the last month or so, and I hope you're having good results. For those who haven't, now might be a good time to start.Because - not to freak you out or anything - it's almost 2014.And while the Personal Planning Tool takes some time and reflection (it's not a Cosmo quiz, people), it does yield the kind of action steps I'm particularly fond of.You know, ones you can actually do.If you remember my conversation with Harvard's Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorsen (you can listen here) who wrote the Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, goals need to be specific and you need to be able to know just how far you've got to go to get where you want to be.For me, the Personal Planning Tool did that. It yielded several things I am just not going to worry about next year, and sixteen "things" I do want to pay attention to in 2014. Some are mundane, as in "get an estimate on carpeting" but, boy, will I feel happy when the worn carpets in the bedrooms are finally replaced."Feel Happy." Kind of the point, huh?Once I get the estimate, I can start figuring out how to swing it financially. Replacing the carpet will stay top-of-mind, and once I accomplish it, I will have bona fide proof that I did something I set out to do.Which is the kind of awareness that helps us feel capable and competent. And that sense of personal efficacy bleeds over to the rest of our lives.Kinda like, "Look at me! I got the carpet replaced. Bet I can find a new job, too!"Two building block tasks coming out of the Personal Planning Tool for me were to do a financial forecast for 2014, and make a list of every client I've worked with in 2013. I'm happy to report that both of these things are checked off the list.<I feel rather smug about that.>It was actually rather easy to do those two tasks. Once I knew why I wanted to do them, I knocked 'em right off the list. So, see? Your list of Stuff To Do doesn't have to be a big, bad burden. You don't have to reduce everything to scratch and start all over.It can be one-and-done, darlings.But, oh, done is so very good. "Done" sets you up in a million ways for a great 2014 - a great, flowing, happy, productive, enriching, new carpeting kind of year.