Three Ten-Minute Sessions To A Purposeful Plan For 2022 That Serves You, Your Team, And The World
By Nell Derick Debevoise
Date Published: Oct 28, 2021
“Year-end planning is never easy, and it certainly isn’t this year. Building on the uncertainty, surprises, ‘unprecedented’ elements, and tragedies of 2020, 2021 is clear as mud in so many ways. Perhaps the only sure thing is uncertainty. Turns out, we were always living amid uncertainty, it just wasn’t so blatant and we were able to live with the illusion of control.”
So began my 2021 annual guide to planning, and I’ll use the same introduction here, changing the years by one. Uncertainty is indeed here to stay, and for now, still in dramatic ways.
But this year, my focus is on the HOW of purposeful planning, rather than the WHAT. Please do refer back to the 2021 article if you’re looking for support about WHAT you should be planning for to have a greater sense of purpose and increase your impact in 2022. So if you are committed to contributing to social and environmental justice in your work and life, here is your three step guide to planning purposefully
First: Be Where You Are
The first step in planning purposefully is to recognize where you are coming from. Especially in moments of crisis, it’s easy to make excuses for the past, or consider it to be exceptional. 2021 was certainly another intense year that is tempting to label exceptional. But actually, even Covid qualifies as a chronic factor in our reality, not an acute incident. And of course, climate crisis, extreme weather, racial injustice, gender and sexuality bias, and growing wealth inequality are systemic features of today, not isolated moments.
If you have a reflection practice for your work or life, please use that one to review the past year, in the Me, We, and World dimensions, of course.
If you don’t, here’s a simple and universal template. Make two columns: What’s Working and What’s Not Working. For bonus points, and more thoughtful insights, divide those columns into three rows: Me, We, and World.
Set a timer for eight minutes and fill those two columns with at least a dozen items in each, big or small. Then set your timer for two minutes and highlight or star the three items on each side that you want to focus on, expanding or eliminating respectively. Ideally that will be one item in each dimension, Me, We, and World.
Congratulations, you’re done with the first step. First, put the next ten-minute session on your calendar sometime in the next three days. Now give yourself a reward, whether a walk around the block, cuddles with the dog, or fresh apple.
Second: Look Forward
The point of this session is to dream, not infinitely, but one to three years out, depending on your current situation. If you’re in a pretty stable situation, you might be able to imagine three years out. If you’re in the midst of a transition, it might be more reasonable to just envision your reality a year from now. Make this decision for yourself and label a piece of paper or blank document with the end date you choose, whether November 25, 2022, or 2024, or somewhere in between.
This time you’ll need four columns – and break them into the same three rows, for the Me, We, and World dimension