Embracing Change: Part II

Hello, readers! It's been several weeks since I posted the first in my Embracing Change series, which you can read here if you haven't read it already. Chances are, you're currently stuck at home due to COVID-19, which means that you're in luck because now you can read this and start working on a Plan of Action for your journey of embracing change!

I doubt anyone anticipated that a world-crippling pandemic would happen in 2020, but here we are. It's easy to feel like doing nothing; I know my motivation has kicked its feet up on the couch watching TikToks. Our social media is flooded with calls-to-action. "This is (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." "How many things have you said you would change if you only had the time? Well guess what: now you have nothing but time!" The gyms may be closed, and some of us (myself and my husband included) have no idea what our financial situation will look like due to this virus, but I have to agree that this is the best time to put those whispered promises to the test. Will you start a workout routine? Will you make more meals at home, or set aside time to develop your small business plan, or drink enough water, or any of the other millions of New Years resolutions you swept under the rug 4 weeks ago?

You have the opportunity now to hit the reset button on your routine. Chances are you have at least a little bit of extra time to see what you can work into your schedule. If you are working from home, you don't have to commute, which means you have at least that much extra time in your day to try something new. Or, if you are like me and laid off for the foreseeable future, you have all 24 hours to work with.

Assignment 1:

The assignment you were given at the end of the last article was to read the chapter on BHAGs from Collins' Built to Last, reflect on your past/present/and what you want your future to be, and write down any goals, dreams, ideas and/or wishes you want to work on in the future. Remember, it can be anything. Nothing is too big or too small. All ideas are good ideas in a brainstorming session. Make sure you use a black marker or pen, because color comes in to play next. After your brainstorming session, your project should look something like this:

Step 2

Gather as many colors of pens, markers, highlighters, colored pencils, crayons, whatever as you have, and pick one color to start. (I'll be doing this example with my own project and categories, which may not fit with your vision for yourself, and that's totally fine!). Next, you're going to circle anything that seems similar on this piece of paper. I'm starting with blue because that is my favorite, and on my plan, blue represents the Health category. Once that is done, your project should look something like this:

Once that color seems done (and if you miss one, you can always fix it later), pick your second color and start circling another set of goals that seem similar. Pink is my second favorite color, so we'll do that next. In my project, pink is for Passion, which is defined for this project as anything that feeds into my creative outlets. Now it should look like this:

Continue this until you run out of colors or until you run out of things to circle. My project uses orange, purple, red, black, yellow, and green. Now you'll have this:

The last step is to draw lines that connect each color. I'll explain this in a minute. Your finished project will look like this beautiful chaotic mess:

It is entirely possible that several things can be categorized into many different colors. That's totally fine. You can circle anything as many times as you want with as many colors as you want. We can decide where it ends up later down the line. So for now, if you held back doubling up on those colors, you can go back and circle until you feel like your paper looks like a splattered unicorn.

When I originally did this project, the instructor had us circle the items that were similar, but connect ones that built off of each other. In other words, we only connected the items that followed each other, like a step-by-step guide across our future. This didn't work for me. I know it might be obvious that "dance lessons" come before "audition/act" but that's not how it works, not on this paper or in real life. By that logic, I wouldn't be allowed to audition until I can afford dance lessons. And what about the items that didn't have anything that "connected" to it? That idea was trash and I threw it out. So I'm having you connect items that are the same color because everything piece builds off of other pieces. There is also no one right way to do this whole change thing. Everyone's story is different, everyone's skills and talents and abilities and food preferences are completely unique. This whole sheet of paper you've just drawn all over like a toddler sugared up on Skittles is not a paint-by-number or even a treasure map. It is a guide, it is the base on which you build the best version of yourself you can be. This splattered unicorn is your North Star.

Now, take in your beautiful piece of art. See how messy it is? See how colorful and full of hope it is? That is YOU. Change is full of hope, full of colors. Even if you would describe your life as grey right now, this piece of paper is proof that you can see colors in as many areas of your life as you'd like. I've struggled with anxiety and depression since I was 13. My life was grey for a long time. Over time, that grey has become duller and some beautiful pastels have replaced some of the grey. Change is also messy. This process is not easy. But as you gaze on this work of art that is breaking down all of you on this piece of paper, you should feel hope. Maybe a little inspiration. Maybe even a little motivation. So take some time and let your mind wander and dwell on all the amazing things you're about to do.

Step 3

Once you are done celebrating change, take your piece of paper over to your laptop or desktop and open up your preferred writing app. (Sometimes I use Microsoft Word, but I've been gravitating towards GoogleDocs lately.)

The first thing you are going to do is name your categories. Each color will correspond with these categories. You can brainstorm as many category titles as you'd like, but when you're done, you should shave it down so that the number of categories equals the number of colors you used on your splattered unicorn. (I like the sound of that so I'm rolling with it.) To recap, these were my categories and their corresponding colors: Creativity (purple), Mental Health (blue), Professional (orange), Brand (red), Physical Health (black), Passion (pink), Legacy (yellow), and Finances (green). For 2020, I did tweak my categories a bit; this year blue is just for Health and black is for Family. I also wanted to include Travel as a category, but rather than add another color, I was able to fit in all our traveling under other categories (for example, traveling to CA for my cousin's wedding fit under family). Maybe looking at mine, you're a little confused why some things are in "Passion" and others are in "Creativity" when they sound exactly the same to you. That's totally fine, because this is my project and you should be making changes that ensure the project makes sense to you. The easiest way to begin this phase of your project is to type a list of your categories, bold the title, and include your preferred color in parenthesis beside. Your list should be fairly short and look like this:

Creativity (purple)

Health (blue)

Professional (orange)

Brand (red)

Family (black)

Passion (pink)

Legacy (yellow)

Finances (green)

Again, if you don't vibe with my categories, DEFINITELY make your own. This project needs to resonate with you!

If you want to color in the colors, that's fine too, but coloring the title makes it way easier to lose track of where you are in your document, especially if you are using yellow.

Next, you are going to take your splattered unicorn and start typing each goal under its corresponding color on your document. You can either type up each goal under ALL the colors you circled it with (if working out fits under "health" and "brand", list it under both) or you can start making executive decisions about where you want things to live now (only list it under "health"). I self-edited as I went because things started to fall into place on their own quite nicely. For sake of clarity, I also recommend using bullets as you make your lists. In my example below, I only put 3 items per category, but you should fill out the entire thing. The finished project should look like this:

Creativity (purple)

-audition and act

-journal every day

-YouTube

Health (blue)

-hit my goal weight

-more flexible

-better sleep and more rest

Professional (orange)

-conferences and conventions

-full-time job that works with a theater schedule

-steady income

Brand (red)

-blog

-read 100 books

-Instagram

Family (black)

-family reunions

-family photo shoots

-Cedar Point

Passion (pink)

-see a new show every month

-see a movie in theaters every month

-bucket list

Legacy (yellow)

-memories and traditions

-inspire

-kindness

Finances (green)

-detailed budget

-become debt-free

-$1k emergency fund

LOOK AT YOU!

YOU DID SOMETHING TODAY!

You just took a massive step in the right direction, AND you didn't spend your entire day sitting on the couch watching Netflix like you may have every other day of quarantine! (Note: I'm not couch-shaming, merely calling myself out on the many hours of television I have been consuming lately.)

When embracing change, planning is KEY. Maybe you are one of those magical humans that can stop smoking cold-turkey or just decide to go to the gym and do it every day, no questions asked. If you are, then I envy you, because I definitely can't do that. Therefore, planning is essential for me. I need to see everything on paper (or GoogleDocs) before I take a plunge. For me, self-discipline and self-control are developed traits. I'll probably be developing them until I die, because I am probably the least self-disciplined person I know.

You are capable of many wonderful things, and change is within your grasp.

****

Assignment 2

Now that you have completed the first step of this exciting project, we are going to move onto the next step.

Hopefully this quarantine means you don't mind if I assign homework, 'cause I'm gonna. To prepare you for the next step in our project, I'm going to send you over to read George T. Doran's paper on goal setting, titled There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives.

Take some more time to reflect on your goals. Maybe take a Netflix break in-between episodes and visualize your future self as if all of these goals came to be. Imagine your older, wiser, healthier, more financially stable self and picture how that version of you goes throughout the day. Fantasize that life and keep thinking about it. Maybe even start writing it down and journal about the kind of life you are excited for. Planning may be key to success, but visualization is turning that key.

See you soon for part 3!