Does your business planning process involve reviewing your year-end goals, setting out a plan for everything you want to do the following year, and being left with more goals that you can ever manage to achieve? I've done this every year, and it has never worked for me. This year I discovered that sometimes it's best to let the plan for achieving these goals appear when it's ready.
Copyright (c) 2008 Christine Kloser
To plan, or not to plan? That is the question! Perhaps you can relate to my relationship with planning; typically, for the past several years, I'd review my year-end goals and set out a plan for everything I want to do the following year. And, year after year, there are always more goals than I can manage to achieve. You may find yourself in the same situation... with so many things you'd like to complete in a year, but not able to get everything done.
But, this year something different is happening for me. And, when I recently attended my mastermind meeting in Las Vegas, I saw my same experience echoed by most of my colleagues.
Let me offer you a little background... The members of my Mastermind group decided to work together to complete our One Page Business Plan, based on Jim Horan's book of the same title. This was the best planning tool I've ever used... it helped all of us narrow our focus and gain crystal clarity on what was most important for us and our business.
The One Page Business Planning process, I believe, is what allowed me to do something I'd never done before... which is the fifth gift I received from my Mastermind trip to Las Vegas.
Gift #5: Create space for miracles to appear.
With a realistic, attainable, inspiring and strategic business plan in place, I allowed myself to attend my mastermind meeting in Las Vegas with the freedom of knowing my business finally had a clear direction for the year. The interesting thing about having a written plan in place was that it allowed me to not plan for every last detail of what I wanted to occur for the entire year.
In years past, this would have "freaked me out" a little bit. But, what I realized during my Mastermind meeting in Las Vegas was that many of us hadn't planned our entire year in specific detail. Rather, we knew WHAT we wanted to achieve throughout the year, but we didn't try to determine exactly HOW those goals were going to be realized. Instead, many of us consciously allowed ourselves to create space for miracle to appear.
Now, you may be wondering what I mean when I say "miracles" especially since miracles aren't something you'll typically find in a business plan. Perhaps the best way to explain this is to give you an example from my own business.
One of the goals I had in my business plan was to increase my gross revenues to one million dollars this year. I knew I wanted to achieve this goal, but I didn't focus on exactly how it was going to happen. Instead, I told myself I would see what unfolds as a results of the plan I had in place for the first half of the year... which included the release of my new book The Freedom Formula, the launch of my 2008 Get Your Book Done publishing program, the release of my next book Conscious Entrepreneurs, and my 3rd Annual Conscious Entrepreneurs Tele-Summit.
I felt confident in surrendering the 2nd half of the year's plan and allowing myself to be guided toward what I was destined to do. As a result of allowing myself to remain open to what showed up, I was shown exactly what I needed to do for the rest of the year. I was supposed to create a LIVE event based on my book called The Freedom Formula Experience.
How did I know I was supposed to be doing this? Because it was fun, easy and effortless. Every resource I dreamed would show up... showed up! Including easily getting Neale Donald Walsch, James Twyman and Marianne Williamson to come speak at the event live! Believe me, if I hadn't created space for miracles to appear, I'm sure this wouldn't have happened with the ease and grace it did. I'm still pinching myself to ensure that it's real.
The most beautiful thing about this experience of 'creating space for miracles to appear is that many of my colleagues were also following the same inner guidance. One of them allowed for a void to bring forth his most valuable creative piece of work ever, another colleague cleared space and birthed a new program for her clients that is more aligned with her soul's calling (and an exciting new method for delivering her new ideas), and another colleague showed up without an agenda and left Las Vegas with a concept for a whole new direction for her business.
You see, when you allow yourself to stop 'forcing' and 'willing' your way through your plans, (and replace those behaviors with allowance, trust, openness and receptivity) you DO create space for miracles to occur; miracles that will guide you day by day and moment by moment to exactly where you're meant to BE.
Success as a Conscious Entrepreneur
Business planning. Team building. These things typically sound too corporate and boring for a conscious entrepreneur. Right? You'd rather create, collaborate, develop, teach, train, coach, write and help people! I understand; I'm the same way. I admit it; when I first heard about business planning and team building, I honestly wondered what place they had in my small entrepreneurial endeavor... weren't those things only for big business?
How to Succeed as a Conscious Entrepreneur
I set out on a mission to learn from those who had already achieved what I wanted to achieve... success with a purpose. I became extremely curious about how other people did this because I wanted to learn from them, model them and implement what they taught me in my own life and business.
How to Become an "Overnight" Success
Have you ever noticed entrepreneurs who appear to become successful "overnight"? It's a bit of a mystery, isn't it; one day nobody knows who they are and the next day everyone's talking about them. This is an interesting phenomenon that happens with entrepreneurs, but I assure you... the success rarely happens "overnight."
