Lessons Learned: Becoming Who I Was Meant to Be

Congratulations you have reached 334 days out of 365. As we embark on another year, let us review our milestones we have reached this year and make our plan for the next 365.

Wellness is a JOURNEY! Like with any journey, it starts with always moving forward one step at a time. Well… it might not always feel like you are killing it, feeling beast mode, cooking, or even moving forward. At times you are going to take steps backward and feel like you are on a rusty Hamster wheel. I have five steps to share that will get you to success. Think of this year as setting up, fixing, your foundation, and filling in those cracks, and gaps that you allowed into your day-to-day routine. You already have your very own personal lessons learned of what did not work. So you know what not to keep doing otherwise you will keep getting the same results- That’s insanity. With a solid foundation the results, of success will come, you may even surpass your own expectations. I know they did for my own journey. Failure to plan, plan to fail. Write your vision so that when you read it you can run ahead. You can also adjust your plan as you go. That is called Risk Management in Project Management. The steps below is your blueprint and will help you take your health and wellness into your own hands, taking back your autonomy and therefore your power over your own life.

What you need to start: You will need, paper and a blue pen. ( I always write in a blue pen as it copies black; pro tip for when you sign any legal documents you can tell the original document. That tip is for free. It was shared with me by a government official way…back in early 2000’s when I was just starting out on my own professional journey during undergrad.) I recommend a journal or notebook, just for your goals to be tracked, and you can write down your innermost thoughts, feelings struggles throughout the process. It can even just be a 99-cent notebook of paper, it does not have to be fancy just functional. Using your computer can be effective but not as effective and I will share why in another post. Where I can dive deeper into why writing it down is important for success when it comes to your wellness and personal goals (projects).

FIVE STEPS TO SAVE YOU TIME & MONEY

1. (Initiation Phase) Collect YOUR data, this is where you get honest with yourself. Take inventory, what do you have, where are you currently at in the desired outcome? What does success look like? What do you need to reach success? It is okay if you do not know yet. As you progress throughout the other steps, what you need will make itself known very quickly; that you can be assured of. In Project Management we call that the unknown risk. Knowing where your starting point is regardless of the “it” you are progressing towards is curtail to developing your plan and moving forward into execution. This step will save you time and money in both the short and long term.
2. (Planning Phase)Write the vision. Writing out the plan gives the visual perspective, the 3K foot view of your plan. Are you missing anything? Do you need to collect tools and/or resources before you execute your plan? Have you identified your risk of failure? How about your unknown risk of failure? Like a global pandemic? Technology crashing? Not having access to medical care? Death? Capturing all the things you know that could possibly happen to prevent you from success needs to be documented to track. You know the excuses, reasons, and risks you have told yourself as to why you would not reach success. For each reason, risk, and excuse, write out your mitigation plan for when those risks arise – something known or unknown always arises forcing you to adjust your plan. Remain adaptable and be ready to pivot at a moment’s notice. With it written down, you can reference your plan to help you not have to recall, panic, or stress out over what to do next. Most of us not trained, will in stressful situations fall back to known habits; also known as our comfort zone. This is not your fault your brain is wired to protect you. Your squishy marshmallow of a brain is always scanning, looking for threats all on its own. It is designed to keep you alive and neutralize threats that it perceives would harm you. It does not like change and sees it as a threat. This is partly why it is paramount to have your plan written down for reference. Do not trust your brain during change. Your thoughts will get you up a river on a category 5 rapid, both your paddles have fallen into the water and are floating miles ahead of you, and your boat is attempting to toss you out into the rapids before going over a waterfall. ( A story for another day) Your plan provides you the necessary steps to remain focused on the solutions to reach your end goal successfully.
3. (Execution Phase) Break down into bite-size steps. Why is this important? Imagine trying to eat an entire elephant in one sitting. Impossible right? In Project Management before we start executing the various action items, we break the work down into small steps to track in what’s called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). We take and break down each action item and break it down into management working sets. For example; I hear many say, “I need to drink more water”. The action item is drinking the water, but what are the steps that lead to you actually drinking the water? Do you have water? Do you have clean water? What method do you get your water, well, faucet- tap, bottled, water cooler? Do you have something to put the water in? Is the size of your container important? How many trips are you needing to make? What is the distance you have to go to get the water? Do you need additional tools or resources to fill your container with drinking water? How much and how often of “drinking more water” do you need to reach your goal? Each of these steps are documented in the WBS. You can also turn your WBS into a schedule and track time. You can track resources such as human effort – friend or professional to help you, cost, tools and at what point do you need them by to fulfill their purpose.
4. (Monitoring and Controlling Phase) Consistency. Rinse and repeat. Journaling daily and talking with yourself about how you are feeling, how are your goals going can help you identify if early on if you are starting to deviate from your plan in the smallest of ways. It will also help you to remind yourself of your why, why did you want the change in the first place, what is the end goal? Has that changed? In Project Management during the monitoring and controlling phase of projects we are tracking the risks, checking in with our resources for issues that have come up. Creating change management plans to ensure we are successful in our endeavors. This will help you save time, energy, and any money you have or will invest in your goal. There is always going to be sweat equity in all your pursuits, you have to put the work in to reap the rewards. This will ensure you get the most ROI (Return On Investment). Image, you woke up and you had exactly what you wanted. Whatever you are working towards, knowledge and wisdom, physical health, spiritual enlightenment, tangible wealth, a certain relationship. You didn’t have put in any work, it just appeared like a gift. Would you fully appreciate it? Would you know how to take care of it? Would you have the mental, physical, spiritual strength and character to keep it; hold onto it? When we are consistent daily with our efforts, it is teaching us the value of what we are going after, building the capacity to care for it, building the strength to keep it, and shaping our character to hold onto it without ever losing it.
5. (Close Phase) Success! Congratulations, but before you close out your goal and move on. Take out your journal and jot down your lessons learned. Your lessons learned will provide you with your next goal of getting 1% better. No one ever gets it right the first time. We all (FAIL)First Attempt In Learning. Fail forward, extract the lessons and not the details. We can never change the past by trying to repeat it. By trying to repeat it we miss out on the new moment and lessons life is trying to teach us.

You now have an outline, a map to lead you to success. I hope these steps are helpful. Regardless of what anyone has ever spoken into your life, know that you are enough.You are worthy. You got this! Until next time, be well.