Full Transcript for Planning Has Nothing to Do With the Plan Going "Right"

productive person. 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:43.779 I am a productive person. 00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:49.860 There is this belief that everything goes exactly as I plan. 00:04:50.419 --> 00:04:56.100 And friends, I am here to tell you categorically 100% no. 00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:58.819 Not even at the weekly planning level. 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:10.100 I can't remember the last time when I completed my weekly plan and then followed the next week that it executed exactly as I planned out, right? 00:05:10.340 --> 00:05:14.899 I have a lot of uncertainty and a lot of unpredictability in my life. 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:20.579 Yet planning is an essential part to help manage the chaos. 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:26.180 Plans changing is normal, especially the further out you plan, right? 00:05:26.259 --> 00:05:27.699 Because there's so many unknowns. 00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:38.500 If you're planning out the next 12 months of your life, you don't know what might pop up six, seven, eight months from now that might make what you're planning not be able to become a reality. 00:05:38.819 --> 00:05:52.579 And the fact is, if you have a really hard year or really hard season or really challenging 12 weeks like I've had, that is not proof that planning doesn't work or planning is failing you. 00:05:52.899 --> 00:06:00.740 I just went through three of the most challenging months I've had in a very, very long time in terms of planning and scheduling. 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:09.860 And the fact is, if I had not built my annual plan for this year, and I built this plan eight months ago, right? 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:12.899 Because I start planning in October for the upcoming year. 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:23.460 If I had not built my annual plan, these last three months that I just navigated would have been an absolute disaster. 00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:33.860 And when I talk about an absolute disaster, what would have happened is a million things would have fallen through the cracks, things that couldn't have afforded to have fallen through the cracks. 00:06:34.019 --> 00:06:37.540 The business would have probably just kind of come to a screeching halt. 00:06:37.779 --> 00:06:38.740 It did not. 00:06:38.899 --> 00:06:42.899 Things would have been very chaotic both professionally and personally. 00:06:43.300 --> 00:07:00.019 What I want to share with you guys today is two incredibly important ways that annual planning, that longer-term strategic plannings actually support you when everything seems to kind of blow up. 00:07:00.259 --> 00:07:02.740 Because it certainly did for me. 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:05.779 So let's break down what these two things are. 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:14.980 First off, is if you do not have, I'm just gonna call it your annual plan, but think about it as just a long-term, more strategic plan, right? 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:16.339 A more high-level plan. 00:07:16.579 --> 00:07:21.699 And when I'm talking about this annual plan, it needs to include all

aspects of your life. 00:07:21.860 --> 00:07:22.259 All right. 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:33.540 I'm not talking goal setting, I'm talking true annual planning, where you're looking at what am I doing personally, what am I doing with my family, what's going on with work, what's going on with business, right? 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:34.740 All the hats that you wear. 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:37.139 We've got to have a plan that integrates all of it. 00:07:37.459 --> 00:07:52.500 And if you do not have that put in place, when life starts lifing, when chaos happens, what happens is that the chaos runs the show and it runs the show indefinitely. 00:07:52.899 --> 00:07:58.180 Because without a plan, again, life happens, chaos comes up. 00:07:58.500 --> 00:08:10.100 Once you work through that chaos, and I am, you know, just as the time I'm recording this, I'm almost through, I think, the end of this crazy season, there is nothing to come back to. 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:16.420 And so what happens is you stay in chaos mode endlessly. 00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:19.540 Let me explain a little bit more detailed what I mean by that. 00:08:19.779 --> 00:08:28.100 Let's say all of a sudden, so you know, an emergency happens and it's a big one, and it's derailing everything that you thought you were going to be doing for the next couple of weeks, right? 00:08:28.180 --> 00:08:35.139 If you don't have an annual plan in place and all of a sudden you're pivoting, you're like, oh, I've got to do this thing, you kind of enter into firefighting mode. 00:08:35.379 --> 00:08:43.539 What starts to happen is the things that aren't getting done, that that are kind of part of your routine life, they start to build up mentally. 00:08:43.779 --> 00:08:47.860 That list starts to grow in your head, and that list snowballs. 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:54.019 And the more it snowballs because you don't have a plan, you don't have structure, you don't have systems in place, right? 00:08:54.259 --> 00:08:57.539 You start to feel more and more and more out of control. 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:06.740 Then you also typically don't have the container to hold the stuff that's not getting done right now because you've had to pivot. 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:13.620 So the container ends up being your brain and it builds and it escalates and your brain floods. 00:09:13.779 --> 00:09:15.539 And now you're waking up at 2 a.m. 00:09:15.779 --> 00:09:23.539 and you're going into list making mode, you're writing a list at 8 a.m., you're rewriting it at noon, you're revisiting it at the end of the day. 00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:45.139 Even when that chaotic season passes, because you've been operating at such a high level of stress and anxiety, and you haven't had the space or the containers or the systems to hold the things that had to go on pause, you continue to stay in that firefighting mode. 00:09:45.379 --> 00:09:52.100 There typically is no end in sight because you had nothing to ground yourself from the beginning. 00:09:52.660 --> 00:09:55.860 Let's look at the flip side of this. 00:09:56.019 --> 00:10:02.019 So we just talked about, you know, number one is that the chaos continually runs the show. 00:10:02.579 --> 00:10:18.660 Now, when you have an annual plan in place and the chaos hits, what you get to do is now you get to see visually what the impact of this chaos is. 00:10:19.139 --> 00:10:29.700 Meaning, when chaos hits, you have a tool, you have this plan to look out to say, okay, here's what I thought I was doing for the next two, four, six, eight weeks. 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:38.420 And I'm now seeing there is no way to make this happen because something more important has come up and my time must go there. 00:10:38.819 --> 00:10:48.099 And because you can see it in that moment, you get to make intentional decisions about what you're going to do with that information. 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:51.059 It's usually going to be one of three things. 00:10:51.380 --> 00:10:54.740 You are deciding to either reschedule it. 00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:58.660 Okay, yes, I'm doing this, but I'm moving the dates. 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:00.500 All right, I'm not working on that this month. 00:11:00.660 --> 00:11:04.660 I am rescheduling it and I'm now moving it into my monthly plan for a later month. 00:11:04.900 --> 00:11:09.619 Or you get to choose to create a whole new plan around it. 00:11:09.859 --> 00:11:19.700 Maybe you're saying, yes, I still want to be working on this goal or project, but I now see that the milestones and the timetable I put in place is no longer realistic. 00:11:19.859 --> 00:11:23.700 So I'm gonna completely change my plan for how this is gonna happen. 00:11:24.019 --> 00:11:25.940 Or you're just gonna let it go. 00:11:26.099 --> 00:11:28.259 You may say, nope, you know what? 00:11:28.339 --> 00:11:29.940 I don't even see a way to come back to this. 00:11:30.099 --> 00:11:31.779 So I'm I am releasing it. 00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:40.180 I am saying this is no longer part of my plan and I'm doing it guilt-free because reality is showing this is not going to happen. 00:11:40.660 --> 00:11:55.940 For me, what this has looked like over the last couple months is the minute, you know, emergency number one kind of hit, I was able to look at, okay, well, here's, you know, this first, these next three weeks, what I had planned on doing is not going to happen, right? 00:11:56.099 --> 00:12:05.220 And instead of working on what was most important, and then in the back of my mind, constantly stressing out and wondering, when am I gonna get that done? 00:12:05.380 --> 00:12:06.579 When am I gonna get that done? 00:12:06.660 --> 00:12:06.900 Right. 00:12:06.980 --> 00:12:08.420 That causes anxiety. 00:12:08.579 --> 00:12:10.420 It keeps you in panic mode. 00:12:10.579 --> 00:12:17.059 Instead of doing that, instead, I saw, well, what I was gonna do for the next three weeks is not going to happen. 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:19.299 So what am I going

to do about that? 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:26.259 I rescheduled some things, I completely replanned others, meaning, nope, not for the next two months. 00:12:26.339 --> 00:12:29.859 I'm not gonna pick this back up again until maybe September or October. 00:12:30.180 --> 00:12:32.259 I transferred some things, right? 00:12:32.420 --> 00:12:33.940 Full transfer of ownership. 00:12:34.099 --> 00:12:36.500 This needs especially this more so in the business side. 00:12:36.660 --> 00:12:40.500 While I was going to do this, I no longer am, and now someone from the team is doing it. 00:12:40.660 --> 00:12:43.460 And then other things just got let go. 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:47.539 I have a personal goal that I had set for myself this year. 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:54.740 And as part of my replanning during all of this chaos, I realized I couldn't even replan it, right? 00:12:54.900 --> 00:13:00.099 Just moving it to a later month wasn't possible because of the other things slated for those months. 00:13:00.339 --> 00:13:04.500 So some personal goals that I had are now off my annual plan. 00:13:04.819 --> 00:13:16.420 They're going on to what I call my backlog for things to consider that maybe I'll want to revisit in 2027, but I'm doing it without any guilt, right? 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:24.500 Because intentional choices and decisions were made about what was most important and what was most deserving of my time. 00:13:24.900 --> 00:13:37.380 The fact is, as soon as the chaos started and it kind of was one hit after another, I could see exactly what those pivots were going to cost me. 00:13:37.859 --> 00:13:40.980 And I got to choose what changed. 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:57.940 And this is what helps us still have a semblance of control, if you are a control freak like I am, but not from a control freak standpoint, but from a quieting the anxiety and the stress and the panic that comes when we're handling chaos. 00:13:58.420 --> 00:13:58.819 Right. 00:13:59.140 --> 00:14:14.339 This is the difference of navigating a lot of uncertainty, a lot of chaos, a lot of emergencies in an intentional decision-making mode versus sheer panic firefighting mode. 00:14:14.579 --> 00:14:19.299 What I got to witness play out over these last three months. 00:14:19.539 --> 00:14:30.900 First is I got to watch my amazing team here at the Pink B, right, keep everything running because the planning systems were in place, right? 00:14:30.980 --> 00:14:33.299 Because our infrastructure is in place. 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:40.900 I was able to completely walk away multiple times, and there were no negative consequences for the business. 00:14:41.140 --> 00:14:51.779 How this also looked for me is for a three-month window, absolutely zero progress was made on the majority of my personal goals. 00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:58.660 That was an intentional decision of mine to have to pause on those because my time was needed elsewhere. 00:14:58.900 --> 00:15:05.299 Milestones have changed for all

of my personal goals, and I don't feel bad about it at all. 00:15:05.779 --> 00:15:08.180 This was the choice I got to make. 00:15:08.420 --> 00:15:10.980 This wasn't something that happened to me. 00:15:11.140 --> 00:15:19.380 So I already know when I'm doing my reflection for this year that I am not going to end the year where I had planned on ending it. 00:15:19.619 --> 00:15:22.180 I don't feel one bit bad about it. 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:29.460 And more importantly, I know when I'm going to be jumping back in and resuming progress on those goals, right? 00:15:29.619 --> 00:15:31.940 They're not just thrown away forever. 00:15:32.259 --> 00:15:45.059 And if I did not have the annual plan in place, two things would have completely fallen through the cracks that were really, really important to me that I did not want to fall through the cracks. 00:15:45.299 --> 00:15:48.660 Number one is I've shared on the podcast, I'm working on a book. 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:49.779 I have a book deal. 00:15:49.940 --> 00:15:56.180 My manuscript would not have been done on time, all right, which would have had a slew of negative consequences. 00:15:56.420 --> 00:16:06.980 And secondly, Plantapalooza, our biggest event of the year, the thing we only do once a year that everybody looks forward to, Plantapalooza would have been canceled. 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:09.220 Now, don't worry, friends, it is not canceled. 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:39.460 And you already know that because I know so many of you have already gotten your tickets to come to Plantapalooza, which is exactly where I teach you how to build this annual plan that I'm talking about, and more importantly, how to use it, just as if I have had to cling to that and use it as a way to ground myself, replan, kind of assess impacts of changes and make very thoughtful, intentional decisions and determine what to let go of without any guilt. 00:16:39.859 --> 00:16:47.779 Women so often end up feeling continually like failures when they look back and reflect on their year. 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:54.500 And they do that because they don't have the tools that show them what happened and what decisions are made. 00:16:54.740 --> 00:17:04.740 When you don't have that annual plan in place, you can't remember what you had planned to do, and then you can't see why you had to make those changes, right? 00:17:04.900 --> 00:17:12.420 So you're left with this very uncomfortable, vague feeling of like that you fell short somehow, that you didn't do enough. 00:17:12.819 --> 00:17:21.460 When you have this annual plan in place, you get to look at it and you get to say, hey, I know what I intended for this year. 00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:25.140 And then I know why I had to make the changes that I made. 00:17:25.299 --> 00:17:34.819 And those were choices that I, while things may have happened to me that I didn't have control over, I did have control over how I responded and the choices that I made. 00:17:35.059 --> 00:17:43.380 And this is why I will end my year guilt-free on the stuff that I plan to do that is clearly just not going to happen. 00:17:43.619 --> 00:17:50.180 Nor am I going to try and double down and hustle and wake up earlier and stay up later to quote catch up. 00:17:50.339 --> 00:17:52.819 Nope, I'm just letting it go. 00:17:53.220 --> 00:18:03.059 So this annual plan that is that really has been my lifeline through these absolutely insane last three months. 00:18:03.220 --> 00:18:08.099 This is exactly what I will be teaching you how to build at Plantapalooza. 00:18:08.339 --> 00:18:11.299 This is why the women that attend it come back year after year. 00:18:11.539 --> 00:18:13.700 So, yes, don't worry, it's not canceled. 00:18:13.779 --> 00:18:16.579 It is happening again October 22nd and 23rd. 00:18:16.740 --> 00:18:20.339 You can still grab your tickets at MeganSarmel.com forward slash plan. 00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:23.539 I cannot stress how important this is. 00:18:23.779 --> 00:18:29.940 We were actually on a team call here at the Pink B and I was sharing a lot of the details with this with my team. 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:42.339 And this is why everyone on my team is essentially required to come to Planet Palooza and belt out their annual plan because I know how impactful and grounding it is to have one. 00:18:42.900 --> 00:18:51.940 The value of creating this plan is not because it's going to be executed exactly as you mapped it out. 00:18:52.099 --> 00:18:54.180 It most likely will not. 00:18:54.819 --> 00:19:03.859 The value is that it gives you something solid to pivot from and make intentional choices. 00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:07.460 All right, I can't wait to see you all at Planet Palooza. 00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:09.940 And as always, friends, happy planning. 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:14.579 Getting on top of all things, time management, organization. 00:19:14.980 --> 00:19:18.180 Getting on top of all things time management organization is over. 00:19:18.420 --> 00:19:20.660 Doesn't have to say you are feeling overwhelming is over. 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:21.620 Calendar's out of the way. 00:19:21.700 --> 00:19:23.220 You are feeling overwhelming and erased. 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:26.500 Calendar's never ended in terms of just running an erase that will never end. 00:19:31.059 --> 00:19:33.700 I put an apple in both the app store and in the Google Play. 00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:44.820 Includes my signature and introduction to my training framework. 00:19:44.980 --> 00:19:47.220 And introduction to my framework. 00:19:47.460 --> 00:19:49.860 So open up either your app or window play. 00:19:50.180 --> 00:19:52.420 Open up to app on the word Google Play. 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:55.299 All one Twitter, download the app to get started today. 00:19:55.380 --> 00:19:58.100 All one word, and download the app to get started today.