At the beginning of the year I decided to participate in a year-long process facilitated by Waverly Fitzgerald. The course, entitled The Natural Planner, was an invitation to explore our hopes for the new year and then translate these into goals and action steps.
One of the first things we did was sort through our wishes and “distill” them into themes (or categories). I ended up with six overarching categories within which to place my goals – Stepping Out of the Waterfall; Tending the Inner Garden; Minding the Muses; Venus; Suitable Sanctuary; and the Counting House. I also decided on a guiding principle by which everything is to be measured by my answer to the question: Am I expressing myself passionately?
Waverly suggested we make some sort of visual representation so I put together a piece with charms representing each of my categories. I always find it powerful to work with intent in this way.
Having the organizing structure of themes in which I’m concentrating my attention has been very useful to me. It’s been helpful to work with this on a monthly basis, choosing which goals within the category to focus on and then reviewing progress at month’s end. There’s a built in structure and a level of accountability, but there’s also an openness to it. It’s certainly less overwhelming than a to-do list. I feel as if I’m participating in the growing of my life, not just ticking things off a list.
Over the past few months I’ve added another dimension to this process. I’ve been working much more conciously with asking my Spirit Guides for very specific help. This is actually a relatively new approach for me, as previously I’d ask for help in much more general terms. Interestingly, I’m finding that by being more specific in my requests it’s actually much easier for me to release my attachment to how things happen and how they show up. Some pretty amazing things have occured and I have much to be grateful for!