Half term - A Time for Planning and excitement

Making your Vision Board a reality this coming year.

It’s half term this week. Three of my children have a week off and the fourth has 2 weeks to relax and recharge.

As work from home parents, my wife & I are often challenged during the holidays. It’s not easy to work when every five minutes you're reminded how hungry or bored the kids are. 

During holiday’s work isn’t easy. So what do I do to keep growing my business and still give the kids enough quality time?

The simple answer is Plan. In this newsletter I will show you how I am already planning for 2025 and why it’s important you do so to.

But first I want to share this with you as it’s equally important.

I’ve started to date my wife in the morning. Why? Because spending quality time with loved ones is essential to our wellbeing. My wife and I have no family nearby, we have busy lives and finding quality time together can be hard to find. 

With a little planning to our schedules we can usually get 1 date night in a week but with a date breakfast we can now have 2 quality dates a week. Win Win.

And not just for us. When we get out and enjoy each other's company we become closer as a couple, our kids are happier due to the happy house vibe and our clients are happier as we have more energy to give.

So If you are struggling to get time with your loved one, why not look at your diary and see where you can get together. Who says a date has to be at night!!!!

Which brings me on to planning

With planning everything is possible. The best time I find to plan is before you think you need to. 

Most people make plans for New years day with new year's resolutions that always fail. I make my new years plans at times like half term. What better time than October to start planning 2025. 

I’m not as busy during half term so I can spend time with my family. So I have longer to sit and think. 

I also don’t have to get the perfect plan, as I have a few months to tweak it and make it better. Knowing I have time I don’t rush, I think about what I want and how to get it. I break my ideas into tasks and timelines. 

This is how I am planning 2025 and how you can to.

Firstly: I created my vision board for 2025. This is a combination of pictures and text showcasing what I want to achieve. I combine my visions between -

1. Business Goals

2. Health & Fitness

3. Family

4. Personal rewards

5. Financial goals

I will set a goal for each ie.

In 2025 I will have a photo that reminds me of my business and a goal next to it. This years photo is a stack of money and a target I want to achieve every month.

My 2025 health and fitness goal is a photo of how I want to look at my target weight. I have the weight written next to the photo for a constant reminder.

Family is again a photo and text to remind me to take holidays and spend quality time with them

Personal reward is a new Rolex watch I want. I have a photo of the exact one I will buy next year.

And my financial goals have a photo to remind me to invest my money and the target I want to hit next year.

So What next?

The photo becomes my screensaver on my PC and phone. I look at these a lot so I’m always reminded of what I am achieving. I print the vision board off and place it in areas I will see every day.

Doing this keeps my goals in my mind. It’s a lovely reminder and feeling when I cross a goal off as completed. 

How do I go from now to completing all my goals?

I have to make a deal with myself that I will only focus on these goals, I won’t get side tracked and go off on a tangent. To do this will water down my efforts and my goals will take longer or fail.

I then work out what I have to do every day to make these goals a reality. I know if I can work on tasks every day that move me forward I will get what I want. All I have to do is stick to the plan.

I know what to work on first to give me the best shot of success. I delay gratification of my personal goal to last. This will be the reward for achieving everything else

My plan is a little like this:

Work out 4x a week and track calories - This  gets me to my health and fitness goal. This is important as it gives me the energy to keep going.  

I then break my working days up into slots of ‘High Value’ tasks that move me towards my goal. I know if I do every task every day I will certainly win in business.

I then budget to start investing the extra funds I earn and save for the things I want. Money is allocated monthly to investments, holiday’s and the watch I want at the end of 2025.

By doing this and keeping it simple I know you can win

It’s important to keep your goals realistic and not overwhelm yourself with too much to achieve. Setting unrealistic targets will make you fail and get down. By keeping to a few goals that you can achieve and that will make a big difference to your life is the way to go.

What comes next?

I enter all my high value tasks into my Google Calendar on days when I know I can do them. I set reminders and I take joy in crossing off the tasks every day. I know that doing this moves me forwards towards my goals. Every day is a celebration of small wins. I give myself little rewards as I achieve things. The big rewards come when I have completed enough tasks to cross off what I have on my Vision board. 

It’s a lovely feeling to tick off what you have achieved throughout the year. My life improves as does my families and when I buy my Rolex late 2025 I will have complete satisfaction that the year was another awesome year in my life.

So what about you? How do you plan and what are your visions for 2025?