WELCOME to the Brave YES Playbook Museletter, where you'll find courage notes on unconventional business strategy, being highly creative and living your best life as a founder. I am The Brave YES Coach for entrepreneurs and changemakers. What's your next Brave YES? I believe we should ALL be working mindfully toward one at all times. Thanks for being here! Let's do this ...

What do you want to be able to say about your life or business on Dec. 31?

I'm a "the year is half full" kind of girl.

There is SO much time to get things done -- to keep those promises you made to yourself earlier this year.

Time is rarely the issue.

What you likely need is help/support/accountability.

I am someone who needs gentle pushes, radical support and fierce accountability.

So that's what I offer to my clients as well.

Let's work together to make your dreams come true this year.

A SNEAK PEEK INTO MY PLANNING SYSTEM & HOW I MAKE THINGS HAPPEN IN MY BUSINESS AND LIFE

Oh, hi there! How are you doing today?

Take a minute to actually breathe deeply and ask yourself that question because it's important.

Now that you know ... what do you need? What's essential?

Let's get into that right now ...

My husband, Dan, is notorious for giving me a blank stare when I ask him if he has anything going on this week, or this weekend.

His eyes reach out to the horizon of the space we are in — which was our bedroom the other night — and he goes quiet and drifts away for a while.

He’s thinking.

He’s processing.

He’s accessing his “mental calendar.”

As you might imagine, this frustrates me as a Type A person who has been trying to get him to be more organized so that his ADD brain doesn’t create so much chaos in his our life.

(He’s the one that named it his mental calendar and we laughed and laughed about that and I warned him this would become a blog post or an email.)

So here is the thing …

A mental calendar is fine if you don’t have anything important to remember or do.

That is barely anyone who breathes.

We all have vital things to remember — some of us more than others. We all have important tasks and projects to work on.

As a longtime one-person business who is also anti-hustle, I’ve had to learn not only how to keep track of all meetings, appointments and private client coaching calls ... I’ve also had to learn how to manage myself and what I need want to do.

A mental calendar won’t cut it.

There are all kinds of methods out there where people share what works for them in how to schedule in their business.

As a spiritual being and coach, I need a system that works with both my inner world AND my outer world together. They are not separate to me.

I've spent the past DECADE finding my perfect system, which leans practical woo-woo and inspirational. Along the way, I tried ALL the things and I beat myself up for not being able to make any of them work.

There must be something wrong with ME.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Your brain, work style, energy, life circumstances and needs are unique and the only system that will work for you is the one you create yourself.

But you do need a system that works and ASAP.

How do you know it works? It’s sustainable. You are using it daily, weekly, monthly. It’s not a sometimes thing but a must do.

As far as I can tell, I have planned out about 500 weeks in my life as a business owner over the past 10 years. That’s about 3500 days.

That’s about 40,000 working hours.

WHAT?

Good thing I absolutely adore what I do and never want to stop.

And while I’m personally in a season of needing more … S P A C E and rest in my life, I absolutely love the work that I do. The writing. The marketing. The coaching. The connecting. The planning. The creating. The strategy.

But, all that means I need a grounded plan that leads to me to my Brave YES Goals not away from them.

The more focused I remain on my Brave YES Goals, the more of an impact I can make happen.

Brave YES Goals don’t just happen! They tend to be things we can't or shouldn't do half way … after all, I don’t believe in the "Do It Scared" mentality that is pushed on people.

Do it intentionally. Do it with a plan. Do it with support.

Do it with grounded courage.**

And that means you’re going to need a system to track what needs (and wants) to happen when -- something that falls gently between the free spirit mental calendar and the over-hyped planning systems that create more overwhelm and frustration.

Only YOU can find that system that works for you.

But, my systems that I teach to my clients often land powerfully so I'm going to share an overview of how I plan my weeks.

Here’s the overview of my own weekly system — the foundation of getting things done in my world. While most of my week’s are very similar, the ebbs and flows of life and work vary so I prefer flexibility and creative space for what feels good each week.

What I do instead is … My Sunday Sacred Planning Ritual.

1. Pull out my weekly planner and my Google Calendar. I insist that a weekly spread is vital for this system and have used The Law of Attraction Planner for 5 years and LOVE it for the weekly spread and good energy. (affiliate link for the planner which means if you purchase one I get a small compensation.)
2. Set my Brave YES Intention and Power Moves for the week -- this is SO important to my work to move the needle in my business and life.
3. Write down what important meetings, appointments, coaching calls I have for the week in my weekly planner. This gives me a sense of my whole week. I prefer to do this by paper and pen rather than my Google Calendar, which is only used for appointments.
4. Then, my favorite part: I begin noting and highlighting the spaces where I have margin … space and time to either get stuff done, take care of myself or go into deep focus on important work such as writing or recording or creating.
5. Then, I fill in the rest of my LIFE and WORK needs. These are the must-dos that may not have anything to do with my goals but are essential.

I’ll be leading our Fall Squad through parts of my system this week, in fact, as part of our monthly planning calls -- a practice I used to do with clients in my membership community for nearly a decade. It feels so good to return to my roots in sacred planning and I can't wait to add this feature to upcoming Power Squads.

Because the urgent always takes precedent if we aren't careful and it’s good practice to learn how to plan so that you can make sure that your Brave YES goals take priority.

It’s not enough to mentally tell yourself you’re going to … someday do a X, Y or Z.

Your Brave YESES require a blueprint with a timeline and actions and clear intentions -- and space to happen.

In other words, NO mental calendars allowed. 😃

-- Shawn

P.S. -- The subscriber-only podcast series will resume next week. Catch up on episodes ONE AND TWO now ...

1. ​Heart Over Hustle​
2. ​Spiritual Practices to Disrupt the Allure of More​

P.P.S. -- I'm considering bringing back Brave YES Action Hours Co-Working Sessions. Would you be interested in attending to work solely on your Brave YES Goals? If so please respond to this message and let me know!

P.P.P.S -- I realize I'm sending this to you and it's not Sunday. No excuses but Blame it on the rain. :)

FINAL WORDS ...

"The key to being the change we want to see in the world begins within. It begins with no longer self-sabotaging. It begins with no longer letting energy leaks take over. It begins with trusting yourself." -- Shawn Fink (me)

JUICY JOURNAL PROMPTS: Where am I holding myself back? Who am I letting hold me back? What do I need to do to increase self-trust right now?

Do you know what everyone who writes an email wants? FEEDBACK! Send me yours ... just let me know you are here, opening, reading, paying attention.

190 Carlisle Ave., York, PA 17401
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