Why Planning For the Year Won’t Work (Limiting Belief Exercise) [Ep #175]

On this episode, I’m going to break down why I think 2021 planning is an absolute waste of your time. Because there is one factor that you haven’t taken into account, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Stay tuned. 

Hello everyone! Welcome to another episode of the podcast. I want to do a little shout-out to all of you who took me up on my coffee offer by leaving a review on iTunes. And for some reason, having like a week away to actually show the review in some cases, but I’m going to put that out there. For the whole month of December, that if you are willing to spend 5 min. of your day dropping your review on iTunes, for the show and then show me a picture. Send it to Instagram @andreamaximnd I’ll happily buy you a cup of coffee from Starbucks. So please go ahead and do that, but I just wanted to say thank you to those who have done that already, that was so fabulous. That was so nice to hear from you guys in some way, shape or form. What you’re liking, what you love about the show that’s everything. So thank you so much for the support and the boost. 

What I wanted to have a chat about today is something I’ve been reflecting on, I’ve spent the last couple of day wondering what this episode will be and what it is that I wanted to talk about. And the one thing that I keep coming back to is mentally preparing for a new year. And of course, everyone’s going to have some sort of goal setting program that they’re going to start to promote. Or a new sort of planner, all of those things I’ve done them all. I’ve been persuaded to buy those type of programs and there is one big reason why I think a lot of them are kind of crap. And let me explain what I’m saying that. A lot of them, a lot of people are promoting planners, or books, or programs, or whatever to help you plan your life better. But here’s the thing, is it’s not that you don’t have the ability to plan, it’s probably that your issue is that you lack the muscle strength to actually execute. And so this why in our maximized practitioner program, we are always reminding our students every single month. Go back to the 1, 90, 30, 7, 1 module which is our planning strategy. And every single month you should be saying ‘okey what are my must do’s for the next 30 months? What are my must do’s for the next 7 days? What is this week going to be?’ and even our patients are struggling with the same thing. They have all these goals, they have all these things that they want to accomplish and it always seems like lack of time, more overwhelm, anxiety comes through. 

So this is why I’m saying a lot of the time you’re wasting your money on these planners and programs and falling into the launches with regards to these planning strategies that people are creating. And the reason why they don’t work, again, the moment you have that dopamine kick; you’re so excited to buy, you think this planner is going to be the answer to all of my execution issues, but it isn’t. Because you haven’t changed how you approach your business from a strategy perspective. And from a tactical perspective, and that is what I really wanted to chat about. Is when it comes to thinking about what the New Year’s going to bring, always that clean slate. We’re going to be doing our annual review in a few weeks and at the same time we’re going to plan out our Q1 for 2021. But here is the number 1 thing that I encourage my patients to like to do, is you want to set up your goals for the month for the quarter, for the weak. So that you can actually win, and so often I think we love the drama of a massive to-do list. We love being like ‘oh my to-do list is so long I have so many things I need to do.’ And maybe there’s an element of being addicted to the pain of not heading to your to-do list. That we are addicted to no different that our patients or clients being addicted to their own physical pain and our mental pain. There might be a sense of always needing to be needed, based on how long your to-do list. But look at all the things that people need me to do for them. And in some ways it’s serving us to not accomplish those things. Because we always have this sort of back pocket excuse; why we feel so stressed out, why we were overwhelmed, why we were tired etc. But if you watch the people who are crushing it in their business, you are following certain people because you want to have the lifestyle that they have. Probably across the board you’ll notice that they all have some sort of planning strategy, they are monitoring they’re data and metrics very closely on a weekly or not daily basis. And they are being very compartmentalized with regards to what their roles are in the business and what their to-do list than are for the business as well. 

And so this is leaning in to not only do you need to be changing your mindset and be more committed to what your to-do’s are, it’s also a great opportunity to see what your don’ts are. And what you don’t want to do anymore. And what’s you’re not going to waste your time on. And you’ve heard this before; pick your non-negotiables, pick your to-do’s. It all has a purpose, it all has a place, but again it’s a lack of execution. And really, I think that’s the ultimate key with regards to whether this is going to be a banner year for you in 2021. Whether 2020 was actually a great year for you just by all of the obstacles and challenges that happen and it’s always going to be really the make or break mindset that you need to have is ‘what am I doing to stop myself from executing on the goals that I want to achieve.’ So we do every January a half day intensive, we do it in January and July with all of our students. And again, I could probably go through the whole thing with them. And everyone gets so inspired, they’re so energized, they’re so motivated in that moment and then even by the next day all of those promises we made to ourselves, all of that planning that we did just completely goes out of the window. Because again, we didn’t change who we are, we didn’t commit to becoming the person that is going to execute on all of those goals, on all of those strategies. And that is a huge thing that I ask of you more than anything in 2021, is to figure out who you are actually being in your business. Where are the obstacles that are causing you to be afraid to take action, that are causing you to be make an investment that are keeping you doing all of the things when you can easily delegate them out to other people. 

A lot of it has to do with our relationship with money. What I’d like you to do after your listening to this episode is sit in the silence for maybe 30 min. and by silence it means quiet room, laptop closed, phone off. If you like to listen to a 5 min. meditation to come and get you into that zone, please do. I love my muse headband, my muse headband is fantastic. The campfire meditation is probably one of my favorites right now and give yourself 5 min. to wind down, quiet the noise. And then when that 5 min. is up, I want you to set a timer for 20 min. have a pen and paper in front of you and I just want you to answer that question. ‘What are all of the blockers that I have? What are the limiting beliefs that I have? Where are my negative associations with money coming from? Where’s my mindset at? How am I showing up to my business?’ and I just want you to write it all down. And don’t think, don’t re-read, just literally open your eyes, put the pen in your hand, start writing in a piece of paper and start writing down the answers to all of those questions. And even during that 5 min. of silence, I want you to be opening it up to say ‘I need insight on who I am being and where my mind set is at.’ And ask the universe to provide you those answers when you’re ready to open your eyes and start writing. And you just start writing. You just literally write non-stop for 20 min and just see what comes out. And this is going to be the start of your journey to evolve into that maximized practitioner that is not afraid to charge what their worth. They are not afraid to go live on social media, they are not afraid to talk about how they are an authority in their space. They are not afraid to attract those people that they want to work with. They start delegating and paying for their time freedom by buying software that makes life easier by hiring a part time individual to take off a lot of the admin work. And they start showing up with a lot more modernized marketing that is unwavering, that you’re committed to do all the time. That is the person that you’re striving to become, that is the practitioner that you are seeing, that are successful or more successful than you are. This is what they are doing and of course is a four letter word; we don’t know based on revenue, numbers and etc. what is actually going on behind the curtain. 

But I think a lot of the people that you are seeing, if you talk to them they are doing the mindset work all the time. They are breaking through these limiting beliefs all of the time. They are going through the fear and taking the fear with them as they still continue to climb up that mountain. They are delegating things, they are paying for their time freedom. I’m a huge advocate of less profits if it gives me more time. My time is the most valuable commodity which also then serves to keep my stress levels low, to keep my family dynamic, nice and calm. To keep my marriage happy, that is my priority. I don’t need money in the bank as much as I need my time and my sanity and my family. Right? I want to show up to them as the best mom that I can. And I can’t do that if I’m trying to scramble to keep every single dollar in my bank account. But I had to go through a lot of this mental, emotional work. I had to go through a lot of shedding of these layers of myself that were keeping my playing small. That were stopping me from getting the team that I always dreamed of. Getting out of doing the one on one consultations, getting to that multiple six figure price point. Growing two businesses simultaneously with my clinics and then the maximized business company. All of these things, I have always dreamed of having and the only reason why I didn’t have them sooner is because I didn’t do the work sooner. I didn’t take the step sooner, I didn’t implement sooner, I didn’t trust the process sooner. 

And for whatever reason, you aren’t either. You are not implementing fast enough, you are not taking action fast enough. You are letting your ego/fear which is still your ego/ what are people going to say about me which is still your ego. How much is this going to cost and how much money am I going to lose which is still your ego. You are letting your ego drive your entire business and that is not ok. Your ego will always keep you playing small, always keep you playing safe. So when you are ready, and mentally get ready to do this exercise too right? So don’t just automatically turn off this episode and then force it. You have to be in a right mindset to even allow for the universe to open up and tell you what it is that you need to hear and you also have to be willing to hear it and see it on paper. But I want you to go through this exercise before you do any 2021 goal planning before you invest in any fancy goal setting programs or planners or whatever the case may be. I want you to sit in the silence for 5 min. allow your brain to quiet and stop it from the thinking mind and get into just a quiet mind, open your eyes, set a timer for 20 min. and just write. And what we’re trying to break down are what are all the areas in your brain and you have to take full responsibility for everything. Because it does not matter that you have 3 kids, it does not matter that you are a single parent, it does not matter that you don’t have a family. It does not matter that your commute is long. People make their business happen, people make their life happen. They have way worse obstacles than I’m sure you and I haven’t experienced and still do amazing things with their lives. So there’s no excuses that are allowed here, you just bring it up and say ‘where is it that I am blocked, what am I preventing, what am I afraid of what am I stopping myself from doing, where are the investments that I don’t want to make out of fear, why do I keep this all by myself. Why do I keep thinking of a half to do it alone, I want you to just brain dump. 

Just let the pen write. Don’t think, don’t stop, do it for 20 min. and see what comes up and then let me know on Instagram @AndreaMaximND. What are some of those breakthrough moments that you start to have, those light bulb moments, those ‘aha’ moments, let me know and I can help you work through those? But you have to do the work and if you’re not willing to do this for 20 min. then you don’t deserve to have the business of your dreams, because it’s this work, this quiet work, this uncomfortable work, this painful work that is going to allow your business to grow. And no amount of 2021 planning or fancy planners, or worksheets, or programs are going to help you achieve that. It all comes down to you and how much fear you are willing to fight through and how much you are willing to quiet that ego and go for what you want and quite frankly what you deserve to have. And I really look forward to hearing about how this exercise goes for you. Of course, if you want to learn more about me, go to maximize business.ca, leave that iTunes review. I will send you a coffee once you show me a picture of proof that you’ve done that and I will see you on the next episode.