Next year, plan for emotions first.

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Ramy Ballout, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

That’s right. Instead of planning for events, plan for emotions.

As we collectively inch closer to a new year and begin to make sense of what just happened over the last 365 days, we don’t seem to take too much time before many of us find ourselves planning for the next.

“Out with the old, in with the new!” As the saying goes.

Before all the business journals and news articles come out to discuss what you should be doing in 2018 — for some, making it easier to have those decisions made for you rather than by you, I wanted to share a powerful thought adjustment tool with you that has worked for both myself and several of my clients in my coaching practice.

As many of you know, change often can come from a great deal of pain and disappointment. For me, continuous misalignment, delusion and disappointment with my very own expectations of what I wanted to achieve vs. no brainer here…the reality of it all, forced me to change what once felt like a well thought out, even bulletproof strategy.

I’m sure you can relate to the feeling of disappointment when your expectations are completely out of touch with what reality unveils to you everyday.

At year end, some of us are running out of runway, some haven’t received that paycheck, bonus, or salary increase we were betting on. Some of us just aren’t as fit as we wanted to be, or perhaps feel the same amount of uncertainty that was felt last year around this time.

Sound familiar?

OK. I promise no more depressing talk throughout the rest of this article!

Managing Expectations

There’s no denying it though, expectations can be motivational but also act like an arch foe nemesis that predatorily snatches what could have been a moment of fulfillment, pride, and joy.

Yikes! Expectations aren’t going anywhere, and yet why should they when we can use them in an incredibly useful way?

So Ramy, what is it you wanted to share? Let’s get to it before 2018 please!

Well, here is a precise example of setting goals based on emotions:

Manage uncertainty, brave your fears, prepare for positivity, schedule joy, and plan for happy.
Woosh, that may be a lot to take in. Perhaps you want to read that statement over again.

With that said, this is as direct as I can be:

Let positive emotions be your goals. Replace the manifestation of the material as a goal, with the emotional.
That’s right. Next year, let your goals be in the form of emotions first as a prerequisite to the manifestation of that goal.

I perhaps have built this up, but it is quite deserving as I am sure you will at the very least be considering its benefit through the results you will achieve.

Set the goal to be an emotion instead of the event or object!
Tie the emotion to the manifestation of it (i.e. the event or object).
Set actions and make decisions that align with your emotional goal.
Ensure you are in alignment by visualizing and then confirming whether those actions and decisions create the emotional goal you decided on.
The manifestation of your emotional goal is more likely to occur as a result of setting your goal as an emotion first!
Make sense? Perhaps.

Thought adjustment

Amongst the bliss of the holiday cheer, the sale slashes and whips of rapture that summon our use of credit cards to see more light than we saw sun all year, once again we are experts in making sense of it all.

We as masters of our own fate have skillfully mastered the art of narrating our lives to suit the purpose of the current status or outcome.
The blame game has come to play but we won long before the board cracked open and the dice were thrown.

…that is of course what so many of us do and at this time of year it spikes like a long-nosed echinda (yes that is an animal and yes I searched for spiky creatures to support my argument).

We don’t need a countdown to start fresh, but it sure is comforting knowing you can put something behind you and move on towards a better version of yourself and get another shot at the ever so elusive yet over so achievable, goals you had in mind.

I of course, wouldn’t want it any other way for you. Truly, madly, deeply!

Yes it has been an action packed year filled with tides of turbulence, triumph, tales of torment and the testiest of times (sorry I seemed to be making up for a T deficit there).

And yet, here we are again living proof of the survival of the journey for yet another year.

This time, however, it can be different through a small yet manageable process that I truly hope some of you will squeeze into your goal-setting adventures for next year.

Goal = Positive emotions!
Manifested event or object.
Actions/decisions to generate emotional goal.
Achieve emotional goal by way of constant confirmation and reaffirmation.
Allow the byproduct (#2) begin to unfold as a way of process!
Don’t know where to start in 2018?

Manage uncertainty, brave your fears, prepare for positivity, schedule joy, and plan for happy!
I hope to hear from you on how you’ve planned for emotions in 2018!

Yours sincerely,

Ramy Ballout