Photo Credit: From the Hip, Photo of Lindsey and Jeremy Rainwater 

I have officially created my blueprint for 2017 and I feel excited to share my process with you! I have followed this process for multiple years now and I can tell you that it works for me. I set the intention and then accomplish exactly what I set out to do and that feels really good! My husband and I (photo above) give ourselves at least half of a day to spread out and create both individual and collaborative items for both of us. I will say that in my experience, especially with the purchase of our new home together, it is important to not only set your intentions, but also to revisit your goals on regular basis. We spent time every month reviewing our goals and results, which gave us insight on how we needed to adjust our plan along the way, which ultimately brought us to our North Star Goals. It has been my experience that although creating the plan is GREAT, it is only half of the battle and having a way to review that plan on a regular basis is the true magic behind the art of completing what you set out to do.

Here are my three steps to creating intentions and actions for what I want to create over a twelve month period. 

Visualize! Then Write it Down

I really enjoy starting the process by imagining and visualizing where I want to go by viewing it on a calendar and also writing it out in a word cloud format. Start with a large piece of paper and write down all the things big and small that you wish to accomplish. It will look messy, it will look crazy disorganized and that is the point! Let your creativity put everything down on paper you could possibly imagine accomplishing over the course of the time you are planning for.  Once you've brainstormed to the point of not being able to think of anything else, walk away, clear your mind for a bit and then come back to complete. I find this exercise to be both liberating and fun because you can write anything down, you've not committed to anything yet, only brainstorming.  

Make a list, Check it Twice

Now that all your creative flow is out on paper and also might look super messy to you (all good), it's time to make some sense of it!  Begin by extracting the themes and creating a list. If you see on your word cloud "write book" then that would go on the list, or "family vacation" then put it on the list. Some of the items on your word cloud might not make it on the list and that's okay. The word cloud is the brainstorm this is the practical part, what do you actually want to accomplish this year?  Of what is on your word cloud what do you actually want to do and what has a serge of excitement to you? Once you have a well formed list it's time to create a plan!

Calendar Calendar Calendar  

If it's not on the calendar it doesn't exist!    Once you've created your list, you must create action and intention.   A plan to literally accomplish the exciting objectives you've created for yourself. The way I do this is to put down first what is literally time sensitive. The conference that I plan on attending, the wedding that's a destination event that I want to also make a vacation.  Those are items that are set in stone on your calendar because they are literal dates.  Everything else on your list goes into your calendar as a project relative to when you want to accomplish it, or are being asked to complete.   If you want to actually start creating a blog or writing a book you have to plan time for yourself to actually do that, time for the deep work outside of meetings and other work.  The other thing you might do is create a to do list from these items that is per month.  In past years I've created a list for every month of major action steps affiliated with my projects so that  way no matter what's going on, I have a very accurate to do list that captures my large "Northstar" goals.

The wonderful thing about having a to do list in the calendar that reflects your yearly initiatives is that no matter what happens you have a path.  No matter what's going on in your life you have certain things that you've decided to do no matter what, and personally I find this to be a beautiful thing. 

I'd love to hear your process of planning,  share your ideas and ways you plan to succeed! 

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business consultant, leadership coach, writer and presenter to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter @LindseyRainH2O

A beautiful thing happened three weeks ago, my husband and I closed on our very first purchased home! A very exciting time to say the least and one that I under estimated by way of time it takes to settle into your home vs a rental.  For anyone else that is a home owner, I am sure you can relate to all of the unanticipated "things" that come from the rental, to ownership transition.  News flash, you need a mailbox, trash cans, and on and on... :-)

The other night I was in the car with my husband and I tell him, you know, I have not written my follow on blog for goal setting and intentions, and I realized today that it's because I have not done my own intentions setting for this year! (GASP)!!! It is January freaking 26th and I have failed to create my typical visioning session that happens for me the first week of the year.  He looks at me and says, "We have had a bit going on you know", me, of course I know this, and then there is the immediate guilt and shame surrounding letting my own "process" down.  And then, it dawns on me, the most obvious thought but something I had totally overlooked.  I can pick my "start" of the "year" whenever I want, of course January is the beginning of the calendar year, but how about this year I pick February as my start! 

You see, the advice I would happily grant another would be that you don't have to wait for a calendar role over, a fresh quarter or a birthday to create a new way of being.  You can start anytime, anywhere or way you want to! I have had more than one conversation with someone wanting to start a workout plan and they want to wait until Monday, a fresh week.  My thought, so what if it's Wednesday, start! Start now! 

I write this article to share with you that I do still plan to share with you my goal planning process, and, I want to share it with you as I am creating and visioning my own 2017 plan.  And this year, my "new year" at least when it comes to this process, is starting NOW and more specifically this weekend when I have blocked off the time in my calendar.  

Another "tip" or thought that came for me when marinating on this topic is this; each of us have things we do all the time because we choose to, we workout if we have a routine around it, we do or don't drink excessive amounts of coffee.  All of your existing chosen commitments continue to role on day after day no matter when it is.  What I find enjoyable about goal setting, visioning and intention setting is that it is an act of giving myself the space to wonder and dream about what I want to do next, that is not part of my current daily commitments.  How do I want to create a plan to expand my abilites and by when.  I love Mr. Thiel's quote below, and I think that giving yourself space to dream allows for this type of plan to become reality. 

"How can you achieve your 10 year plan in the next 6 months?" 

- Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal and Palantir

So stay tuned for my next post about my process, and in the meantime, if you have created a new plan, and already need to re-commit to it, get to it! Stay on your chosen path.  If you mess up a few days of your new workout plan, that's okay, get up and start again tomorrow! Don't throw out your whole plan over a few missed days.  

The theme of this post is to be and considerate of your process, while also staying vigilantly dedicated to what you most want, do not loose sight of your end goal! 

Cheers, and Happy New Year ;-)

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business consultant, leadership coach, writer and presenter to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter @LindseyRainH2O

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I am reading the book right now, Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday and for the past week I have been sorting through what parts to share with you here and what topics to really hone in one.  For now, I want to share with you this excerpt as it relates to business and how ego impacts leaders ability to really help people.  

It has been my experience that comfort can be a tremendous driver in the way of ego and a direct impact to leadership being of value to the people they serve.  When I watch comfort play out it looks like choosing to do what is familiar instead of creating a new way, acting in ways that are familiar instead of taking risks and learning something new.  Comfort can provide just enough delusion that everything is "good" and then when something happens, because it will, we act surprised as if life just happens "to us", when really everything requires our consent whether we are conscious of it or not. 

Ego driven by comfort is the notion that we have learned enough and are in a position because  we have "earned it" a result usually of some misunderstood idea of arrival. There is no arrival point, and in leaderships  roles, titles can be dolled out but really it is purely a reflection of time in position or affiliation vs true capabilities.  Ego tells us we are "safe" in a role because we have done the job a long time, or made an impact that acts as a "stamp" on the resume.  The reality is that none of us are promised a result based on efforts, ego tells us we are owed something and if we don't feel a certain level of "good" then we have not arrived yet. 

Check out the book and thoughts below from Ryan, what do you think? Is comfort at the root of our troubles in relation to Ego? 

Send me a note, I would love to hear from you. 

What does “Ego is the Enemy” mean? Is ego actually an enemy of success or growth? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Ryan Holiday, Bestselling author of Ego is the Enemy and media critic, on Quora.

I should clear up that I am not talking about the Ego. I am talking about ego.

Freud described the ego with a famous analogy—our ego was the rider on a horse, with our unconscious drives representing the animal while the ego tried to direct them. Modern psychologists, on the other hand, use the word “egotist” to refer to someone dangerously focused on themselves and with disregard for anyone else. All these definitions are true enough but of little value outside a clinical setting.

I’m referring to the colloquial definition of ego: an unhealthy belief in your own importance. It is, as Bill Walsh put it, “where confidence becomes arrogance.” One of the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous defined ego as “a conscious separation from.” From what? Everything.

The ways this separation manifests itself negatively are immense: We can’t work with other people if we’ve put up walls. We can’t improve the world if we don’t understand it or ourselves. We can’t take or receive feedback if we are incapable of or uninterested in hearing from outside sources.We can’t recognize opportunities—or create them— if instead of seeing what is in front of us, we live inside our own fantasy. Without an accurate accounting of our own abilities compared to others, what we have is not confidence but delusion. How are we supposed to reach, motivate, or lead other people if we can’t relate to their needs—because we’ve lost touch with our own?

So when I say that “ego is the enemy,” what I am not saying is: Don’t have confidence in yourself. I am saying the a lack of self-awareness and unrealistic understanding of our own abilities will make a lot of things very difficult. Like mastering a craft. Of real creative insight. Of working well with others. Of building loyalty and support. Of longevity. Of repeating and retaining your success. It repulses advantages and opportunities. It’s a magnet for enemies and errors.

When people say, “But a little bit of ego is a good thing,” they’ve considered the matter only superficially. What they mean is that success requires a certain confidence, a faith in oneself—and in that they are correct. But it’s critical that we make the distinction between confidence and ego.

The mixed martial arts pioneer and UFC champion Frank Shamrock has observed that of the two, only confidence can bear weight. “Confidence is important,” he said, “But ego is something false. Humility is the way to build confidence, and ego is hugely dangerous in this sport, because if you’re running on ego you aren’t running on good clean emotions or cause and effect. You bypass it to support a false idea. It’s all garbage, the ego is garbage.”

Confidence is based on what is real—it is earned. Ego is based on delusion and wishful thinking—it is artifice. Confidence doesn’t alienate us from others. On the contrary, it allows us to relate to others better—because it has removed insecurity and fear from the equation.

The second you believe in your greatness, the artist Marina Abramovic explains, that’s the death of your creative career. If ego is the voice that tells us we’re better than we really are, we can say ego inhibits true success by preventing a direct and honest connection to the world around us.

In that sense—and the way I’m defining it (as well as how other smarter people than I have)—no, I don’t think there is any positive element in ego. Therefore, it’s an enemy.

This question originally appeared on Quora. - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business consultant, leadership coach, writer and presenter to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter@LindseyRainH2O