Ask people closest to me and they will tell you that I am a highly creative person and have a ton of great ideas. In fact, someone very close to me, my brother-in-law, made the following statement yesterday. “This is the first time I have ever known you to complete something you have started and you have been staying on task for the past year now.” True statement. Starting one project after another is not a challenge for me…it never has been. What has been a challenge in the past was completing those projects and accomplishing those goals. So what is different now?
One word…organization!
I have found the organizational system that works for me. Oh, I have tried so many ways (think Franklin Covey) to stay organized in the past but to no avail. Why? Because I was trying to think the way someone else thinks and therefore I failed every time. I didn’t fully understand how my brain worked and as a result felt I like a failure. My daughter pointed out that I have taught her how to fail and keep trying again. Each failure was a lesson in what doesn’t work for me.
The challenge then became about learning what would work for me. We are all different but there are some similarities we can focus on when determining how to set and reach goals. I am a highly creative individual who thinks outside the box and needs an organizational system that works with my thinking style. My brain vacillates between a left and right brain thinking styles so I am not predominantly a left brain, list making planner, nor am I predominantly a right brain, visual planner – rather I am a mix of the two and fluctuate on a daily basis and therefore need to have separate systems set up to help me stay on task when my brain changes gears. ←- This was a HUGE “aha” for me!
Because I didn’t understand that I needed the two different styles, I would fail to reach objectives when using a left brain, list-making logic-based approach and my brain starting thinking in its creative right hemisphere. Now, I have a planning system, Bilateral Planning, that allows me to alternate between the two formats as quickly as my brain shifts gears…that can be pretty fast…and I am able to stay on task and reach my goals.
Are you a predominantly left brain, list maker who needs to see everything, structured and in black and white, or in digital form? Are you predominantly a right brain, creative who needs a lot of real estate on your paper to doodle, draw or color code? Or, are you like me and need a combination of the two? Knowing this one aspect of yourself, how you think, will help you tremendously in your goal setting process.
Learn more about Bilateral Planning and receive a FREE printable to help you start designing your own organizational system!
theorganizedmiss.wordpress.com 