Prepping to Start Planning

24 January 2021

I have about six months left with daily responsibilities in the Coast Guard, assuming that VIGOROUS' Change of Command happens in late June/early July as expected. I'm starting to feel like that's close enough to take definitive planning steps -- which, every time I stop to think about what that means, really overwhelms me.

My goal today is to give myself a framework to try to untangle all the threads that are currently swirling around, knotting up my brain. 

I feel like I need to start with my overall goal, or my mission statement. What is important to me as a fundamental guide to who I am and how I want to live my life? I'm fairly sure I've written one down sometime in the last few years, but I'm horrible about picking up whatever random piece of paper or notebook or journal is closest to hand to get the noisiest thoughts out of my head as quickly as possible. I will look for it -- later. Right now, understanding that I want to have my mission statement as my basis of this framework is enough. 

** Step 1: Define (find) my mission statement

One of my mentors recommended actually writing down my top 3-5 goals for a bunch of different buckets, which seems so brilliantly obvious. I have all these different threads rattling around in my head, always crashing into each other. Bucketing them up will help sort them out and reduce the cacophony and chaos. And for many of them, they aren't goals, just random ideas or possibilities that I haven't thought through enough to know if they're goals I want to pursue. Maybe they're just ideas I want to learn more about. I'm actually going to take the time to do that now. Doesn't require me to get up from my chair or step away from my coffee.

** Step 2: Identify my buckets

• Home
• Employment
• Physical Health
• Hobbies/Interests/Life-long Learning
• Finances
• Self Care
• Relationships
• Travel

After listening to me talk about why I thought it was a good time to start working with her again on a regular basis, my coach recommended I look through William Bridges' work on change and transition. His six videos (each less than 5 minutes long) talk about the difference between change and transition, and break down the transition process into three distinct phases. He says change is the distinct and external even that causes us to go through transition (my retiring from active duty), while transition is the process of going through that change (understanding and adapting to what not having that daily responsibility will change how I live my life and think about myself -- what it means to me). Transitions have three phases: the Ending, the Neutral Zone, and New Beginnings. He mostly talks in reference to businesses going through transitions (mergers, acquisitions, etc), but squinting at it a little and cocking my head to the side, I can see how it also applies to this personal situation.

** Step 3: Ready myself for the Ending by talking (writing) about what is ending -- there is *definitely* a blog post (at least one, maybe more) in this step.

Step 4: I think this is a natural pairing with Step 2...maybe 2a, because the Neutral Zone is the temporary phase when new processes and structures are put in place to facilitate the transformation. I won't really be in the Neutral Zone until after Change of Command, when I'm still on active duty, but doing the terminal leave and admin time thing. In the meantime, though, here's my actual step 2a:

** Step 2a: Write down my top 3-5 goals for each bucket identified in Step 2. 

I'm not really going to go into the New Beginnings part here...though as a teaser, Dr Bridges says new energy and commitment take place when the transition is over, not when the change takes place.

** Step 2b: Identify at least one Action Item for each goal. 

I'm clearly channeling the reading I've done on Bullet Journaling and Get Things Done by David Allen in this one...but have seen the value of applying well defined and achievable actions against a goal. 

**Step 4 (for realsies): Commit time to these efforts. Because without scheduling the time for them, they're just good ideas. There -- added to my calendar, one hour every Sunday from 10 am to 11 am, for me to sit down and play with my retirement plans. 

I feel like something is missing here. Not sure exactly where it fits in. But it has to do with some physical acknowledgement of what is happening. Maybe it's Step 3a -- planning my retirement ceremony/party/celebration, and then Step 3b -- planning a celebration or acknowledgement of sorts on 1 October 2021, which is the first day of my actual retirement when I'm no longer on active duty. I've been thinking about what Step 3a looks like for months now -- again, just rattling things around in my head. Time to get them outta my head and into words...but it's really hard with not knowing what's going to happen with the pandemic in six months. Maybe think through a couple different scenarios: best case we can all get together because there aren't any more restrictions on gatherings and worst case we're still limited to gatherings of 25 people. 

** Step 3a1: Put into words what I want my retirement ceremony to look like. And then talk to the Project Officer so he's not stumbling around in the dark, looking for the right rock.

** Step 3a2: Put into words what I want my retirement celebration to look like under best case and worst case COVID scenarios.

** Step 3b: Put into words how I want to celebrate my first day of actual retirement.

** Step 3c: Put action items to each of the scenarios in steps 3a and 3b. 

Well, they're a little outta order as I wrote them. That's okay, though. Now I have a good sense of where to start. 

One last little detail to work out for my framework. How do I know what to do next, when I sit down each Sunday morning (or whenever else I decide to give it some time)? Maybe as I end each session, think about what the next session will start with. 

** Step 4a: "In my next session, I will devote time to..." 

In my next session, I will devote time to Step 2a, with the intention of getting goals down for at least half of my buckets.