I’ve had my vaccine shots, and my life is slowly starting to change. On the plus side, I went shopping a few times last week, and we had someone from our building over to share a pizza. But we’re still living with restrictions. We wear masks, don’t eat at indoor restaurants, and aren’t traveling anywhere.
It still feels like the end of Covid is coming. I don’t know when and how my life will be different from what it is now. I made my adjustments a year ago, and now it’s time to make some more.
Change and uncertainty are always there. I’m a planner, and I refuse to be immobilized. Right now, I’m in the early stages of formulating a plan. I’ll use three steps in my planning process:
- Figuring out what I want to accomplish. I find it easy to generate ideas. Right now, I’m in my brainstorming mode – the more ideas the better. Soon I’ll start to winnow them down. For my filter I’ll use my core values. My values include helping others, thinking things through, improving continuously, and exploring. When I’m done with this phase, I’ll have developed my objectives and goals.
- Considering several alternative approaches. Next, I have to figure out how I’m going to accomplish these goals. An important part of this step is to identify partners to help me with tasks that will be difficult for me on my own.
- Getting started. I’ll set some specific goals and map out some of the first steps. Then I’ll take some very small actions to get started.
I find that planning my next steps helps me in two significant ways:
- Most important, it gives me a sense of control over my life. That permits me to have a more intentional and fulfilling retirement life.
- The planning helps me to focus on what’s really important for me and then make some progress towards the fulfilling life that I’m looking for.
I realize that I can do my planning at any time. The end of Covid is a particularly good time to do more planning, because there will be many changes happening, and I want to adapt.
In fact, planning can smooth any transition that you’re expecting to make.
What are your post-Covid plans?