Think about a personal growth plan as your perfect vision board coming to life. This is where we take all our dreams and turn them into personal development tasks that will ensure our journey to reach our highest creative potential.
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure. “
-Peter Drucker
But why do you need a seasonal growth plan vs. a general one? Can’t you just get it all in one go?
Every few months or so the world around us begins to change. The different seasons express themselves through the environment around us. Just like the darkness and coldness of winter or rebirth of nature through spring, each season invites us to reflect on their different meanings and take what we’ve learned into action in our own lives. By tuning our creativity with the energy of the seasons we can decipher what ideas our currently not working and open ourselves up to small ways to improve our craft.
Let’s dive deep into the 6 essential items to include in your personal growth plan + a seasonal seasonal bible that includes everything you need to help you start planning!
1. SEASONAL MISSION STATEMENT
Think of your seasonal mission statement as putting your creative career desires into a well thought out sentence.
It takes all the thoughts from your head and turns them into a clear and concise sentence of your values and goal aspirations for that particular season.
A mission statement is one of the first things you should do because it gives you a direct, clear intention for your creative aspirations.
A personal mission statement creates boundaries that allow you to play freely, create freely, and deal freely. What does it mean to alter your statement with the seasons?
Simply take the intention of a season like spring is the time for rebirth and make your statement reflect how your creativity will fall into line those values.
Examples
- “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
- “Spread ideas.”
- “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
2. WHAT’S THE POINT?
Is your work feeling repetitive or mundane? How can you take this season’s aesthetic and reflect it into your work?
A creative growth plan that implements the symbolic seasonal meanings into your project ideas is an efficient way to grow your audience, limit creative blocks and keep your work fresh and exciting.
Not to mention the seasons also influence how we feel and perform in our creativity and our personal growth plan should reflect that. Why? Recent studies have shown that the different seasons can have a direct impact on our productivity ,memory and energy levels. For example, more sunlight exposure aids in productivity due to the higher levels of Vitamin D, yet memorization was less effective during the spring than than the autumn ( and peaking around the summer solstice.)
Once we are aware of these changes then we can start to optimize our strengths and become aware of the areas that we need to pay more attention to during that period.
See the “seasonal bible” at the end of the article that provides information on our brain functions during each season.
3. INSPIRE
What does your work and mind look like when you aren’t inspired?
What drives us as creatives and creators is our ability to find inspiration from the people and world around us.
One of the most restorative aspects of your personal growth plans needs to include what inspires you about that particular season.
Why? It helps us to remember our why ( or seasonal mission statement!) which directly impacts our subconscious mind by renewing how we see ourselves and our creative aspirations.
In fact, I resonate with Lee Brown’s insight, “ Negative Thoughts are like weeds, you can’t kill weeds” This is so true! You can hold them down for a minute but they will come back with a vengeance if you don’t surround yourself with inspiration to over power them.
3. ACTIVITY
This is a lighthearted activity to incorporate into each season of your personal growth plan that will encourage you :
- Get out of your thinking brain
- Creative challenge
- Something different to try in your creative business
Do the Christmas colors suddenly give you a rush of nostalgia?
Chromotherapy has a rich history including ancient cultures like the Egyptians and Chinese were known for using colors for healing. While modern studies about the psychological effects of color are limited, what we do know is that feelings about color are deeply influenced by our culture and experience.
You can use those feelings to your advantage by implementing them into your personal growth plan with a signature color palette tailored for each season.
Why include a signature color palette for each season?
The way your palette makes you feel tells you what energy or rhythms you might be able to tap into.
How could you use the warmer color to reflect your mission statement, personal style, and vision for your creative work?
4. SWITCH IT UP
Another vital aspect your growth plan should include is at least 3 changes you want to make during that particular season. It doesn’t have to being anything big, in fact make a list of a series of tiny changes you can implement in your plan for positive growth.
Examples:
- How are old thinking patterns I can let go off?
- Are there any old projects you can revive?
- How is your work evolving? Where do you see it going for the future?
- What can you change in your daily routine? ( Work location, media consumption, audience, creative outlets)
6. DEFINE
The last step in devising your seasonal growth plan is :
- Decide on the big goals you want to accomplish this season
- After defining at least 2 goals create 2-5 mini habits for each task
Have you ever felt like you’ve done a lot but are nowhere near achieving your creative goal?
Well, by breaking down big goals into small habits you will become productive and see your creative carer goals results even faster.
Why? Picture your big goal like a marathon. You wouldn’t ultimately go for the 10k, instead you would start small. Maybe starting with walking a mile each day, and uping it until you’ve achieved your bigger goal. It’s exactly the same for our creative ideas!
“Big goals are more burdensome than they are motivational; they require daunting effort to accomplish and sustain in our busy lives”
Sabina Nawaz
Learn how to break down your goals into smaller habits, here
SEASONS BIBLE :
WARMER SEASONS
Period of rebirth (spring), period of youth ( summer)
energized, better sleep, serotonin concentrations increasing, changes in the size of the hippocampus — ( part that controls mood and memory) increased levels of circulating testosterone
COLDER SEASONS:
Period of adulthood ( fall) old age & death ( winter)
working memory higher, improved concentration ( esp in the fall)
Until next time,
Related: Top 5 Books Everyone Should Read for Ultimate Creative Success