Planning.

We are exploring 5 traditional coaching themes through the month of January from a contemplative lens. Last week we looked at Values as the top priorities that most shape our daily decisions. I hope these explorations and practices will give you a fresh way of entering your new year.

I’m sure you can see a progression as we unpack these themes together. We start with where we believe we are supposed to go (Vision), begin to understand what we are specifically called to do (Mission), identify how we are going to do it (Values), organize the sequence of when we should do what (Planning), and finally pull the trigger (Action). I know Sinek says to start with Why—and I don’t disagree—so if you haven’t yet found the fire in the belly to fuel all of this, that is the precursor.

So Planning. Creating the steps, the order, the timing, the team, the resources, the strategies…yep, all that. All good, all necessary. But how do you plan? Most plan with brainstorming and brainpower. There’s a tendency to default to the Head Center in this stage, but every stage deeply requires the input of all three centers: Head, Heart, and Body. And the word for this is discernment.

The posture of discernment honors the fact that there is wisdom available to us that exceeds the well-worn ruts of strategic planning and project management. Those valuable tools are meant to reinforce, not replace the process of discernment. Waiting, listening, noticing, reflecting: These are the way to put the building blocks of planning in place.

Where does this wisdom come from? It comes from without and within. It comes from the One who is Wisdom. It comes from Christ-in-you, and it is perceived by the Spirit. You don’t have to be all that smart to discern; what you do have to be is patient, attentive, and trusting. And then, whoa!, you can move to Action with confidence.

But here is the hidden secret for actual discernment versus confirmation bias. The contemplatives call it “indifference.” Eh, what? Indifference is a jarring word to use in relation to something important enough to merit a discernment process. By definition, we are deeply vested in the outcome! So how can we be indifferent? Why would we want to be?

Indifference doesn’t mean that we don’t care about the outcome; it means that we are unattached to the outcome! And that’s a world of difference. It means that we want something more than our will; instead, we want God’s will…and trust that God knows best what it even is that we genuinely want. Indifference is radical trust in the only trustworthy source.

By the time you read this, I will be half-way through a personal retreat in the Tennessee mountains with this one goal: to discern how to plan and position myself in the heart of God for 2022. I hope you too are waiting, listening, noticing, and reflecting in order to follow Wisdom into your new year.

In case there might be one specific decision, one particular fork-in-the-road you’re wrestling with, let me offer a discernment exercise to aid your planning. Click the image below…

Next week we’ll conclude this series with a look at how to take Action from a contemplative posture.