I love my passion planner. Like keto coffee, yoga, and five minute HIIT workouts, it’s life-changing. Check out MY FIRST YEAR WITH MY PASSION PLANNER: HOW THE PASSION PLANNER HELPED ME TRANSFORM MY LIFE IN 2019.
There is no way I could fit all of my love for this planner’s concepts into one blog post. Here are five things I learned about planning and life in general from this paper coach, as Angela Trinidad calls it.
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Baby steps really are better than big steps.
Whenever people talked about baby steps, I thought they were saying they were better than nothing. But the truth is: baby steps are better than big ones. Here are some reasons why.
Big steps often have unexpected negative consequences. For example, a workout that pushes you to a painful level of soreness that lasts for more than two days means you will avoid working out for more than two days. When the soreness wears off, you may continue to avoid working out because of the memories of an unpleasant experience. Before you know it, a week has passed by and much of the benefit of the workout has dissipated—only the harsh memory remains.
Little steps, like five minutes a day using apps such as the ones in this post result in an energy boost, only a pleasant amount of soreness, and often quick weight loss. The pleasant experience means you’ll repeat the action again in a short amount of time.
2. Consistency is better than intensity.
I am the Queen of Intense. I love to run fast and I’m 100% committed to anything I’m working on.
Until I crash. With the crash comes depression. Feelings of failure. And the abandonment of whatever it was that had taken over my life for a while—as if I were being delivered from possession or something. I learn to associate the feelings of failure and depression with the goal I was pursuing, and I start to avoid my goal or anything connected with it.
But that’s not very fulfilling.
This cycle creates lots of feelings of disillusionment and confusion. It was as if I thought my dreams themselves were the problem.
But my dreams were usually good, often even reflections of the purpose to which God was calling me.
It wasn’t my dreams that were the problem. It was my execution. Actually, it was my acceptance of them, my faith in the God that called me, which in turn affected my execution.
Being called to a dream requires faithfulness. Plodders, some people say, and I agree. This brings me to point #3.
3. The world needs more plodders and thinkers.
Plodders and thinkers tend to take a long time to finish a project, but the result is head and shoulders above the works of their peers. Not eager to impress, plodders look at problems from every angle and are deeply committed to the complexities of whatever it is they are studying.
They are scholars. Students. Scientists and artists of a world of which they are in awe. Beethoven composed at the early age of twelve but composed his best music after decades of study. Born in 1770, he composed the beloved fifth symphony in 1808. Many students of music assert that his work in this stage of life has a genius that is in a class by itself.
You may be saying that 38 is quite young to achieve greatness. And it is. But Beethoven had been studying music for decades. He was committed, focused, passionate, enthralled.
4. Social media can wait. What you share can be a little bit of what you are experiencing.
5. The five-minute mind map is life-changing.
Set a timer for five minutes. Follow the exercise. And you’d be surprised at what doesn’t make it into your vision for your life.
I think that’s the best part. In order to have what you want, you have to let go of what you don’t. I didn’t see “ten thousand Instagram followers” on my mind map for my life. So in 2019, I put away the social media frenzy, cracked open my notebooks, yoga mat, and Bible (for starters), and started focusing on my goals.
Read more about my first year and the amazing things I accomplished (at snail’s pace, I might add) in this post here.
Marisa Porter 