New Year, New Plans
Personality's role in goal setting and plan making

The holidays in our rear view mirrors, our thoughts naturally gravitate to year-ahead planning. Whether you're pondering specific, resolution-like changes (drop 15 pounds, stop smoking, start running) or more generalized goals (get a tighter grip on spending, launch a value-enhancing household project, instill better study habits in the kids), starting with some healthy self awareness -- knowing your personality-determined strengths and limitations -- can help you make realistic plans, and keep you from stumbling as you pursue them.

First off, give yourself a break: make a short, tight list of objectives that really matter. Pare down the laundry list and focus on two or three important and realistic initiatives or goals. This may ring familiar if you completed the My Next Phase program, where dozens of potential retirement goals and activities are systematically filtered down to a small circle deemed most personality-appropriate, realistic and ultimately fulfilling.

Toward gaining the healthy self awarenss that benefits planning, here are key questions to ponder:

• Are you organized and structured, or more flexible and spontaneous?
• Do you draw energy from people and your environment?
• Do you draw energy from solitary reflection and spending time alone?
• Do you see the big picture, or focus more on the details?

Here's a guide to answering them, based on personality factors critical to planning. You may recognize the concepts if you've completed My Next Phase's first step -- a personality inventory that generates an individualized personality report and profile.

1. What is your Planning Style: Structured or Flexible? What is your Social Style: Outgoing or Contemplative?

Understanding your Planning Style helps your create more realistic plans. And knowing your Social Style enables you to reach out for the kind of support you need to realize them.

If you have a structured, organized Planning Style, you may have little trouble making reasonable plans and sticking to them: self-discipline is second nature to structured individuals. If you're a more flexible person, you'll likely need support from the people around you to help you stick with your goals and plans.

Moving to social style, If you're an outgoing individual - a "people person" - you'll probably benefit being with others planning to meet the same goal. By contrast, if you are contemplative, you yourself and a perhaps a close confidant are the best sources of support.

Putting the styles together, If you're outgoing and flexible, you rely on your network, and may need a lot of eyes on you and voices of encouragement to reach your goals.

On the flipside, if you are contemplative and structured, your social support should be one-on-one, perhaps with your partner or a close friend. You may benefit from regimented activities like journal-keeping, to document progress, or from internal self-talks to stay motivated.

2. What's your Information Style: Practical or Visionary?

What type of information do you like to focus on? Being aware will help you best organize your action steps and help you avoid personality traps.

If your Information Style is practical, you thrive on using common sense and sticking with the tried and true. If your style is visionary, you prefer the big picture, theories, and creative brainstorming.

If you are practical, you will probably pay more attention to the details and step-by-step plans. You may need help keeping the big goal in mind. Visible reminders like a chart or picture, or a partner who appropriately nudges when needed, may help.

If you are visionary, imagining the big picture is much easier for you. While that may enable you to "see" your expenses coming under tighter reign, you'll likely need help setting and sticking with a practical plan to get there. Some possible help for a visionary trying to reduce spending:

• Establishing a convenient, central place to keep credit card receipts and other like documents
• Setting a monthly (perhaps weekly) reminder in your Outlook, BlackBerry or paper calendar to tally spending
• Starting a basic Excel spreadsheet for easy data entry and tracking; enlisting a spouse or partner to help maintain it

3. What is your Activity Style: Team Player or Solo Act?

Make sure your plans and action steps are in line with the way you like to pursue activities. Somewhat akin to Planning Style, your Activity Style determines whether you perform better in groups (interdependent), or on your own (independent). To get a handle on yours, which of the following ring true for you?

• Two heads are much better than one.
• I enjoy being a team player.
• I like solo projects.
• I prefer relying on my own strengths.

If you have an interdependent Activity Style, you agreed with the first two statements. You're a team player and thrive on collaborative work. If your plans include losing weight, you'll likely fare better in a group exercise program. Interdependent people seek the cooperation of others, teamwork and the pursuit of team goals.

But if you have an independent style, teamwork will be more difficult. You'll want to make plans that don't require a lot of cooperation and pursue them alone. Activities better suited to you may include running, mountain biking, swimming or riding a stationary bike while watching the news.

Last month's newsletter explored Stress Style, which also influences goal setting and plan making. If you have a resilient style you can handle more stress, and may be able to simultaneously pursue multiple goals and plans. But remember to not bite off too much, since you may fail to recognize when you are getting off track. On the flipside, if you are responsive by nature, you tend to magnify stress-inducing events, and may want to drill down to a very tight list of plans, and work to achieve one or two deeply important goals. If your Stress Style is mixed, you can tolerate stress to a point (like resilient types), but can reach a pressure inducing tipping point when one too many stressors enters the picture.

For more on Stress Style, last month's newsletter is available at http://www.mynextphase.com/newsletter/newsletter14.html.

Whatever your goals, however you pursue them, we wish you a year filled with health, happiness and the best to those closest to you.

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