Over the past few years I have been honing an annual planning process that incorporates scripture, prayer, and really seeking God’s will in my life as I create my personal and business plans for the year.

After sharing this process in 2012 and 2013  with a few lovely friends, I realized that it might help  and nurture others who are struggling to combine secular, conventional planning with their faith. The intention to share my process began taking shape in my life, and through that my Faith-Filled Annual Planning Experience came into being.

My Faith-Filled Annual Planning Experience is born out of this desire: to live out His purpose for my life. It incorporates studying His word for the messages He has for me as I plan, prayerfully seeking what He has to say about the year ahead, and faithfully examining the outcomes of the goal and intention setting.  This three-fold process helps keep faith as the foundation for the approach to the coming year.

My process includes:

• A personal pre-planning day, on my own, to prepare things like my:
  • Mission statement
  • Life verse
  • Life intentions
  • Inventory
  • Vision Board
  • Letter to 2014
• A group planning day on December 5, when I will tackle my:
  • Long term intentions (3-5 years)
  • Intentions for 2015
  • Year verse
  • Draft project plans
• A personal post-planning day, on my own, when I will:
  • Type up the work I did on the pre and post planning days
  • Fine tune project plans
  • Develop quarterly and monthly intention milestones for the larger 2015 intentions
  • Get things on my calendar

There’s a lot of prayer, meditation, scripture, and love (I share the planning day with some pretty spectacular, like-minded people) and I leave this experience changed and ready to continue my journey. It’s not about trying to take over the world, grow an empire, or follow anyone’s X-figure plan for what I should do next. It is about connecting to The Plan for my life, The Walk intended for me, and the person He intends for me to be. It always shows me how faithful He is to us when we call on Him about our lives and leaves me extremely grateful.

Do you have a process that works for you? Would you tell me about it here?