This time of year I find myself encouraging my clients to begin planning for next year. Now, one of my clients starts their year at the March Equinox rather than the new year (Q2 by calendar time). This works very well for them because of how and where they live. So for them, I will begin to suggest annual planning to happen in mid-February. But for many of us, the start of a New Year does give a certain social and personal energy to things. Not to mention businesses, which are beholden to the tax and financial cycles. Which means, conducting your 2026 planning right now.
Now, I want to be very clear that planning is a verb – an ongoing process or activity. It is not a noun – a fixed thing you create once and then ignore.
This is important because the way most people think about planning, which is a fixed activity that creates a fixed PLAN, Is massively flawed. See, a plan will inevitably fail because plans inevitably change. Because everything is always changing all the time. This makes many people uncomfortable, hence all the plans that they create in a future effort to fix or stop change. This idea is so entrenched in Western society, that’s it’s hard to adjust your thinking away from it… despite the fact that it doesn’t fundamentally work.
But change isn’t a bug of the universe… it’s a feature. It’s what’s supposed to happen. Now, when people (frequently magical and creative people) realize this they usually respond by deciding that planning is bad and plans are useless. Why bother to plan when the universe will just upend it anyway? Why even have a plan? Just, you know flow with the vibes, dude!
Well, fixed plans might be foolish, but planning as an activity is still super helpful and useful.
Planning (verb) helps us:
- Understand ourselves and our desires
- Connect with the universe and the cycles and flows that impact it
- Motivate ourselves to change and be a conscious part of the ever changing universe (everything changes and that means us too)
- Empower ourselves to be a sovereign component of the greater whole, able to proactively navigate a changing landscape
- Learn the nuanced art of being in relational engagement with the enchanted universe, impacting and being impacted by the wider system in a way that is helpful to ourselves and the whole
- Clarify the strategy and tactics we can leverage to embrace our life’s mission, in accordance with our values, to manifest our vision, and yes, even meet our goals (all of which flex and flow with the change instead of being stubbornly fixed against it)
From this standpoint, planning is a sacred activity of being part of the connected and enchanted world. Also, if you actually want to, you know, get shit done in your life? Well, spending some time figuring out what you might want to do and how you might do that is hardly time wasted.
So how do you conduct an annual planning in light of this? Here — at a high level — is what that looks like:
- Acknowledge your Values, knowing that right living should reflect them
- Align with your Far Vision (longer term picture of who you want to become and the life, in broad strokes, you’d like to lead)
- Reflect on your Desires (what is your heart longing to bring into being)
- Adjust your current Vision/Campaign (2-year picture of change in your life and in your environment)
- Retrospect on your past year: celebrating achievements, reflecting on challenges, and incorporating lessons and wisdom
- Project into the coming year, creating a project (a symbolic container with SMART MAGIC Goals that are doable and enchantable)
- Identify your Domains, the area of your life you want to focus on (family, prosperity, learning, career)
- Map the first quarter of the year, based on what you know now, knowing that you will revisit it later
Over the past year, I’ve been working on clarifying the framework that underlies my Circle Method, going deeper into how these rhythms and cycle can be used to help you… yes, get things done, but also be in harmonic resonance with the universe and your own heart and higher self. This is an element of that process I wanted to share. It’s a practical exercise yes, but it’s also a philosophical deep dive into your own desires and deep knowing.
December 19th is the last interstitial planning day of 2025 (a day between the end of the old lunation and the start of the lunar day clock of the next). Consider spending some time in the planning process. You might be surprised at what you uncover.
If you’d like to join me on my planning adventures this coming year, consider joining the Inner Circle. The first month is free and you’ll get to take advantage of all the 2026 planning content I’m rolling out now.
