Planning on purpose.
This is my plan to set an intentional tone for 2025—a roadmap that integrates reflective practice, personal resilience, and structured execution. It weaves together human-centered theory, complexity insights, and practical steps for steady progress, whether you’re forging new ventures, pursuing creative passions, or deepening personal connections. The overarching goal is to cultivate a resilient year by harnessing strengths, fortifying weaknesses, and building enduring relationships and programs that align with a long-term vision. In this piece I’m purposely writing in the style I would write for a client because if you’re a consultant why wouldn’t you be your own best customer and treat yourself as such? This will seem like a lot of work. However, if you are knowledge professional and you’re used to planning it’s only a few hours when you execute professionally, especially to use modern software tools and a good library to augment yourself.
The Plan
- Conduct a Comprehensive Year-End Reflection
- Create Inventory of Accomplishments and Challenges. This list should be one sentence per item and after you get past 100 you really should stop. If you have only two or three you should try and get to 10.
- Jot down the standout successes and the most pressing obstacles from 2024. By listing them in parallel, you can discern which strategies worked well and which pitfalls to avoid. For the successes you might want to cover the objections and challenges you overcame to create a success .
- Where possible, apply “complexity mapping”: identify small triggers that produced disproportionately large results—positive or negative.
- List who are the key people involved in these critical items.
2. Identify Unresolved Threads
- Pinpoint lingering projects, tasks, or emotional burdens that remain incomplete. Decide whether to carry them forward or prune them so that you start 2025 with clarity.
- Use a simple matrix—“Continue,” “Stop,” “Revise,” “Delegate”—to categorize what remains on your desk or in your mind.
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3. Create a “Master Document” for your 2025
- Centralize All Plans: In one master file or binder, unify calendars, to-do lists, and strategic notes. Include personal goals (health, relationships, learning) alongside professional objectives (career milestones, project timelines).
- Incorporate a living “reference list” featuring your go-to readings on complexity, chaos, resilience, and emotional well-being, so you can easily revisit key insights throughout the year.
- Link Human Theories to Action: For each goal—whether skill-based or relationship-focused—ask, “What aspect of human theory or psychological principle underpins this?” For instance, applying design thinking for project planning or stoic acceptance when confronting inevitable adversity.
- Document your rationale in the master file, specifying which approach (e.g., antifragility, systems thinking, mindful presence) can help address each objective.
- Incorporate Milestone Checks: Insert quarterly or monthly reviews directly into this master document. Mark specific dates to revisit your achievements, obstacles, and evolving priorities.
- Treat these reviews as “mini retrospectives,” drawing from agile methodologies—where you iteratively refine your approach based on real-world feedback.
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4. Plan for Study, Skill-Building, Knowledge Object Creation and Execution
- Targeted Learning Path: Select a small number of key books or courses you want to complete (More than three in less than 10)—whether on leadership, trauma recovery, finance, or any domain relevant to your growth.
- Spread them across the year, pairing each resource with a practical experiment. For instance, after reading about design thinking, run a micro-pilot in a personal project or workplace initiative.
- Scheduled Execution Windows
- Break large, abstract goals (e.g., launching a new software product, a education course , a consulting workshop, or re-skilling for a career pivot) into discrete execution blocks—4- to 6-week sprints.
- Tie each sprint to a tangible outcome: a prototype, a presentation, a completed portion of research. Document progress in your master file.
- Knowledge objects are things like articles, posts, white papers, workshops, courses and software like agents that are tangible written, electronically distributable assets that are deliverable to partners anf customers.
- Self-Assessment & Feedback Loops
- Build in cyclical reflection: after every sprint or learning phase, note what worked, what didn’t, and why. Complexity theory reminds us that seemingly small tweaks can ripple into big shifts.
- Seek external feedback: Collaborators, mentors, or friends can point out blind spots and highlight growth areas.
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5. Foster Strategic Relationships
- Identify Key Allies: Who are the people—professionally and personally—whose values and skills complement your aspirations? Map them in your master document and note specific ways to collaborate, learn, or exchange support.
- Don’t overlook “weak ties,” those acquaintances or extended-network contacts who might spark new opportunities or perspectives.
- City and Community Engagement: In keeping with your goals keep an emphasis on cities as living systems, connect with local groups, meetups, or events that align with your 2025 goals. Volunteering or simply showing up can yield valuable connections and fresh ideas
- Document each new connection and any synergy that emerges, turning your city into an active participant in your growth rather than a passive backdrop. Make sure you are connected to them and communicate with them on LinkedIn.
- Maintain Balanced Social Capital: Nurture existing strong relationships by scheduling regular check-ins—be they weekly calls, monthly coffee catch-ups, or simple text messages of encouragement.
- Ensure your social ecosystem remains vibrant; avoid echo chambers by welcoming different viewpoints, especially if you aim for creative breakthroughs.
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6. Integrate Resilience & Well-Being
- Physical and Emotional Health Routines should be daily.
- Take one week off each quarter either for education or for vacation to reflect and recharge your energy.
- Incorporate small, consistent habits—daily walks, short mindfulness breaks, journaling—acknowledging that these practices can be critical “shock absorbers” when setbacks strike.
- In your master file, log these routines. Track whether they reduce stress levels or enhance focus, adjusting as needed.
- Plan for Adversity: Note potential disruptions—a busy season at work, personal responsibilities, financial risks—and strategize early. This can be as simple as building a small emergency fund or setting boundaries to protect personal time.
- Embrace an antifragile mindset: aim not merely to withstand stress, but to learn from it. Document lessons from each stumbling block.
- Grief & Trauma Awareness: If carrying over unresolved grief or trauma from the past year, schedule therapy sessions or support-group check-ins as part of your annual plan.
Keep references like Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery or Megan Devine’s It’s OK That You’re Not OK at hand, to revisit whenever emotional turbulence arises. Logging insights in your master file ensures continuity.
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7. Monitor, Reflect, and Evolve
- Quarterly Retro + Future Outlook: Block out time every three months to review both personal and professional milestones.
- Celebrate wins—no matter how small—and note any emerging challenges.
- Ask: “What assumptions have changed since I began the year? Which new complexities have emerged?” Adjust your yearly roadmap accordingly.
- Lateral-Thinking Intervals: Periodically disrupt your routine or perspective. You got a shock the system. For example, try a new hobby, Do a tarot reading for yourself, go to a psychic, Go to a concert from a band that you don’t know with a friend that knows them well, Go to a poetry reading, Set yourself at the art gallery, read a genre you normally ignore, or attend an event outside your usual social sphere. Complexity thrives on novelty, and novel inputs can lead to surprising insights.
- Maintain Momentum & Perspective: In each reflection cycle, evaluate if your goals still align with your evolving reality. Some might become less relevant; others could gain urgency. Keep your plans dynamic.
- Recognize that setbacks are data points in a living system. Let them inform your next iteration rather than define your perceived failures. All plans will be broken. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
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Wrap up: Building Forward Through Complexity
Starting 2025 with intention and adaptability means blending reflective practice, targeted skill-building, robust relationship management, and proactive well-being initiatives. Your master document becomes a living repository—capturing the essence of human theory, chaos wisdom, and pragmatic action steps. Each quarter, you calibrate your approach based on real-world outcomes, forging a resilient year that stands ready to meet both the adversities and the opportunities that inevitably arise.
This plan isn’t just about “surviving” the next twelve months; it’s about thriving, with a mindset that recognizes each stressor or challenge as potential for growth. By continually synthesizing reflections, actively engaging your community, and charting a flexible course toward your aspirations, you shape a future that honors the lessons of 2024 while staying open to the new waves of possibility washing into 2025 and beyond.
Key theories and philosophy.
- The Stoics. Seneca, Epicurus, Aurelius, Epictetus.
- The Global Master philosophers. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Angelou
- The thinkers. Wittgenstein, Newton, Lovelace, Curie, Einstein, Edison, Leonardo.
- The business people. Jobs, Gates, Musk, Bezos, Page
- The Warriors. Sun Szu, Bruce Lee, McCrystal, HS Thompson, Bourdain.
The theories
- Complexity theory
- Chaos Theory
- Cybernetics
- Concilience
- Theory of mind
- Decision theory
- Game Theory
- Probability theory
- Euclidean geometry
This planning approach and strategy was developed by @RobTyrie using a bunch of tools experience and skills. These have been augmented by a lot of study and reading about planning and methodology as well as human psychology and organizational design. I have been a professional technology consultant since 1985. I’m also a computer scientist and that is infused with a lot of ideas of concepts and intentions in these concepts. Things done here have been augmented and refined using various artificial intelligence tools like grammarly, perplexity, claude and chatGPT. All the work is correct in my estimation and all errors are my own. For questions and comments please use my personal email address: rob.tyrie@gmail.com. Better yet, post something on LinkedIn and ask me questions or challenge me on this planning approach for the next 350 days. I would love to hear your viewpoint and hear how you plan a year in a matter of hours...
RT 🐺 🐒 🦫
