Welcome to Plan Family (or PlanFam, for you cool/nerdy folks)!

Welcome to Plan Family (PlanFam!)

Welcome to our take on planning and the importance of proactive intentionality for your family.  So often we find ourselves swept through life on the autopilot of the currents around us.  Seldom do we take/invest the time to stop and choose the 5 Ws of what we're setting out to do.  This lack of intentional planning has many roots - lack of time, lack of know-how, lack of interest, lack of negative consequences from not planning, and lack of the perceived "cool" factor.  Perhaps the biggest reason we don't plan is simply complacency.  We get into our habitual ruts and just go with the flow that we've created in life.  This typically takes a similar form to those around us as we people are naturally herd animals.  That's well and good if you've intentionally chosen where you want to go, who you want to go with, and created a path to get there.  It can be tragic if you just get carried along and end up in a place far from where you have dreamed of throughout your life.  The good news, perhaps great news, is that with a little focused time and using a few tools/best practices you can map out your best life and get busy living it.  

Practicing planning can
never start too early...this
might've been the master 
Ninja plan to steal Santa's
cookies.

With any creative pursuit, at some point, you have to think of naming the newly created Frankenstein you're building.  When we were thinking through that, we thought we were genius with the idea of "Family Plan-it" (planet, get it...maybe the genius only lived in our heads.  Turns out, that was taken by a calendar company...dang it.  Family Planning implies a whole different birds-and-the-bees context that we're not going to spend much time on here.  That left us with the not necessarily highly original "Plan Fam" or "Plan Family."  Sexy title or not...we cannot overemphasize the importance of planning for your most valuable team (your family).  

With planning, whether it's a business, disaster, family, or whatever else in between the nature of plans ranges from strategic (50,000 foot) down to the very muddy tactical type plans.  From a family perspective, it may start with a "strategic plan" that outlines your mission/vision/values.  That may dial in with specificity and more detailed plans as we do a 5-year season plan (pre-school years, elementary years, etc) that has the "big rocks" figured out.  Again, we get more specific as we go down to perhaps an annual plan that details out some of the 5 W's to take our New Year's Resolutions to a more effective level.  We also tend to have "plans" for the season and/or month ahead that begin to look more like schedules, budgets, meal plans, and to-do lists.  With any of these, they can be verbal or written down...but we're pretty big believers in the staying power of writing down goals.  

Here at Plan Fam, we've been working (to varying degrees of success) to live an intentional life over the years.  Over our adult lives, we've had careers and vocations that have been fairly tied to the art and science of planning in a variety of contexts and situations.  To that end, we're fairly comfortable with the planning processes, plans themselves, and tools that bring efficiency to the planning "layperson."  We'll share some of the tips, tricks, tools, and stories that help you benefit from our research, mistakes, strengths, and lessons along the way to help you and your family become more intentional.  Like anything else in life, tune in/tune out as you see fit and with what resonates with what you need.  Along the way, take the pieces you like, take a chisel to them to customize, toss out what doesn't fit...and be amazed at how much more smoothly and effectively you make progress toward your desired end states.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Make a list of three areas of your life that could benefit from more intentional planning.
• 1 - ___________________
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Consider taking an immediate planning step (meal plan/menu, monthly budget, something).
• Look for an opportunity to create a strategic level plan for your family that becomes a goal post on the horizon.
• Schedule time on your calendar to talk about planning - both near and further term with you and your family
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in the next 30 days.

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Brett & Kate McKay from ArtofManliness.com