On Planning and Presence
* This blog post was co-created with AI, using my transcript. My aim is for the blog to be as verbatim as possible, so you’re in contact with me not the robots! Using AI means the blog can exist in the first place so it’s a use that feels aligned for now.
Any thoughts, let me know!
When Career Planning Becomes a Distraction: How to Return to Presence
Balancing Presence and Planning
Hello, dear listener. Thank you for joining me again. Welcome back. Today we're talking about balancing presence and planning. When we're unhappy with our current realities, it's easy to get lost in thinking, in planning, in options, in analysis, and become disconnected from our day-to-day experience.
We stop being there with our friends, family, maybe our partner. We're somewhere else, thinking about the future, ruminating, making plans, running worst-case scenarios, trying to figure out every possible permutation if we took this path or another. So today we'll talk about how to come back to the present when we are lost in this future focus.
I am your host, Kate Maxwell. I’m an accredited senior practitioner, and I coach media and tech pros wanting to choose a new career direction. This show exists to give you that extra push as you take the leap, as I sincerely hope you do—with pep talks, tools, and techniques. But above all, I want to challenge the assumptions you have about what you can and can't do, and who you can and can't be. This is Blueprints to Becoming.
If you want support on anything we talk about in today's episode, I am accepting one-on-one clients into both of my programs: Charted, where we map out your next five steps in 60 days, and Tethered, my signature program—a gorgeous long-term process. Together, we'll create a career plan that really fits and weave it together in five months. For details, head to the link in the show notes.
Why Does Planning Feel So Good?
Planning versus presence. It feels so good to plan—until it doesn't. Why does planning feel so good? Maybe it doesn’t. You might be listening to this and you are not a Type A person like myself, in which case, planning might give you the— I really doubt you would've got this far. So I'm gonna assume that planning gives you a sense of control. It helps you feel like you are in charge. You know what's what. You are calling the shots. You are behind the wheel.
Planning is also acting without having to act. It is motion, but it's not action. It gives us a sense of doing something, of making a change—but without actually changing anything, because we are living in that future focus. Planning can also take place in the privacy of our own minds, free from the eyes of others and their judgment. We can live out all these various plans, all these permutations, without worrying about what others think.
The reality is we cannot control every variable or every outcome. No matter how good the plan is—how logical, how well thought out, how deeply it aligns with what we want—we cannot guarantee that it will come to pass. Even if we put everything into it, even if we follow all the steps, we ultimately are not in control at the level this kind of planning leads us to believe we are.
From Planning to Acting
In order to change our reality, we have to move from planning to acting. There will be risks and there will be actions that we need to take in spaces where others can see us.
What Do We Want Instead?
So what do we want instead of this planning and future-focused, distracted state—this non-presence, this being in the head space? We want to be there. We want to be actually living our lives in the day-to-day and enjoying it, and being with ourselves and with those around us in a truly present way.
What Is Presence?
Presence is being in the moment. Presence is peace. Presence is letting go. Presence is trust. It is trusting in yourself above all else, in my opinion. Presence is about saying, I can be here. I am safe to be here. Because whatever happens, I'm going to be okay. I've got this.
Questions to Help You Reflect
I want to offer up some trigger questions to help you reflect on your own experience of putting planning above your present state of mind. Or, I want to offer you some questions to reflect on, to help you understand a little bit more your own experience of planning and how it is interfering with your state of mind and your ability to be present.
- What does it feel like when you are planning?
- How does it feel in your head space?
- How does it feel in your body?
- What are the plans you are making? What do they consist of?
- Do you have to solve it now?
- Do you need the perfect plan right then?
- Do you need the entire plan?
- What do you gain by being in the moment?
- What discomfort might you have to face by stepping away from the planning and being present?
What Would Balance Look Like for You?
And finally, if you take nothing else away, please take this and really think about it—and I would love if you wanted to share it with me:
What would balancing planning and presence be like for you?
Small Leaps Matter Too
Today we've talked about the tension between being there and being here, about the false sense of security we get from planning, and the peace we can find when we let go.
Not every leap is major. Not every leap is handing in your notice or booking to work with a coach. A leap could be spending a moment right here, really here—not planning or creating contingencies or worst-case scenarios, but enjoying this second in its full reality before it's gone. That is a leap of faith as well.
Thank You for Listening
If you've enjoyed being here today, I would love to invite you to rate, review, subscribe to the show. That really helps the show reach more people just like you. I’ll see you next week when we’ll be talking about navigating other people’s reactions when it comes to your career choices—especially when you want to make a change.
I've got you. You've got this. I believe in you. I’ll see you then. Bye for now.
