Planning with Purpose

Melissa Amos [: 00:00:00

Good morning, Beth.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:00:01

Good morning, Belle. How are you? Did Lynn.

Melissa Amos [: 00:00:05

Well, before we hit record, I was in deep contemplation about something very important in my life. Which planner, which planner do I choose? A bit of backstory for the listeners I currently hold in my hands. 3. Danielle Laporte, Desire Map Planners. And I love the Desire Matte planner I had four years ago. I loved it. And then she stopped doing them. And so I.

Melissa Amos [: 00:00:36

I became an affiliate for this time round because I'm so excited. And they sent me all the. All of the. All of them. I had paid for one and then they sent me all of them. So I'm like, oh, my God, what do I do? And I've just been like, really? In my head. Do I have the weekly one? Do I have the daily one? There's an undated one as well, which I'm going to gift. And so I asked Beth, and as soon as I said it out loud, the decision was made.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:01:08

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:01:08

I thought we could talk about how our intuition tells us things when we talk it through, like, sometimes, even though it's intuition, even though dance is always in me, even though I'm. I know. Like, Beth is the queen of planners, so I'm like, she is the best person to ask about which one to do. So I was seeking for, like, external information, but actually it literally just took me.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:01:38

Yeah, I didn't even give you my opinion. I was like, I think you already know.

Melissa Amos [: 00:01:44

Yeah.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:01:45

I think sometimes we're so close to the detail of something or we're not listening to decision through our body or we're thinking from a one particular lens that we don't actually realize that these clues, like, quite physically, I think you probably felt quite expansive when. Or more expansive when you said the Weekly Planner as opposed to the other one. Whereas it was like, there's two of them and all of these other things go up. Yeah. I think we can discern so much information just from saying something out loud or writing it down or communicating it and getting it out there and just hearing it back to us. Sometimes people mirror that back to us and we can hear. Oh, hang on a second. Yeah, I already know the answer.

Melissa Amos [: 00:02:37

Because you literally said to me you felt more excited about the Weekly Planner. And I did. But I was also. Because my logic brain, this is the fun part, my logic brain was going, take the daily one because it's bigger, there's more pages, it's literally double. It's two books. I can every day write like 12 action points. Like I do 12 action points. In a day, I don't.

Melissa Amos [: 00:03:06

I can write a whole page of what I'm grateful for every day.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:03:09

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:03:10

It's like all of these things and it's. It looks really nice. So, like, my logic brain was going, this is the sensible choice for all of those reasons, which is why I was in a dilemma. Because otherwise, if that was the sensible choice and my intuition was going that way, then there would have been no dilemma. It would have just been, obviously, I'm going to have that one. So the fact that there was a disparity, the fact that there was even that conversation probably could have given me clues about which one. Yeah. The one for me.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:03:46

Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Sometimes the fact that we've got a choice means that we're not certain or it almost like rules the other one out or in. It's interesting. It's really interesting. So you've got a weekly. So you're going to go with the weekly one. And the fact that the daily one has doubled, obviously it has got more because it's got more days in it.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:04:09

So you can still do the same in the weekly one.

Melissa Amos [: 00:04:12

Yeah. However, for me and how I work with me, I do, like at the beginning of the week to see what's going on.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:04:19

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:04:20

I do tend to get a vibe for the week as well. And I using that because being your own boss, apart from certain specific meetings or if I've got, I don't know, something that I'm doing or a client session booked in, things are quite fluid. I can put things in and having the week in front of me and it tells you the moon phases and if there's something going on with the planets and whatever, then actually I can just see it all at a glance, which for me, even as I say it, I feel it settling my nervous system because otherwise I'm going to be flicking and then flicking back and then I'll have another diary to be there for, because in June, what's going to happen? I'm going to have two diaries going on. So whereas for somebody else I know, like you love to. Every day you do your scripting, you do all these things we've spoken about having your own. So it's like these different needs. So one isn't better or best. Which is what I was asking you for.

Belle [: 00:05:19

What's your opinion? Because you are Ms. Planner, I think.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:05:22

Yeah. And I think that's it. I think it's finding your own way of doing something. And I suppose as you were talking, I was thinking I would want to create something like this, maybe using my system, but also there's that part of me that. That not everybody's going to want to fit into that. And I think it's about finding the balance between having some level of system and structure and maybe some knowledge and teachings around that to help people use that. But then also teachings around how do I find my own way? What is my natural planning habit? Because I feel like even though we might not feel like we're all planners, some people might feel super productive, some people feel like I'm totally disorganized. But I think within that there's still some level of your version of normality in terms of how you get things done.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:06:12

I think if there's a way, there's a system to do that. I think that's when the magic could happen. Almost like if you could have a menu of things that fitted into almost if it was like a ring binder kind of journal where you get to choose the tools that work for you, whether it's on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, five yearly, whatever. I think that would be quite a powerful way to approach plannings for life and business. So you've got me. My cogs are turning this morning. I definitely will do something. I just feel like it needs to be at the right time and done in the right way.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:06:48

I don't want to rush this because it's. It's important, right? It's important.

Melissa Amos [: 00:06:52

It is because it is your. Like I've. I always had this. A view of myself that I'm disorganized and I don't know where it came from because people say to me, you're so grounded. Like, people always look to me to organ. I'm going out on Saturday with a bunch of people I know and we're like, yeah, let's meet up. And who's the one that's found the restaurants and is organizing the time? And it's like this natural thing. But because what I see as something somebody organized is that writing down and the spreadsheets and the planning and the kind of.

Melissa Amos [: 00:07:28

I know everything that's. I think it's the writing down thing that I. That I covered the. Of the planet planning. And certainly when I was in corporate, like I knew what was going on in the day, but it was never at nine I do this and at ten I do this because the nature of my job was a customer can walk in all of the time so often. And I kept so much of it in my head, which is not good really. But I would keep so much in my head and it. I one day had this realization, like, oh, my God, I'm really organized because I'm spinning up here.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:08:07

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:08:08

Like, I know when the kids have got a party on Saturday at 2.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:08:13

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:08:14

Without looking at my diary, it's in my head.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:08:16

I'm very similar to that, to be honest with you. Yeah. It's like, we know. It's like, you know, when things are happening without physically, I could live. I was literally looking. I've got a calendar, like a magnetic calendar. It sticks on my boiler. So when I open the cupboard, but the heat on is there.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:08:31

I think, you know, I've only got two more pages because it's a monthly one and we need to order another one. But I hardly use it because it's in my head. Are you?

Melissa Amos [: 00:08:43

Yeah, but not for everybody.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:08:44

I was like, what is going on? But I think that's becoming more evident now as I'm working with my va and a lot of stuff is in my head, like.

Melissa Amos [: 00:08:54

Yeah.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:08:55

It's not just knowing how to do or knowing when to do something, it's actually the workings behind that as well. Like knowing why you're doing something and why you're doing something in a particular order. And if you don't articulate that, then all of a sudden you're like. And you're like, oh, my God, how did you keep this? How did you keep this going on your own? Like, how are you doing all of these things? And so you're like, oh, my goodness. Like, how did I keep all of that going?

Melissa Amos [: 00:09:16

And I think that here's the thing, if I'm planning fully just in my brain.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:09:22

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:09:22

Then I think I'm more intuitive to my needs. Whereas because I do use a diary, like, clearly, because people can book into my diary and I've got clients and I've got things. And so I have it all in my Google Calendar. But what happens when I'm then relying on that is then I see a gap. So I'm like, this and this booked in, and then I see a gap and I'm like, oh, I can fit that in to that gap.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:09:47

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:09:48

And so today I've got 9:00, then I'll go to yoga, then I've got 12:00, then I've got 2:00, then I've got the kids, then I've got 6:00, then I've got 7:30.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:09:58

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:09:59

Which is a lot for me. And whereas if it was in my head, I think that for example, the 12 o'clock one would have gone. Would have not happened. Or maybe this would have been another day. Because I do have gone. Okay, no, on Wednesday I've got ABC D. So I don't have time. I don't have the energy to do E.

Melissa Amos [: 00:10:21

Yeah. So there, there can be this kind of separation when using something, a tool that's outside of you. Which is also why I like this planner. Because it keeps coming back to. If you've ever read the desire map, it keeps coming back to your core desired feelings.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:10:38

That's what she.

Melissa Amos [: 00:10:39

And how do I want to feel? And so right now, as we're recording this, we're right at the end of November. So I'm in, like, big promo period. I'm about to run a course over the next two weeks. I'm running my quantum healing course and there's all of these stuff to do. So right now I'm in super productive mode. Like, I have. I've just got so much stuff that needs to be done.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:11:04

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:11:05

And. And I'm going away at Christmas time. And so I'm like, there's going to be two weeks where I'm on zero. So really finding this balance of what can I fit in? What do I need to fit in? What can I say no to? What can I do?

Beth Hewitt [: 00:11:24

It does give you more control. And to help you find that balance, I do so, interestingly, I do put times against. So maybe say I've got my three. Three to five things that I'm gonna do, depending on what they are. I will put times against them. But I'm just never. Mostly I will run over. I underestimate the amount of time it takes me to do something.

Melissa Amos [: 00:11:45

Yeah.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:11:46

But there's no pressure. It's just, okay, I've still done the thing. And sometimes. But when I do do it and I'm like, oh, my God, I thought that was gonna be three hours. It's gonna be five minutes. And there's that kind of. Yeah. And then you realize.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:11:56

And I think having that is also a sign. It's like a. We think that something's gonna be difficult or take a while. When actually we do it, when we document the time like that, we can actually go, actually, this is an easy task, or this a delegating task, or this is a task for, yeah, another day or a full day kind of thing. And so when we've got that level of information, it's a bit like the more we know ourselves from a spiritual sense, but the more we know physically how long Something takes to do then that can really be beneficial. But I block myself first thing in the morning, I will block out. If there's a gap in my diary tomorrow, it's blocked out.

Melissa Amos [: 00:12:31

Yeah.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:12:32

So that nobody can jump in there and I can use that help. Sometimes I'll use it for clients and sometimes I'll just use it for best things. So do so listeners. Do you plan? Are you a planner? Are you a this. It's that time of year, isn't it, where everybody gets journals for Christmas? Or in our kind of world, you get journals for Christmas? And do you. Do you start off really well? Do you fall by the wayside? Are you really good at it? Do you want to be really good at it? It's all of these questions, isn't it? Because there's benefits in all of this. Yeah, but I think it's important that coming back to this point that we all plan in very different ways. I'm sure there's people that almost beat themselves up a little bit when they can't fill the diary in and that that's okay.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:13:13

It's just that maybe that the way the diary is set out is not the way that you work best.

Melissa Amos [: 00:13:19

Might have picked the logic brain and said let's go for this one.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:13:22

Yeah, because.

Melissa Amos [: 00:13:23

And your logic might be completely different to mine. Your logic might be with a weekly one because then it there and it is finding that and feeling the benefits of it. Like I know that when my diary became digital and so it's always there. Like there was a lot of benefits because I can then some. The double bookings don't happen this. But it's still. I don't know, I still have that. I don't know.

Melissa Amos [: 00:13:49

It's like a skill that it calls stays in there. And what was really interesting is I was talking to my husband yesterday and about what I've got going on. So like the course I'm running next week, I've got slides I need to do and it's not my favorite thing in the world, to be honest. I prefer to be using my time talking to people anyway. So I said to him, I've got this stuff to do. And I was like, but tomorrow. Now my living room is quite long, right? So I'm standing at one point I was like tomorrow. And I'm standing at.

Melissa Amos [: 00:14:18

I was like, at 9 o'clock I've got this. And then I moved down. I was like this. And I started moving down the living room with all of this stuff. And I was like. And then on Thursday, I've got this, and then I've got this. And I'm literally moving down the living room as I'm telling him. And then I'm like.

Melissa Amos [: 00:14:33

And then on Friday, and I was like, when am I gonna put these slides in? And I was like, oh, okay. So then I saw where I'd done this big jump. It's so nuts. I've done this, like, big jump. And I was like, okay, I've got this time to go in there. Which is about an hour and a half. And in my head I'm like, there's no way I can write all of those slides in an hour and a half. But probably I can't.

Melissa Amos [: 00:14:57

Like the size of written. But probably I can.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:14:59

Yeah, I'm sure you can.

Melissa Amos [: 00:15:01

Yeah. And it's a case of. So tonight I've got these calls. And there will be points in between that. Even If I take 10 minutes and do one or two while I'm waiting for the call to start or whatever, there's definitely moments. And which is why having a weekly. I know everything that I need to do this week. I don't know if for me feels a bit more free.

Melissa Amos [: 00:15:23

And freedom is one of my top values.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:15:26

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:15:27

Rather than really having to drill something down in the day.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:15:31

Top tip that I use when doing presentations because who has got loads of time to write presentations is just to use the visual representation of it. So sometimes we can like, oh, I've got to write loads of words.

Melissa Amos [: 00:15:43

No, I don't.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:15:44

Which nobody loves anyway. But if you just use an image that represents that and because you're like me, that if you see something, then we can. You can just vibe off it what it is that you want to say.

Melissa Amos [: 00:15:53

But.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:15:53

But I suppose if it's diagrams or if it's specific things, then that's.

Melissa Amos [: 00:15:57

It's a lot of quantum physics.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:15:59

Stars. Then just put loads of stars on the page and just.

Melissa Amos [: 00:16:02

It's keeping my brain in. Because when you start talking quantum, there's certain things that. Points I need to hit in it. And when you start talking quantum, you hear it from our conversations here, we will go off in tangents, which is fine. And I do believe everything will come as it is. And there's certain points I need to hit. And again. So we talk about organization.

Melissa Amos [: 00:16:22

For me, again, I prided. So the right word myself that, oh, I don't need it. I hit record, I start talking. It's all in my brain. And that was something that I had to relearn because that's my natural State. And then when I was in corporate and things had to be done in a certain way and I felt like I really needed to prep, prepare and spirit always like, just trust us. And I'm like, okay. And then I did and I'm like, okay.

Melissa Amos [: 00:16:52

So it's often a case, like we do with Soul inspired. You hit record, see what comes out of our mouth. And that's fine. So this year with Soul School, which is my Akashic Records training, like, there's big concepts. And so whilst the whole thing was in some ways channeled and I hadn't a script, and whilst the whole course was designed by me, it was having those slides. And every month I just had a few with just some quotes or some points really helped to keep the. The. The focus and the energy flowing.

Melissa Amos [: 00:17:28

And I think it gave the students more of another way of learning. Yeah, really like that. And my brain was going, when you run Soul School 2025, you've got it all done.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:17:40

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:17:40

And obviously, being me and who I am, Soul School 2025 is different. There'll be some crossover, but the slides will be. Whereas this quantum healing technique is. I'm teaching a framework and it's my first time teaching a level two and there's a lot. So it's just keeping. Honoring the essence of where it's come from, which the slides will help me, and then bringing my own experience and geekiness into.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:18:14

Excited. So you've got a lot going on into the latter end of the year. You'll be slowing down right at the.

Melissa Amos [: 00:18:22

Point at the end of the year, like, literally.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:18:25

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:18:25

The 20th of December will be like, hard cut off. Like, the kids will break up and then it will be like, no more work. And then I'm. And then, yeah, when I get back from Thailand, then it all goes again. It'll be like, okay, so now I have my planner coming back full circle. I can begin to plan weekly what I'm teaching.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:18:51

When with the planner, are you going to approach it week by week or will you look at the month ahead and plan each week?

Melissa Amos [: 00:18:58

Yeah, yeah. So it has the month to the page.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:19:03

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:19:04

So what I will do is I will use that as the kind of map of where. Because I've got three different things I'll be teaching over the first six months. So I'll use that map quite intuitively of what goes where and, like, what week will focus on which. And then as I go into the week, I'll pick the days, pick the days from that overall. And that feels really good. That feels. Because right now it feels like it is a bit too much in my. It's like up here, like above my head and I just need it all to land.

Melissa Amos [: 00:19:43

And then I think everything will be a lot more grounded. And from a law of attraction point of view and even for calling your clients in and it's having that. I think once everything's laid down, it creates the anchor for. For the right people to come, whilst where it's up there, it has a different energy and it calls in a different kind of people. So from a law of attraction, energetics, business planning point of view, it's quite fun to play with those different aspects and see how if it's too grounded, you might cut off where it's. If it's too up there, then it might feel a bit unsafe for your clients that you're calling in. So it's operating on both levels. If you can.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:20:30

And it is. It's like you say, it's the level of intention, isn't it? The fact that you are documenting it and putting it out there before the time, then that's really going to help you to call in all of the good stuff. At the beginning of the year, I think we. We talked about us words of the year and I'm just wondering where we're at. Could be nearly time to create our new words of the year. Do you feel like you've embodied your word?

Melissa Amos [: 00:20:56

What your word of the year?

Beth Hewitt [: 00:20:58

Mine was bountiful was to have. Because it wasn't any one thing, it was just to experience more of whatever that was, whether it was joy, happiness, family kind of thing. And certainly for me, I feel like that was a good word and it has played out so. Definitely spent so much time with family this year because of circumstances, which has been difficult, but also has been a blessing because it's actually reconnected and it's been nice to spend time with my. My dad more, even though it's not been great all of the time, but it's been really nice. Abundance, more clients, more freedom. There's been. I feel like bountiful was definitely the right word and I'd like to keep that in some way, some semblance of bountiful.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:21:44

I'm not sure what my next year's word is going to be. Yeah, definitely bountiful.

Melissa Amos [: 00:21:49

I'm not sure we ever truly let go of our words of the year.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:21:54

That's a good point.

Melissa Amos [: 00:21:55

Choose to, unless we do some form of ceremony. If we've done a ceremony, calling it in, I think that it Becomes part of our building blocks, if you like. And unless we do something to let it go, which sometimes we need to, then I think it's we. As if we've used it. We form the habit, if you like, to make it part of us. My word this year was choose, and it was the perfect word for this year. And just reminding myself that there's always a choice. Yeah, there's always a choice.

Melissa Amos [: 00:22:30

And wherever I am, in some way or another, I've chosen this response or this decision or this planner or this whatever it is. Like there's been a part of me that's chosen. Maybe not the experience exactly, but how I've responded to that experience and how I can keep responding to that. If I feel like the choice I've made was not aligned or wrong or misguided, then every moment, like we talk about in the Reiki principles, just for today, like every moment, we can make a new choice. And I feel like that's been a really powerful and really empowering guide for me this year.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:23:13

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:23:14

So I will also keep that in. And I don't know, I feel like next year. So next year is A. It's 25, so it's a nine year.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:23:28

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:23:29

And for me it's three year, I think next year. So it's a nine year. Which is normally about completions.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:23:39

Yes.

Melissa Amos [: 00:23:40

And endings, which is interesting.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:23:43

I feel like that's relevant for me next year. I think it's interesting that you literally start. Literally start this podcast with you making a choice on the planners as well. I think that's really funny.

Melissa Amos [: 00:23:57

Yeah.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:23:57

I feel like I'm in that stage of that limb, but not limbo, whatever the word is. Like I'm in that void stage of thinking about what my word. I don't feel like it's there. It's not landed. It's not. I'm not sure what that's going to be. But I do certainly really resonate with the ending of. I do know that next year is more about getting back out there because I've been in.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:24:17

I've been literally hibernating since the pandemic. And I want to reconnect with my old connections outside and be more outside next year. That's definitely something. So something around that. It's been good hibernating, but I think we are human beings at the end of the day. It's not like I've connected with so many thousands of people probably over the last five years, but I want real interaction outside, face to face, more of that in person stuff next year. Absolutely. Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:24:47

Yeah. I think there's a real calling for that. And this year I was really lucky. I went on three for retreats. Real life people.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:24:57

Yeah.

Melissa Amos [: 00:24:58

In different countries and. And there is something quite special about that. And I used to run retreats a lot, so I'm looking at bringing that back through my programs and again, it's really looking at the space and the time. But if I tune into next year, I can feel that, I think that generally there's going to be a closing of old structures and paradigms that's been going on for a while, actually probably through this last nine year cycle. And it's interesting if I'm in a three year. Which for me the three talks on expression and getting out there, it's. And everything that I've been feeling about really speaking out about some of the things that have been happening in the spiritual industry and our spiritual path and all of this. Like maybe next year for me that combination will be activating that paradigm somehow in my own little way in my own little corner of the world.

Melissa Amos [: 00:26:00

But we can talk about that on another episode.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:26:05

Well, happy planning in your new planner.

Melissa Amos [: 00:26:09

Going to open it.

Beth Hewitt [: 00:26:10

Until next time.

Melissa Amos [: 00:26:11

Next time.