Planning the Future, One Mindful Moment at a Time
Staying in the present while tending to what’s next
This week I’ve been doing a lot of planning for the year ahead. I’ve been setting intentions, mapping out my finances, and really dialing in how I want to spend my time next year. These seasons of planning and dreaming are always exciting for me—but they also bring up a common question I often hear when it comes to mindfulness:
How do we plan for the future while still being present?
Don’t we have to schedule things on our calendars, plan events, and think ahead?
Is there room for dreaming about the future without getting lost in it?
This is another place where viewing mindfulness as living simple moments fully has deeply supported my practice—especially during my cancer journey. My life became filled with scheduling the next appointment, planning treatment, determining how much work to take off, and figuring out how to manage my daughter’s schedule. Planning only became manageable when I remembered that it, too, was made of moments—one phone call, one form, one conversation, one breath.
As a single mother, I had to plan support. There were weeks of conversations about where my daughter would stay during surgery, how to plan for life afterward, and what support I would need. Each detail mattered. My life was full of future planning—lists of tasks from updating my will to making sure my pets’ vaccinations were up to date. Unsure how available I would be for a month, I had to prepare for so much.
What carried me through all of this was my mindfulness practice.
I took each step one at a time—each moment, each task. While my mind spun more than usual, I returned again and again to what needed to be done next. When I was planning for surgery, I stayed aware that I was planning and moved through the task mindfully. I didn’t ignore the future; I focused my attention on what I was doing in the present to prepare for it. This helped quiet the stories and fears my mind could spin about surgery. I was still living simple moments—just moments that happened to be oriented toward the future.
This practice can be applied anytime the future requires our attention. When we sit down to plan the day, we can be fully engaged in that activity—accessing stillness as we prioritize, rather than rushing or reacting from fear about how much there is to do or whether we’ll get it all done. We can notice the act of writing or typing, listen to the sounds around us, and become aware of our environment. The key is grounding the activity in the present moment.
As the new year approaches, many people find themselves in this same space—dreaming, planning, and imagining what’s ahead. When we approach these activities with mindfulness, we loosen our grip on fear-based reactions and avoid getting lost in mental stories. We also don’t need to revisit the past year through narratives of what went right or wrong. Instead, we sit grounded in the present and gently ask ourselves what we truly want.
Mindfulness in these moments can offer beautiful insight into where joy actually lives—free from past perceptions or future expectations. I’d love to hear about your own New Year plans and how mindfulness is shaping them. Feel free to share in the comments.
If you would like to kick off the new year with mindfulness practice I invite you to join my free 21 Day Simple Moments Challenge to get inspiration each day on a small moment you can fully live and enjoy.