Although most of us know what we want to be doing with our lives in the present when it comes to our careers and hobbies etc, and often have hopes and aspirations for the future, we very rarely stop and ask ourselves what we really want, both personally and professionally, out of life itself.
Some people argue that life is a series of random events, but I think it is fair to say that we do have control over how our lives pan out, if not fully, then to a certain degree, and proper planning for it can help make those dreams a reality.
As with a lot of things in life, we spend a lot of time thinking about what we want but not actually taking the steps to achieve it. If you struggle to make decisions and feel like your life lacks direction, Life planning can help to keep you motivated, prioritise plans, make better decisions and give you a sense of empowerment over your life. It can serve as a guide and a road map to the future that we envision.
Here are my 5 steps to creating a life plan.
1: Imagine your dream life – Picture yourself at your happiest and note the things around you that are fuelling that happiness. Where do you live in this scenario? What do you spend free time doing? Who is there with you? How much money do you earn? The more detail the better.
2. Self assess– Take a look at your life now and write down the steps you think you need to make to achieve your ideal life. Then note the steps that you have already taken. This is important for realising what you are capable of and how far you have already come.
3. Prioritise– Make a list of priorities, for example, your health, the money you earn, your relationships etc, and put them in order of what is most important to you. See if there are any priorities that maybe do not require as much time as you have been spending on it? Could this time be spent elsewhere?
4. Refine your goals– Now that you can see what you want out of life and have prioritised steps towards that goal, you need to refine how you will achieve those steps. If loosing weight is one of your priorities, give yourself an exact goal, ie ‘I will loose 10lbs by….’, if you want to increase your savings, set a goal to go through your outgoings and see if there is anything you could save on. Refining the details of our goals makes them easier to achieve.
5. Prepare for bumps in the road– As I mentioned above, life is often described as a series of random events and there are situations that occur in our lives that we simply cannot plan for. It is important to leave room for unexpected bumps in the road and regularly re-evaluate your life plan. Remember that something that is important to your happiness now, may be completely insignificant in 5 years time.
Take a look at some of my other blogs here that can help you decide what is important in life and how to achieve your goals, you can also download my free E-Book.