To be successful in your life, you need to have a life plan. Without a plan, many of your dreams will only be dreams. A life plan, on the other hand, will help you turn your dreams into reality. It works because it gives you not a just a destination, but also a way to get there.
A life plan doesn't have to be complicated. It should answer just two questions:
What is your destination?
How will you get there?
Here are the steps towards creating your life plan:
Look At What's Not Working
When you're figuring out how to make a life plan, it helps to know what you want to change, and in what areas of your life. Here's where it helps to get out a journal and assess different areas of your life. This can be in list form, narrative form, created as a mind map, or in another format, but should cover the areas of life that are most important to you. For most people, that means job, family, wellness, finances, other areas of stress, and even home environment. Think about what your values are in life, and assess how those areas of life are currently working for you.
Think of Your Ideal Life
This is a snapshot of your "ideal" life, in a very brief, bulleted list. And remember, the sky's the limit, so don't be afraid of being bold or maybe even a little grandiose. Factor in things like family time, hobbies, charity work, and early retirement - anything that gets you really excited.
Think of Your Key Moves to Get You Where You Want to Go
These are simple strategic action items you must develop in order to transform your Life Plan from a self-assessment into an action plan. At this point in life planning, you know where you want to go, what skills you already have, as well as what type of work suits you best. Draw from that information a list of moves you'll need to make to achieve your ideal life.
Eliminate Road Blocks
As you plan steps forward, review your list of "what's not working" and think about what's holding you back from your goals, from experiencing less stress, from feeling that you're where you want to be. Then make some cuts. Cut out commitments, relationships, and other aspects of your life that drain you and that aren't absolutely necessary. Minimize what you can't cut out. Look at every "drain" as a trade-off--do you want these things in your life, or do you want to be able to take steps toward the things that are really important to you? When you see these tangible choices, changes are easier.
Focus and Be Persistent
There is no question that focus is essential to achieve your goals. Without focus, you will spread your effort and attention too thin and eventually achieve nothing. Be careful though. You should be focused but not obsessed. You should be persistent because failure is inevitable on your way to success. Without persistence, it's easy to get discouraged in the face of failure and stop before reaching your destination. Have faith and keep pushing forward.
Build relationships
Nobody can succeed alone. You need the support of other people to succeed. So build your network before you need it. Get ongoing support. Asking for help from others to keep you on track, delegating tasks that are overloading you, even signing up for free newsletters or joining Facebook groups are ways you can get ongoing support with changes you'd like to make and maintain in your life. Ask yourself what resources you need to make your plans stick, and do what you can to get those resources in your life.
Start now
A good plan vigorously executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.
Using your Life Plan
It's very important to print your Life Plan and keep it in plain view. You'll find that its presence--even in your peripheral vision--will constantly remind you of what you want, what's important, and what to do next. Ideally, you should also revisit your Life Plan periodically to measure your success and to make adjustments and additions where appropriate. It's okay if things change over time--life is a fluid and dynamic thing and your Life Plan should be, too!
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Michael Griffiths is the CEO and Founder of Secrets Of A Super Life, providing individuals with personal development strategies to increase their purpose, passion, happiness and life fulfilment. For your free life success pack please visit http://www.mysuperlifetoday.com
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