We all know that this year has been absolutely crazy! With COVID and so many businesses shutting their doors, it has really made me think about where I am at in my life. I first created a life plan during a class in college and I have continually looked back on it over the years. You may be asking yourself what is a life plan?
Well… it’s the big picture.
It comes down to having a vision and an understanding of where you’re going and what you want your life to be. It’s like setting up a road map or a series of steps and goals in order to achieve that end result.
Most, if not all organizations, start out with a vision statement. And a vision statement is an ultimate goal of what they want to achieve, and how they want to represent themselves as an organization.
Our personal life plans are just the same way. It’s all about having that idea of what you want most in life and then designing those steps to achieve it.
One of the best books I have read about designing your life, is Stephen Covey ‘s, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He has one of the best ways of articulating not only how but why forming habits is so important. He focuses on specific habits to work on and the second habit is focused on, beginning with the end in mind.
Basically, starting on your life path with a general idea of what your dream or your vision is for the end of it. So, mapping out where you want your life to go in the next 5, 10, 20 plus years. Creating a life plan helps you take those dreams and what truly matters to you and makes it a reality.
But, before you can map it all out though, you have to understand what really is important to you and what you want to achieve with your life. I encourage you to take some time and really concentrate on finding what you want your priorities to be and what you want to focus on.
This can seem a little daunting, but the good thing is that we can break it down into different aspects of your life. You can focus on one area at a time and build on it from there.
Some of the area’s that I focus on in my life plan are –
- Family, Friends, and Relationships – Right now I’m not married, and I don’t have any kids but I have multiple nieces and nephews that I know I want to spend a lot of time with.
- Health and Wellbeing – Health is an area where I am putting a lot of my focus right now. I managed to put on quite a bit of weight since I left the military and started a desk job. I am working on daily and weekly goals to correct.
- Financial Independence and Knowledge – Finance is always on the back of my mind, it is something that I am passionate about and I love to learn and read. I want to be continually learning and growing and struggling to learn languages.
- Enjoying Life, Traveling, Making Memories – I love to travel and explore the different nature parks and cultures. I know that I want to continue to travel well into my retirement. So far, I have been able to visit 15 countries and I was planning on visiting Mexico this year. But, COVID of course changed that.
- Giving Back – I want service to be a pillar of who I am. I know that I can’t make it through life on my own and if I can help people along the way then I know we can all make it through whatever comes.
Those are some of the area’s that are important to me. You might have different priorities, like being the best mother or father you can be or being your own boss or visiting every amusement park. It really depends upon you and what you want your life to be about.
A good place to start is simply asking yourself – What is the most important aspect of your life? What would your ultimate dream be? When you look back on your life, what do you think really will matter to you?
So after you take that time to really do some self-reflection and write down some of your dreams. Then you can take those dreams, those aspirations and jot them down on a timeline. Just start with today, the present and add the years in.
When I first did a timeline, one of my big milestones was buying a house. I wasn’t sure when exactly that was going to happen, so I just jotted it down with a time frame of 2-3 years. Then when I bought my house, I was able to update my timeline to reflect it!
If you know you want to hit a financial goal at say at age 30 or 45 you can mark that down. It really helps to have a target or a time frame in mind for each of the milestones or steps you want to make. You can then take those big dreams from each area and break down steps for every year or every ten years leading up to the target date. They don’t have to happen overnight.
The great thing about your life plans, is that they are fluid and flexible. They should be updated as you start new chapters in your life. Life has a habit of throwing you curve balls when it’s the absolute worst timing. So, don’t worry if you can’t accomplish everything that you plan exactly when you hoped.
You have the ability to adjust course and change time frames as life keeps rolling along. Honestly, it’s best to revisit and recalculate every year to make sure that you are staying on track and still headed to where you want to be.
One thing that has really helped me is being able to visualize my path and my goals and dreams. I love using a vision board. I put both my long term and some short-term goals on it. I keep it in a place where I see it almost every day. It reminds me that all the little steps I am taking day by day are leading me towards my future goals.
When people come over, they see it and that helps me. Having someone else know that I have a specific goal really helps keep me accountable on reaching that goal. It helps me remember when everything hits the fan that I already know where I am headed, and I can reevaluate as needed.
So, if you feel comfortable tell a friend or a family member about your goals, they can support you just by knowing. Go out and make a plan for your life and I’ll see you next time!
© EuduringFinances, 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Related Posts –
