Having a life plan means you know where you’re going in life. It is a plan to take you from your current reality to the life you want to live, a rich, intentional life.
We can all change our lives, we simply have to make a choice. To either remain in your mediocre and dull existence going nowhere in life and doing nothing about it, or you can take your life by the scruff of the neck and drag it up to the place where you want to be. It’s simply your decision.
To make genuine changes takes sustained effort and starts with setting goals. You start changing your life the minute you set goals, maybe even have three or four, and turning them into a life plan.
Many of you wanting to change your life will have set goals, time and time again. But nothing changes, your goal attempts fail and life just stands still. Many say that goals don’t work. It’s pointless setting them, and equally pointless to dream about what may be. And they’re partially right. Goals are worthless if they’re not accompanied by a plan.
You need to have determined all the tasks and activities required so that you can achieve your specified goals. It is deciding where your time and energy needs to be channelled. If it is well thought through it will keep you organized and on track towards your goals.
Planning is the process of deciding what you want to achieve in the future and then thinking about ways of making it happen. First comes defining your big breakthrough goal which is specific, measurable and achievable. Accomplishing this one goal will dramatically change your life. Next, break your big goal into small sub-goals. Once you have done that, you can set about identifying what practical steps are needed making a list for each of the actions you need to take to achieve them. You now will have a life plan.
Doesn’t this sound so simple? Maybe even obvious. Knowing what you want, having a plan of how to achieve it, simply leaves you to take the actions listed to bring it about.
I am sure right now you have at least one goal you want to achieve. Perhaps to lose weight, earn more money or improve your health. But do you have a specific plan to achieve this?
Taking time to think of all the specific tasks required, work out everything you need to do. Ask these questions:
- What is the full list of tasks you need to undertake?
- What are the action steps needed to trigger each task?
- What resources do they involve?
- When does each task need to be performed?
- How regularly does each task need to be performed?
- How much time does it take?
- Are there any deadlines?
- How is each task going to be executed?
After you have identified your specific plan, you then need to integrate your plan into your daily life, thus creating certainty that the whole plan will be acted upon.
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail”
So with your current goal in mind are you spending your time doing the right things?
What I find so sad, is way too many people fail to:
- Think about what they truly want in their life.
- Working out a plan of how to achieve what they want in life.
- Spend their days focusing on the activities that will achieve their wants.
- Have a life of purpose.
My book The Single Page Plan will change that!
Some of you, and particularly those who have already achieved many goals in your lives, may well find some of the ideas in this book familiar. And if you do, then great, it means you’re already doing some of the things that work! But this book is about much more than that. I want you to really Be, Do and Have what you want in life. That’s why I’ve approached this book in a different way from many others.
It’s going to take you through a very specific process. Demonstrating exactly every step by sharing with you the coaching sessions where Trevor, a man trying to rebuild his life, creates his very own plan. After each session it will explain the process you have to follow in more depth and provides questions to help you do this.
At the conclusion of this process you will have created your very own life plan on a single sheet of paper. It will contain everything you need to retain your focus on what you want, why you want it, and how to get it, providing you a focus.
It doesn’t stop there though. Having a life plan will give you direction and purpose but then it needs you to take action and monitor your progress. In order for you to be able to do these things the book provides you with the tools to assist including an action planner, weekly and monthly review sheets, daily journal and daily schedule sheet.
Creating your life plan will give you confidence about your future, excite you about the life direction which you wish to take and it will clearly identify what matters most to you. Through the process of creating a life plan, you’ll get clear about your deepest needs and desires. You’ll be empowered to take charge of your life. You’ll love the focus it provides you and what you can achieve from it in the future. Check the book out on Amazon or take a look around this website and create your FREE Single Page Plan by becoming a member.
He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life. Victor Hugo
photo credit: Brett Jordan No Way (lock) via photopin (license)
