Do you remember when you were young and someone asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? You always had an answer. Doctor, lawyer, architect, pilot, famous actor, the list goes on… While such dreams may change over time, what’s important is that you have a plan. Success in any activity requires planning and life is no exception. That’s why life planning is key to success. If you intend to succeed in life and realize your dreams, you’ll have take time out, sit down and come up with a plan. Life planning is viewed by many as a daunting task while others simply don’t know where to begin. A good start would be to determine what you want out of life. Do you want a family? Where do you want to live? Do you want to start your own business? How much money do you want to make? Having the answers and keeping them in mind gives you something to look forward to. So take a look at yourself right now. Are you happy and doing what you want to be doing? For a lot of people the answer is not exactly or a flat out no. However, there are others who are doing exactly what they want to. They have what they want and they are living their lives exactly how they planned it.
You may kick off your life planning process by drawing inspiration from such people. Try to question successful individuals about the key to their accomplishments and they are likely to tell you the same thing: “knowing precisely what I wanted and going for it!” At the back of your mind you may be thinking it’s easier said than done. Correct. But that’s the basic principle of life planning and you can’t do away with it. You can’t go about life passively and simply take it as it comes. Don’t get carried along by life, making choices on a daily basis without knowing the impact such choices will have on your overall life satisfaction.
Another way to go about life planning is to conduct a research about the people you look up to, the personalities you want to emulate and the success stories of people who are truly happy and contented with their lives. A great place to start is online as there’s plenty of information available on the Internet, but be careful as there are also scams and lies disguised as information on the web. You’ll certainly come across concepts that you can apply to your own life planning venture. You can then sit down and write down your goals as well as an outline of how you plan to get there. Having a plan will definitely help you overcome the barriers that can keep you from living the life you want.
Stephen R. Covey aptly puts it, “begin with the end in mind.” Life planning is basically the same, commence by looking into the future and come up with a goal. The beauty of life planning is that it allows you to bring the future into the present so you can do something about it now. You can do your life planning backwards and make those elusive dreams come true!
