Everyone should have a life plan. Without a life plan you are much more likely to be pushed around by life’s circumstances and less likely to succeed – whatever your aspirations.
I know from my own direct experience that having a life plan helps you make better decisions, use your time and whatever money you have better, have more fun, become happier, achieve more and do more of what you want.
Planning your life might be a new idea to you. I understand it might seem a bit weird. You probably don’t know anyone who plans their life. Of course you do know people who plan their finances, pensions, holidays, house moves, weddings, families and careers, but no one is planning their lives.
Not many people make a life plan, do they?
Not many people do it. But not many people are leading happy fulfilled lives are they? And just because it’s a minority sport doesn’t mean it is not right. I have been life planning since 1992. It works for me. It has worked for me for almost 30 years. It could work for you.
Plans of all kinds work because they are both a route map and a control mechanism. They help everyone involved see what needs to get done and where it will all end up.
Life – my life, your life, is a project
So like any other project it would benefit from a plan. Also, like a project your life is constrained by both time and available resources. So it makes sense to manage the time and resources you have available to best effect.
So why wouldn’t you want to try and plan your life as though it was a project? Because it is a project. You want to succeed in all sorts of ways. You want to make the best of it – you need to design your life. You need a life plan.
Warning!: Be careful that the production of your plan doesn’t become the objective itself and prevent you from doing what you really need to do.
One of my favourite business books is the Grand Strategist by Gary Hamel, in it he says “A Grade B plan with a Grade A execution always beats a Grade A plan with a Grade B execution”. You get the gist. What you do is more important than the plan. But having a plan is better than not having a plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
If your life is a mess and you can’t see clearly where you want to be or you just want things to be better, a plan will definitely help you get organised. It might seem a bit weird to start thinking about your life as a project – but if you take a step back you’ll see that’s exactly what it is. A life is a work in progress.
Your life plan – your project
There are lots of benefits in seeing life as a project. You start asking important questions like:
- Am I really making the best of it?
- What actions have I taken that got me to where I am now?
- Why did I do that?
- What did I learn?
- What actions should I be taking to get to where I want to be?
You probably already know what a plan usually looks like. They have things like vision statements (where do I want to end up?) objectives (aims, goals, SMART targets – that sort of thing) and they allocate resources (time, labour, money).
A plan simply breaks the big stuff down into smaller more manageable parts. Think of an architect’s plan for a house. The endgame is a beautiful Grand Design, but before that comes the diggers, the mud, the foundations and the structure (the outline) followed by the details pipework, door handle and light switches.
Life plans have fame or fortune or happiness in the visions and holidays, cars and garden furniture instead of pipework! What is in your life plan?
Need help starting your life plan?
If you want to plan your life but don’t know where to start, why not download our free 33 page PDF ebook? It will work on all devices and contains tools and techniques to get you started on your life planning journey. Click the button below to get it now!