Creating a Life Plan

“If you don’t know where you are going, then any road will take you there,” said the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. And even when we know where we want to be in life, we don’t always know how to get there. Successful lives don’t just happen, they are designed that way. A life plan enables you to design a blue print for your journey to success.

As an architect of your life, you must first have a clear vision of what your life will be like when you are successful. This vision will be tempered by the core values that determine your priorities leading you to discover the mission of your life. Let me illustrate this process by my own example:

Vision: I will touch the lives of people in my care by empowering them to achieve their maximum potential for optimum success, and help them attain health and happiness in their lives.

I plan to actualize this vision of service to others in my personal encounters with my clients and patients as a coach and a therapist, and by creating and publishing empowering and uplifting self-help literature, web content and workshops for inspiration.  

Core values:

·         Concern for other human beings and respect for the individual

·         Harmony in bringing together disparate elements for the common purpose

·         Integrity and honesty in business dealings

·         Hard work in doing the very best

·         Using wisdom beyond experience for innovation

Mission: My purpose in life is to provide the very best care for my clients and patients by synthesizing western psychological and coaching techniques with the eastern philosophy of mindful awareness in creating transformative changes in their lives.

The Next Phase

Once you have defined your vision, framework of core values and proclaimed your mission it becomes relatively easy to set your path to success. These components of life planning remain relatively unchanged and become an enduring part of your life. What remains dynamically in flux is your strategic planning which will help you set your goals and objectives. Once you have your goals and objectives you can create an action plan for projects and tasks.

Strategic planning involves the creation of a roadmap, the path chosen to strive towards the end vision. It also involves development of action plans to determine the allocation of resources on the way to success.

Goals & Objectives: Translating your strategic plan into actionable steps is the main purpose of setting goals and objectives. You will use your goals and objectives to create the projects and tasks required to execute the plan.

Where Do You Start? Life planning is an evolutionary process. It takes time and persistence to think through the options in your life.  Here are some helpful tips to get you started:

1.      Set aside an hour or two each Sunday morning devoted to developing your life plan.

2.      As you progress in formulating a segment, the outlines for the next one will begin to emerge.

3.      Your plan may undergo several revisions which is okay. Remember it is an evolutionary process.

4.      Accessing your life plan weekly will keep it alive and evolving.

In case you need assistance, a trained life coach can help and guide you through the process and enable you to make it an integral part of your life its.