Life Plan

Have you done a life plan? A life plan is essential if you want to be happy in life. A life plan has be to revisited at least once a year preferably at the start of the year to check how we did the past year and if we are on schedule based on our "gantt chart".  We we are not on schedule we might need to make some adjustments.  Or, we should stop and re-think if a change in our activities is necessary to better align to our life plan. Whenever we examine our life plan, it is best to involve our family to help us get a better perspective and unbiased assessment.

A life plan is not merely a goal-setting or a new year’s resolution.  A life plan is your road map to living your life with a purpose and passion.  A life plan is rooted in the discovery of what makes you happy and channeling your activities toward this.  Discovering your happiness will lead you to discover your purpose and create a deep desire to fulfill your purpose in life.  This will enable you to create a concrete direction, give you motivation and inspiration.  With these discoveries, you will have the passion to drive all your efforts to the achievement of your life plan and make your life and your family’s life more productive.

Since a life plan emanates from determining what makes us happy, here are some suggestions to determine the happy points in your life:

1. Review your life.  Where are you today and where do you want to be in the future? If you leave earth today, how will you be remembered?  Will your kids be thankful that you were their mom? 
2. Asses what is important to you. This is easy to enumerate but what makes it a bit tasking is if you list the important things in your life based on the most important to the least important. Does your career come first or your consider your kids more important that your career?  You have to be honest in your list.  Do you go to work even if your kid is burning with fever?     How would you rate money, friends, family, relationship?
3. The steps become harder as we proceed but it is very important to go through these steps one by one to have a clarity of vision. You need to forecast where you and your family will be in the next 20 to 30 years.
4. If you want your family to be affluent and living in a particular country and your kids becoming professionals or owning their businesses, what is your role or your purpose behind your vision. If this is what makes you happy and this your purpose, what will you do to achieve this?
5. The fifth step is planning for what you have envisioned.  Involve your kids. Ask them what they think of your plan.  Ask for suggestions. Remind them that they need to participate because whatever you plan will definitely affect them.
6. The 6^th step is implementation.  The actions you have identified in step 5 must be strictly followed. 
7. The 7^th step is to read and reflect on your plan.  Is this truly what you want.  Is your plan doable?   Is it realistic?  Will it guarantee achievement of your purpose if strictly adhered to?  Make adjustments if necessary. 

Take a week to do steps 1 to 7. Involve your kids and ask them to be your accountability partners in areas you think they are capable of handling.

     8.  The 8^th and final step is to revisit on an annual basis how you are progressing.Involve your   accountability partners – kids, family, friends. 

 

Life expectancy on the average is 80 years, so it is best to start your life plan now to ensure that you spend your life on earth happy, satisfied and fulfilled.