Have you ever wondered whether you are doing the right thing, are you on the right path, are you happy with where you are going?
Some of us may feel that way everyday of our lives but we should all never forget what is was like when we were about to leave school. I was definitely unsure of where I was going and what my future would be. But does it really have to be that way?
Right from an early age we were told we need to plan. We need to plan to go to school and get educated, we need a plan to get a job and earn money, we need a plan to get married and start a family, we need a plan for life.
So what happened to our plan?
The facts are that most of us don’t actually have a plan, we may have some goals and aspirations but most of us just try to keep them mainly in our heads and certainly not many of us at all have gone on to create a fully documented life plan.
I call that the “New Years Eve Method” where people believe all you have to do is think or say what your New Year’s resolution is and it will come true. That is why over 90% of the people who make New Year’s resolutions, don’t have them come true. They fail to put a proper plan in place, they fail to take action.
Now don’t be too concerned if you don’t have a documented life plan yet, as research has also shown that less than 5% of us actually have written & regularly review our goals, even though it is a proven fact that if you do, you are 42% more likely to achieve them.
The reason we don’t is quite simple though, you see, no one really showed us how to!
We may have been told to plan for our future, to get educated and get a job, start a family but most of us are just happy to get herded into these next steps by society or the environment we live in. We seem more than happy to wait to be prompted by others to take our next life step, we are happy to just wait to be told what and when to do it, by either our family, friends, teachers or employers.
Now if the reality is that the vast majority of us were never really shown how to put a plan together then we may have never recognised how important it is that we do so for ourselves. If our parents never showed us or our teachers at school never did, then the only way the majority of us would have ever seen or experienced how important it is, would be at work.
To be successful in business the owners and business leaders know they have to have a robust strategic planning process. They establish their business purpose, they create strategic goals and objectives and action plans to achieve them. They spend countless hours measuring and modifying them and then even more hours communicating and aligning their team to deliver on them.
So the question is why have we not taken up this process for ourselves?
The problem is most business leaders don’t show or tell us how important it is either. They are all very committed and focused on coaching us on how important it is to have a robust planning process for the business to enable it to be successful but they don’t want or see the real value in encouraging themselves or their teams to develop a life plan.
The good news is that as a parent you can look to break that chain of events and you can plan to encourage your family to create their own unique life plan. You can plan to make it easier for your children to understand where they are going and help them to gain greater self confidence and more resilience and buoyancy in their lives.
Here is a simple 5 step process that provides a structure for how best to put together a personal plan and set goals. This is a proven process that has already delivered amazing results for senior business leaders. The process combines the best business strategic processes with the power of how to create belief and how to take the right actions to achieve them.
- Step 1 is brainstorming, so you can capture who you are and who you want to become.
- Step 2 is where you need to establish what is your initial or long term purpose in life.
- In step 3 is where you set your goals. You need to keep them aspirational but simple, with not too many to start with.
- In step 4 is where you establish your objectives and how to create specific action plans to ensure you take action to achieve them.
- Then finally in step 5 you need to create a routine for Mind Time. Training to hardwire your mind to create your beliefs is one of the secret ingredients that will enable you to stay focused on delivering your life plan.
No matter what you have heard before, defining your purpose in life does not have to be hard or daunting. First of all your purpose does not have to last forever, you can change it, as and when your circumstances or environment changes.
You also don’t have to worry that it has to impress others, as it does not have to be divine, godly, pure or exceptional to anyone but you. Having a purpose can simply be defined as having a feeling of being determined to achieve something
We need to break down the myth that it is all too hard to create a life plan or even to have a purpose in life. It can be simple and when you break it down into manageable steps, it can be a profoundly effective process that helps you to deliver whatever you want out of life.
The secret is to make Personal Planning an ongoing life habit.
If you want to hear more about how, visit www.mypupose.co.nz to view our selection of video workshops or to secure a copy of Brett Ashley’s new book The Key To Unlocking Your Potential.
