Creating A Life Plan

Anthony Wilkinson-Denny

Most people aim for nothing and hit it with amazing accuracy!

People will spend a year designing their house which they may live in for five years. They spend months deciding which car to buy and have it for two years. Some will spend a year designing their wedding and it only lasts ONE day! How long do most people spend designing their life? And they have the gall to moan that it didn’t work out as planned ... they didn’t plan it!

What you don’t take charge of will take charge of you, so let’s make this life of yours the best you deserve!

Where to start? 

Start when you are four years old. Oops, you’re older than that now? OK, so try to remember what dreams you had when you were around four or as far back as you can. They were fun and ambitious dreams and start writing them down as they occur to you.

Where are you now? 

Get a HUGE sheet of paper (good to do with one or more friends) and some coloured crayons or felt pens. Draw yourself in the middle and, with words and/or pictures, draw the things you’ve done over your life all around you – fun things, work things, all things. You’ll see there are connections you never considered before. Draw arrows between connected activities and you can even do the happy ones in one colour, OK ones in another colour and unhappy in yet another colour.

Where do you want to be? 

With another HUGE piece of paper, picture yourself in the middle and, in words and/or pictures, write the things you’d really love to do around you. Include your four-year-old dreams here, as well as the fun and/or fulfilling things from the previous HUGE sheet of paper.

Become orderly 

Life is work in progress and you’ll continue to remember other things you’ve done and what you want to do. However, when you’re satisfied with the first draft of the second sheet of paper, number the ambitions in order of ease – the thing you can do today is number one. The thing you can do tomorow is number two and so on.

Timeline 

On an A4 sheet (or sheets) of paper you can now create a time-line – what you are going to do now, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and so on.

Become accountable 

Find a trusted friend or a professional coach to help you keep on-track. They will do two things:

1. Help you keep focused and moving forward, and
2. Have ideas that you may have not thought of, to achieve some of those ambitions.

Do it ... nothing else to say here!