How to Plan the Life You Want
Organize your dreams
Once your school years are over, we are all faced with the larger questions of life:
What kind of job do want?
What kind of relationships do we want?
What do we want our lifestyle look like?
Thankfully these questions don’t have to be answered in a day. Sometimes the answers to the big “unknowns” in our life will just come naturally to us, but for some planning can be a necessary and practical start.
While it may seem silly to apply exercises like a Pro-Con list to a major decision, it might be just the tool you need to get your life on track. There are no crystal balls in life and sometimes the world is out of our control (thinking of 2020 here) but these four things can help you plan for the life you want:
1. Assess the Pros & Cons
Starting with a well-known thought exercise right out of the gate. While it may seem like an oversimplification, try writing out the pros and cons. The average person has over 6,000 thoughts a day, so when you are trying to decide how you feel about that career change or move to California it may help to write out some of your feelings.
Keep the list open and try to write out all honest thoughts you have about your particular situation. Getting those thoughts into the tangible world can also help if you are explaining your thought process to another person in your life.
2. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Over the past year most of us have existed in spaces that are a little too comfortable. Testing your limits every now and again can bring some much-needed perspective into your life.
If you are in a rut with your job or lifestyle taking a weekend away can help to shake up your life. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder but sometimes it’s the opposite effect and those gut feelings can aid you in major decisions.
3. Start with Habits
The common phrase the grass isn’t always greener comes to mind when discussing habits. Sometimes we can feel like our life needs a shakeup, leading us to think that a big move or relationship will fix all of our problems. However, I ask you to start with your own habits.
Assess the routine of your life and decide whether you are making enough time for the things that are sparking joy. Are your daily habits adding or detracting from the person you are trying to become? Are they helping you build a strong community and a happy life?
4. Create Actionable Goals
If you know what direction you are going it is now time to go there. No matter how bug the task most things can be broken down into steps. Compartmentalize the action items into bitesize pieces and tackle what you can. Whether it’s a home renovation or a lifestyle shift create an actionable set of goals. Once you start crossing things off the next pieces up the ladder won’t seem so daunting.
I hope this article offered some good tips on taking control of you own life. Planning can sometimes seem like a habit for “productivity masters”, but the process can help most of us in our lives! Breaking down the big stuff is a nice way to ease yourself into a life of your choosing.
