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Do you have a life vision?  Have you ever considered having a life vision? Would you like a life vision, but it takes too much thought and time?  Are you too busy living today to have a life vision? Are you too young to have a life vision?  Do you consider yourself too old to have a life vision?

I have heard all of the above used as excuses to put off thinking about the future, but not thinking about the future only makes your life more stress filled.  Just as putting off that phone call that you know you’ve got to make only makes making that phone call harder, putting off a rough plan for your future life means you miss out on some of the most enjoyable and rewarding things you could be doing.  And the more you miss the things you enjoy, the less happy and more trapped you can feel.

It’s not usually until faced with a serious illness, diagnosis, or death of a loved one that you begin to realise that there is a lot in life that you have been missing.  Maybe you’ve been putting off traveling, or connecting with family, or writing a novel, or spending time with friends.  Now time seems so short to do it all and you wish you’d made more effort.

Truth be told it’s not just “effort”, but a plan you need.  It’s not too late, it’s never too late to make a plan and set things in motion to achieve some, if not all of the things you’ve always wanted to do, see, or learn.

We can all think of someone in our lives who did something that surprised us, the 70 year old that learned a new language, the 50 year old woman who bought a property and built her dream home, the friend who became a vegetarian and went to live on an ashram.  Ok, so these may be extreme cases, but my point is these people are like you, the only difference is that they developed a plan and lived their lives with that plan as a goal and having achieved their goal they are living happy lives and are probably onto the plan to achieve the next goal.

What did you say: “Thanks for the lecture, but my I already have a sort of plan and besides life is so full already, unless you can give me an easy way to put a plan together that I can follow, EASILY, forget it!”.

Well I can give you a couple of easy ways:

• A Vision Board:

A simple and fun, craft style project.  Basically you find pictures, articles, photos, whatever means something to your plan and pin or stick it to a board.

First: I suggest you make the basic board of cardboard, heavy weight enough to stand up to being moved around, maybe hung on a wall, and definitely strong enough to pin things to.

Next: Make the board attractive.  Colour, paint it, cover it with material, whatever you’d like to do with it, but bear in mind you will be covering it with posts, pictures, articles etc.

Now: Think about what you want your goal or goals to be and find things that relate to that goal.  For instance: if your goal is to travel to an exotic locale you could collect pictures of the sites you want to visit, the airline you want to fly with, the food you want to eat, the time of year you want to go, what you’ll need to take with you, maybe put a list of what you have to do before going.

You’ll be surprised how engrossed you can get in creating the board (even if you’re not usually a creative type).  The point of the board – once it’s completed – is to remind you what you’re goal is, give you encouragement and keep you focused so display it prominently and look at it frequently.  Remember too that you can change whatever you want on it as your plan evolves.  Make it how you want it to look, it’s your board.

• The Written Plan

For those of you who do not feel the vision board is for you, there is always another way.  For instance, a written plan, typed in a nice font and put into a clean folder can be just as useful to keep you on track and remind you of the steps you need to take to get to your goal.  You can also make the entries as decorative as you want and if just the written word is enough that’s fine – it’s for you.

I would suggest not keeping a computer file as this takes more effort to find, open and look at, so it’s easy to create a file and then never look at it again, but if you feel this is a better option for you, go for it.

• The Scrapbook Plan

Another option somewhere in-between the vision board and the file is a scrapbook.  A nicely decorated, well laid out “labour of love” that is your ultimate map of what, where and how for your plan.

Remember: You do not have to show your plan to anyone else for approval, unless you feel you want to (particularly if they are involved in the ultimate end), what you do with your plan is up to you.  I’ve known people who put it behind the sofa and pull it out on occasion to remind themselves of where they are going in life, others put it on the fridge or a noticeboard in their home so they’ll see it everyday, another has a reminder on her phone to take a quick update look at her white folder, another never thought he’d create and love his scrapbook as much as he does.

The more effort you put into your planning process the more the goal will feel achievable and when you do finally achieve whatever it is, you will be able to look back and feel good about how much work you put in to get there.

Life planning is an ongoing work-in-progress, by that I mean as your situation changes, as you learn more and grow, your overall life plan may change too, maybe not by much, maybe completely.  Do not feel that you have failed because it changes, change is inevitable how much your journey changes is entirely up to you.  The important thing is to create a plan towards a goal and not to forget where you are headed.

Happy Planning!

TTFN

Amanda