When you are going through college and graduate school, it seems as if your life is planned out for you. Your advisors and counselors select the proper courses for you based on your major. You study for exams based on the information your professor gives you, but you are still unclear about what you want to do after graduation. Figuring out what to do post-graduation is one of the first times a person feels the need to plan out their life. Once they find that 9-5 job, they often feel stuck and without aspirations or feelings of accomplishment. The key to avoiding the stagnant and stuck feeling is to create a plan for yourself that you can stick to and base your goals around.
Create a Vision
The first step to planning out what looks like your dream life is to create a clear and specific vision. Ask yourself specific questions about your future and put them in writing. Here are a few examples:
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
- What is my why?
- What are my values?
- What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?
These are just a couple of questions to spark an understanding of your vision and where you want to be. Once you have a clear vision, you will be able to start planning for both the short-term and the long-term.
Create a Specific Plan
In order to make this vision as precise and specific as possible, you will need to create a detailed plan that explains how you will accomplish these goals.
The first step is to divide your life into different pieces of time. Plan for a week, a month, a year, and five years and write specific goals that apply to each segment. By dividing out your plan into achievable goals, you will be able to form habits and incorporate these changes into your daily routine. Rather than just talking about what you want to accomplish in five years, you have a precise and detailed plan that will get you there.
Put Deadlines on Your Priorities
Once you have your long-term and short-term goals listed out in a specific timeline, you will need to set specific deadlines and dates to keep yourself accountable.
If you want to get an interview within the next month, write down the specific date so that you will be able to check it off and stick to the goal.
Create a Life Document
Once your goals are set and you have specific deadlines, creating a life document is the best way to plan out your own life and keep yourself accountable. This life document explains all of your aspirations and what you will want to have accomplished by the end of your life. In this document, leave space for quarterly and yearly reviews. This is where you can reflect on each segment and where you could have improved or worked harder to reach your goals. This document is the key to planning out your own life and staying on track with your plan.
Conclusion
One of the most important skills you can have to achieve success and accomplish your goals is setting up a specific plan for yourself. Without a plan, you will not take the action steps you need to achieve all of your goals.First, figure out what your true vision is and write it down. This will allow you to understand your goals in a clearer way and set deadlines to accomplish them. By placing your vision and the goals you have into a life document that you can reflect upon, planning out your life will seem much easier.