Writing a plan for your life - help

[Luis]

Ladies and Gents,

I am in the middle of writing, for the first time in my life, a plan for my life with the intention of clearly defining what I want to be and have and then setting goals to achieve that. My problem lies in determining the action steps needed to reach those goals.

One example that must everybody can relate:

Goal: achieve financial independence by the time I am 45 = $2M net worth

In order to achieve that and considering my current net worth I venture that I should be making at least $100k/year 3 years from now. Ok, I get that but now what STEPS do I need to take next month, in 6 months and 1 year from now to achieve that?

You can probably understand then that when it comes to the less concrete goals like being a great father it becomes even harder to plan for.

In other words how should I format my plan in order for it to be a tool that actually helps me get where I want to be instead of a piece of paper that sounds nice and inspiring but doesn't really do anything for me.

I know Steve wrote an article on this but it really doesn't answer the question on the contents of the plan or how best to format it.

Luis

[Nick Hansen]

This is definetly a difficult topic, but also a very necessary one to properly cover.

A few months ago i did a self guided goal setting course, running you through exactly what you are asking. I found that it gave me the systems to put my major goals, into smaller more workable goals.

Go to Mind Tools and type on 'goals' in the search box to find the course.

There is alot of very useful resources on that site.

[alexinspire]

Goal setting is definitely very important!

About the steps, this is what I recommend:

1. What to Achieve! First step is always what I want to achieve.
2. What to Do! Plan it how to achieve.
3. Who to Be. What kind of person I need to be to do what I plan. For example: committed, confidence, hardworking, etc.

About the steps part, I recommend you to find a good mentor. I am in my internet business for quite sometimes. When I don't have a mentor on the steps, I just float around achieving nothing.

Once I have a mentor, everything get in one line. I can just focus on what he say that will get me what I want to achieve. That's it.

Is mentor expensive to hire?

Yes. But it's worth spending that money because:

1. Mentor gives you his footsteps to just follow.
2. Mentor gives you a successful friend to influence you.
3. Mentor keeps you on track.
4. Mentor hold you on your goal and not feelings and limitations that stops you.
5. Mentor is willing to share generously.

I don't have any mentorship program for your case. Think of what you want to achieve and google search whether is there any mentor or not.

Hope this answer your question!

[Luis]

Thanks for the suggestions. I believe the mentor idea is a good thing and that has been one of my difficulties. How do you find one?

[Tayrak]

There are going to be a few details that you won't be able to plan for because there are always variables that are out of our control. You want to make 100k, but for that you need to either get a job that pays that or start a business that will make it for you. So you can see that the 100k is a vague goal, something you would like to hit but is a variable. You have to focus instead on the how, what job can you get that would be close to that mark, or what business can you start? It's like the writer that wants to get his book published, it's a variable, the only thing he truly has control over is actually writing it. So begin by checking what job you need. Then see if you need skills, schooling that sort of thing.
As for fatherhood, you could take courses or get involved with kids so you begin to learn the skills needed to be a good father. Are there areas of your personality you need to work on, a bad temper for instance?
Check for concrete things that you would have more control over when setting your goals.