How To Make A Life Plan That Really Works
This guide will tell you exactly how to make a life plan that really works. To get where you want to go in life, and to live life the way you want to live it, you have to make a plan to get there.
So, if you have been wondering how to create the life of your dreams, or how to make a life plan that really gets you where you want to go, then you have come to the right place!
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
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What is a Life Plan?
And how do you even make a plan for your life?
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Your One Thing
Going small to achieve big results.
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Make Your Life Plan Work for You
Exactly how to follow through on your life plan.
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Tools + Next Steps
Create the roadmap to your ideal life
1. What is a life plan? And why is life planning important?
A good life plan definition is simply, “a plan to bring about what you want to achieve in your life.”
It’s pretty straightforward!
As for why life planning is important, there are infinite possibilities of things to do and ways to live your life.
If you want to be living your best life, the life of your dreams, you have to decide what that best life looks like and then chart a course to get there!
A life plan lets you do just that.
If you don’t have a life plan, you could very easily end up somewhere you really don’t want to go.
Planning your life is important not just because it gets you where you want to go.
Having a life plan is important because it keeps you from going where you don’t want to go.
Author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said:
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
If you don’t know what you want, you might get distracted by different opportunities that don’t take you in the direction you really want to go.
It can seem daunting to try to go from where you are now to the life that you want to lead.
With a life plan, you can take reaching this big, possibly scary, dream life and break getting there down into bite-size steps.
Having a life plan makes it easier and more possible to lead the life you want to lead.
2. Your One Thing
If you aren’t sure how to plan your life, don’t worry, it’s simple.
Making a life plan only involves two things:
Determining where you want to be (an overarching goal — your one thing)
Planning out how you are going to get there.
The first step to creating a life plan is deciding what you want for your life: a life goal.
If you don’t know where you want to go, then you will never get there!
I think the fastest way to live your happiest, most fulfilling life is by finding and living your purpose and grounding your life in your values.
For example, my life purpose is to help others find their life purpose.
I feel fulfilled and happy doing that work, so the goal for my life, in part, focuses on doing more of that!
Knowing what you value helps you decide what you want your life to look like.
I also value my family and a fun, flexible lifestyle where I am passionate about the work that I do, get to travel with my husband, and can spend time with my children.
All that is incorporated into my goals.
If you want to find your core values, check out my in-depth guide here.
You might also already know what you want your life to look like or what you want to base it on.
Maybe you love to travel and having the freedom to come and go from work as you please.
Maybe you want stability and value spending as much time as possible with your family.
Maybe you want to work 20 hours a week doing what you love and making six figures while having a home on the beach.
Maybe you want to go on a big trip out of the country for a month and see one of the wonders of the world.
You can use these things to inform what your goal is.
You can also have two life plans, a personal life plan and a professional life plan.
For me, because my best energy each day is divided between my personal life and my professional life, I have plans for each with different goals honoring my personal values and professional aspirations.
This way neither of the important parts of my life get left out!
Whatever your goal for your life is, a life plan can help you plan out how to get there and help you stay on track once you are on your way.
Once you know what your goal is, the next step to making your life plan is figuring out how you will get there.
You can have a broad overarching goal, but when planning out your path to that goal, you will need to break it down into different, actionable steps so that you have a way to move forward.
A lot of people think a life plan needs to be a multi-page document, with extensive details laid out.
That’s not the case.
When I am working with a client, I tell them that a life plan doesn’t have to be some complicated 10-page document.
In fact, should be less than one page and it should be something that you revisit every week.
Your life plan should focus on just one thing.
Why just one thing?
The One Thing is the brainchild of Gary Keller, and it is a profound principle. It is about going small to achieve big results:
“‘Going small’ is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most.
It’s a tighter way to connect what you want to do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”
The One Thing concept expands upon the 80/20 principle. Eighty percent of the benefits you receive come from 20 percent of the work you do.
With your life plan, you are going to focus your efforts on one thing at a time.
That one thing your life plan is focusing on is the thing that will most get you closer to your goal.
The reasoning behind this hyper-focus is explained by Keller:
You only have so much time and energy, so when you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin.
You want your achievements to add up, but that actually takes subtraction, not addition. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.
If you really want to get where you want to be, you have to let go of the things that aren’t as important and make your One Thing your priority above all else.
Your life plan should then focus on taking the most important steps towards reaching your One Thing.
Want help finding Your One Thing?
Step Nine: YOUR ONE THING of the 10 Steps to Happily Ever After walks step-by-step through creating the roadmap to your ideal life - with a worksheet to determine your One Thing.
The $30 step comes complete with the full guide, The One Thing Life Plan Worksheet and an accompanying video with Tomi Llama as your guide.
Sign up today to continue your journey and create your Life Plan!
Step Nine: YOUR ONE THING
3. Make Your Life Plan Work for You
Making your life plan work for you can be the most challenging part of this whole process.
To be honest with you, creating the life of your dreams is probably going to take some work!
The good news is:
Your life plan doesn’t have to happen all at once!
And, in this section, I will tell you exactly how to stick to your life plan and make sustained, meaningful progress towards your goal.
You have the template to reach your dreams: your life plan.
Now, to make your life plan work for you, all you have to do is keep taking small steps to get there!
This is where a lot of people trip up.
A life plan is not very helpful if you don’t actually work towards what you have planned out.
The key to making sure you are taking sustained action towards your goal is to use accountability check-ins.
Accountability check-ins are the way that you will stay on your life plan.
What is an accountability check-in?
An accountability check-in is just a check-in with yourself every week, to see where you are at with your weekly goal!
Accountability check-ins have been extremely successful in helping my clients make progress toward their life plan goals.
Every Friday, my clients email me their one thing goal for the upcoming week (the one thing they will do this week that takes them closer toward their quarterly goal).
Then, at the end of the week I send them an email asking them to rate their progress: “did you do your best this week to accomplish your one thing?”
After answering that, they tell me their One Thing for the next week. This keeps happening until they get there!
How to set up accountability check-ins for yourself
I email the accountability check-ins to my clients, however you can easily set them up for yourself.
At the end of each week (or on whatever day you choose), you are going to ask yourself three questions:
What one thing did you set out to accomplish for yourself last week (the last 7 days)?
Did you do your best over the last week to accomplish this one thing? Rate yourself from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best and explain your rating.
What is the one thing you are going to do this week (in the next 7 days) to make progress towards your One Thing Goal?
Accountability partners
Having an accountability partner on this journey gives you the very best chance of success!
In Step Nine of the 10 Steps to Happily Ever After, I outline exactly how choosing and relying on your accountability partner can help you on the path toward achieving these goals.
Tools & Worksheets to create your Life Plan
Step Nine: YOUR ONE THING of the 10 Steps to Happily Ever After walks you step-by-step through creating the roadmap to your ideal life.
The $30 step comes complete with the full guide, The One Thing Life Plan Worksheet and an accompanying video with Tomi Llama as your guide.
Sign up today to continue your journey and create your Life Plan!