Research clearly shows that people who write down their life goals are far more likely to achieve them. However, it can often be difficult to really put those long-term questions and goals into something tangible. Questions such as “where do you see yourself in 10 years?” or “what’s your major life goals?” can easily throw you off. What’s more, is that those broad goals by themselves are often hard to work towards and stay motivated about.
So today we’re going to do an exercise that will help you break down your goals to smaller pieces and in so doing help you make meaningful habits and actions that will lead to your desired outcomes. We will do this by first highlighting our life goals, then breaking these down into 5-year plans, of which we will further break into daily/regular tasks.
Overall, you can’t really know your 5-year plan without knowing your life goals (and the same with 5-year plan versus daily tasks). It would be like writing 5 chapters of a story without deciding the story’s main plot.
So, let’s start with that main plot then.
“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true”.—Gret S. Reid.
1. Break down your goals, First step: Write your life plan
Jot down all those life goals you want to achieve. Want your own company? Learn a language? Have a family? Write down everything and don’t be afraid to dream big. This is a whole lifetime we’re talking about after all! You can get a lot done!
Often when we think of life goals we focus predominantly on “career” and “family”, but be sure to address other parts of life as well, such as “bucket list”, financial, “personal”, “travel”, and whatever makes sense to you.
This is the most important section that will dictate the 5 year plan and daily goals, so make sure you spend sufficient time here. Don’t rush it. But do also keep in mind that this does not need to be finished in one sitting.
The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.– Stephen Covey
Anyways, among others, see my “Ask Yourself These Questions TODAY!”, and possibly get more motivation from the Ultimate Bucket List Resource Page.
I’ve made a template for you to easily get started. All YOU gotta do is fill in the blanks. You can download it at the end of this article.
2. Break down your goals, second step: Write your 5 year plan
Look at everything you wrote down for your life goals.
Now, what is the in-between from where you are now, and where you want to be? If your life goal feels like a far stretch from where you are now, try to think of your first couple of baby steps. If you want to own your own retail store, maybe get a retail job and aim for manager! Want to be a author? Write the first draft for your first book!
Everyone has to start somewhere, so where will you start?
3. Break down your goals, third step: Write a Daily Plan
What can you do on a daily basis that will push you towards that 5 year goal, which will then push you towards that life goal? Grand plans don’t happen overnight, they happen in the day by day. Want to become bilingual? That means daily practice. Want to pay off debt? Keep a budget.
As they say: “your daily habits dictates tomorrow’s results”.
Here’s an example of what it may look like when you put it all together:
Click the button below to subscribe and download the free template so that you easily may fill in your own personal life goals, 5-year goals and daily goals. You can customize the template as much as you like!
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Extra:
I saw this thing the other day, and thought it was an intriguing idea. A do it yourself guide to create an interactive magnet-board bucket list you can easily keep around and shuffle around with. Pretty cool!
Maybe you could create something similar with the life goals/5-year plan/daily goals setup?!
DIY Magnet Board for Your Travel Bucket List | PrettyPeas