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Creating a Life Plan Can Change Your Life
Table of Contents What is a Life PlanWhy Create a Life PlanWhen to Create a Life PlanHow to…
Table of Contents
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Hey everyone! Wishing you ALL a very Happy New Year, and welcome to the first post of this year on this blog. Since Aha!NOW is all about life and personal development, I’ve a special post on life plan for you.
Do you think that creating a life plan can really help change your life for the better?
Sounds unbelievable, right? I bet it’s easy to believe that money and power alone can make a difference to your life.
They sure do, but not without a plan!
Without a plan or a program, even your best resources will fail to produce the desired results. Life is no exception.
Creating a life plan is one way to control the outcomes of your life, attempt to manifest your desires or materialize your dreams, and decide your future as well as the state of life.
Let’s learn more about life plans.
“A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.” ~ Confucius
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What is a Life Plan
I’m not talking about an insurance plan. Here I’m talking of a strategic plan that gives you some control over your life, to safeguard yourself from failures and taking unnecessary risks.
Life plan is what sets the course of your life, helps you accomplish your aims, and assists in bringing happiness into your life.
The dictionary defines a plan as a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished.
Life plan is a design that you create with all the will and intention to achieve favorable outcomes. It’s a plan for life, just like the plan you’ve for your business or career.
You can consider a life plan as a map of your life that helps you find the right path, keeps you on track, and makes you happy by making your life meaningful.
Life plan is a structure that gives shape to your hopes and dreams.
You can also consider it as a recipe that tells you about which ingredients you should mix in a specific proportion to bring you the taste of success.
My life plan might be different from yours.
In fact, we all could have different life plans; yet live together in harmony, because life, in general, has a bigger plan that involves all of us.
“You have had a dream for so many years. Let today be the day you make a plan for it. Just think about how much more likely you are to hit your target when you finally aim at it.” ~ Steve Maraboli
Why Create a Life Plan
Do you really know what you want to do or become in life? Do you have a plan for life or a purpose for living?
Obviously, there must be a reason that you’re here in this world and still living – there’s nothing that happens without a reason.
It’s not just about choosing a career, a job, or planning your holidays, investment, and wedding.
Isn’t it ironical that we create plans for everything we do in our life, but not about life itself?
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What could be the reasons?
Moreover, if a life plan does help, then why don’t people create one?
If you don’t have a life plan, what’s your reason? Please take the poll to find out why people don’t create a life plan. You may abstain if you’ve created one for yourself.
[polldaddy poll=7715121]
Are there any surprising results?
“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” ~ Allen Saunders
True. Life happens, and sometimes you’ve to accept it, even if it is not in accordance to your plans. Agreed that we aren’t in control of our lives all the time.
But that doesn’t mean that you don’t set up a life plan. Yes, you should not let your plan control you because that makes life difficult.
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
Even if plans don’t work your way, you need to do life planning.
A life plan is effective and it does not bind you. It also gives you the freedom to be yourself and achieve your potential.
You need a life plan because it gives you power, makes you strong, and helps to show you the direction of your life.
Most importantly, you need a life plan because it makes your life focused.
Focus and direction are two important elements among others requirements to be successful.
If you do not have a life plan, then it’s just like sitting on logs that drift away with no control, in the river of time.
You can even compare a life plan to a motorboat that can be steered at your will and doesn’t make you feel helpless, but very much in control.
If you feel you’re losing control of your life, things aren’t happening as you wish them to happen, and you feel that your efforts are not bearing the expected fruits, then you must think about creating a life plan.
If you’re not happy with your life, or wish to achieve more in life, then you must plan your life.
A life plan may not guarantee you success, but it can surely make your life easier. It’ll provide you with the specifics to make sense out of the chaos in your life so you don’t waste more time.
Your life plan would define all the milestones, everything you need, all you have to do, and make you realistic about your life.
Do you now believe in the importance of a life plan? I hope you do!
It’s great if you want to evolve in life. It’s not that you don’t evolve if you don’t plan long-term. Even day-to-day plans and living consciously helps you evolve.
However, a long-term plan will give you a new perspective, and an overview that will make your day-to-day living more meaningful.
Now that you know what a plan is and why you need it, when should you start?
“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” ~ Zig Ziglar
When to Create a Life Plan
Any time is the right time for creating a life plan, but the earlier the better.
There may be many reasons trying to stop you from doing so, or there could be much doubt in your mind.
You just need one strong conviction to take the positive step and live to the fullest of your life’s potential.
“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you’re ready or not, to put this plan into action.” ~ Napoleon Hill
What could be a better time than the beginning of the year to reset the course of your life and steer it into the track of progress.
Generally, those who value life and don’t take it for granted are interested in having a life plan. They’ve a strong desire to succeed.
Passion is the fuel that drives all plans. If you’re inspired by now, and are filled with zeal and fervor for life, then it’s time to plan for it.
Some go for a life plan when all options in life seem to have failed them. That’s the time necessity becomes the mother of all reasons to plan their lives.
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” ~ Anatole France
You’ll make a life plan when you strongly believe in it. I’d say, don’t wait for the extreme situations, or think that you’re too old and it’s too late.
It’s never too late. The time to create the plan of your life is NOW!
If you’ve made up your mind, then just pick up a pen and paper and start creating your life plan.
“You have to create your life. You have to carve it, like a sculpture.” ~ William Shatner
How to Create a Life Plan
The first thing you need is a reason to script your life plan, and a strong belief to follow it. I hope by now you’re convinced that you need to have a strategy in place to make your life as you want.
Like all other plans, your approach to creating a life plan should be very logical.
1. Know what you want or where you want to go
2. Find the best and easiest way to achieve your aim or reach your destination
3. Assess yourself and your status to know the resources you have with you
4. Choose the best strategy as per your condition and circumstances
5. Make an action plan and commit to it
Do you believe in a different approach? Please share in the comments; I’d love to know them.
You need to have your own life plan. Don’t try to copy that of others, because you’re unique and you’ve your own beliefs, dreams, purpose, priorities, and qualities.
“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.” ~ Jim Rohn
I believe you can control your life to a great extent and transform it into how and what you want. Isn’t it?
But, how do you go about doing that? I mean achieving happiness not by chance but by your will. I’d say you can follow the following steps to designing your life.
“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.” ~ Napoleon Hill
Steps to Creating a Life Plan
Your life plan will take the real shape and better form only when you write it down. It will make you serious, accountable, and committed to your design for life.
Creating a life design will give you the focus and force to execute and achieve your dreams. With this dynamic map in hand, you’ll never lose your way.
You need to be very precise and positive while creating a life plan. Use positive sentences to express your precise goals, and make them measurable.
A good plan will always be clear and achievable. You can make it in form of an outline or in detail if you like, or perhaps without being time-specific or a time-bound plan.
Creating a life plan can be a three-step process. A smart tip is to create your plan from top to bottom and implement it from bottom to top.
KNOW and PURPOSE
First, you need to know what you want.
Do you’ve a dream or a vision? Will achieving that make your life complete? What will make you happy in life? What is the purpose or aim of your life? What is the one thing that you’ll settle for in life?
You’ll create your life plan especially for yourself. So, the first thing you need to do is know and understand yourself.
I know this appears to be the most difficult step for some, and it really is not easy. You may understand complex mathematical equations, but understanding yourself seems more difficult at times.
The strongest drives and solutions are all within you. Let yourself be guided by your inner-self and intuition.
If self-introspection seems difficult, what you can do is list all your likes and the things you love in life or about yourself, to make a personal assessment.
Though your likes and dislikes keep changing with time, but you’ll have a better idea and picture about who and what you’re, and what you should be doing.
What are the things you want in life? What is the state of life you want to achieve? What are your innermost desires and drives?
All plans have a purpose, aim, or a goal to start with.
All sportspersons use strategies, and all players have plans to win their games. The military, doctors, teachers, and all professionals go by their plans.
You must’ve observed the nature and its manifold aspects around you. Do you know that each element of nature has a specific purpose?
Nothing exists without a purpose. Have you found your purpose of life?
Well, I won’t delve with this aspect in its depths, but if you‘d like to do that, you might like to read my post about it.
MUST READ: How to find purpose in life and be happy
As per the dictionary meaning, a purpose is an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions. In other words, it’s your aim or objective.
In general, the purpose of life for everyone is to be happy. You can define more specific, realistic, and measurable outcomes that you want to achieve for a limited period.
Having a purpose in life is like knowing your destination, where you’ve to go, in the journey of life. Do you have a dream – if you believe it’s realistic enough, make it your purpose in life!
You need to make short-term goals that serve as milestones to your long-term goal, the destination. Goal setting gives you a vision, a bigger picture, guide, and motivation.
Describe your purpose of life as clearly and precisely as possible.
Besides the purpose, you also need to set your priorities in life. This should be in line with your short-term and long-term goals.
If the main goal of your life is to be happy and achieve happiness for your family, then you need to set intermediate goals at different intervals of your life that can lead to happiness in life.
ASSESS and DEFINE
Second, you must assess and define all aspects, including yourself.
Have you taken a stock of yourself, gathered resources, and defined the critical success factors? Have you defined your success and set the achievable goals? What steps would lead you to your destination?
Observe yourself and find out what are your personal qualities, aptitude, abilities, skills and whatever you’re good at – your strengths and talents.
You can take the help of your family and friends, who might be able to give you some feedback that probably you never took into consideration earlier.
However, you yourself have to figure out what your needs are – emotional, financial, mental, physician, and spiritual needs. Your hopes and dreams have great value too.
Now that you’ve a realistic understanding of yourself, you can get ahead with creating a life plan that is entirely unique for you.
Find out the resources that you require that will help you in achieving your purpose of life. If you don’t have everything, you may’ve to make do with whatever you’ve.
You need to define what success means for you. We all may’ve different definitions and interpretations of success.
You need to find, define, and write the factors that can contribute to your success. Your life journey will become easier when you define your short-term or intermediate goals.
Next, you want to know how to get results.
PLAN and OUTCOMES
Third, plan how you’ll get the results that you want.
Have you created your mission to achieve your purpose? Have you defined your objectives, strategies, and action plans? Do you have specific commitment in place and ways to measure the output or result?
Outcome is the result of your efforts. How precisely can you define the outcomes you desire in your life?
What do you want to be in life? What is your goal and how realistic it is? Is that leading you to your next goal in the scheme of progress that you’ve defined for your life?
Defining the outcomes is like putting up milestones that measure the progress you’ve made or the distance you’ve to travel in your efforts to reach the final destination.
The more outcomes you’re able to think of, the more clearly you’re able to define your life, make it meaningful, know exactly what you want to do and how to proceed in your life.
Remember that the outcomes and purpose of your life should be realistically in line or in coordination with your personal abilities and capabilities.
For example, you’re a blogger and you want to be the richest person in the world. Now this is a bit exaggerated and unrealistic, isn’t?
What about if you want to have a bank balance of 5 million dollars after 5 years.
It’s a great plan, but is it realistic and feasible being a blogger?
Well, I personally feel it’s difficult, but not impossible either. It depends on your skills, attitude, approach, and the timing. Of course, hard work included.
May be you can’t be the world’s richest person, but you can make big achievements if you’ve a combination of high goals, aspirations, resources, a winning attitude, and a strong life plan.
Don’t disbelieve me; there are exceptions and people who’ve done it. Look at Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Timothy Sykes, and many other bloggers.
You too can transform your life!
All you need are right strategies, well-configured action plans, and specific commitments to carry out the plan objectives.
Once you know all about yourself, define your purpose of life, assess and define everything, and describe your desired outcomes along with your action plan, you need to pen them on paper.
“Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” ~ Napoleon Hill
Sounds great and simple, doesn’t it? However, there’s more to designing your life. One thing you need is a correct format that suits you for creating your life plan.
I haven’t made one for you because good formats are already available created by personal development experts.
You can have a look at Michael Hyatt’s popular life plan here or a simple goal-planning template here.
You create a life plan according to what matters to you and what you want to be.
Make sure that your aims or goals are measurable. You need to define them clearly.
Remember, you need to keep re-visiting your plan, adjusting it according to relevant changes, and keep refining it. A life plan need not be rigid and static; it’s always flexible and dynamic.
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Creating a plan for Aha!NOW
Yes, it’s the beginning of the New Year at Aha!NOW. And, I want to start all fresh with the first post of the year.
I personally want to achieve happiness in my personal and professional life. To do that, I want to start on a positive note and create a web of happiness by throwing around my ropes of hopes. Do I sound like Spiderman! 🙂
But hopes alone are not sufficient to bring happiness in your life. Of course, they are important to help us be positive and get going, but the crux of happiness lies in the action.
What you do holds greater value than what you think. However, if you act without thinking, you sometimes create a mess or fall into trouble. So, you always need a thought + action oriented approach.
I want you to help me define my goals, chose my tools, and plan my strategy for Aha!NOW. I’d request you to take this 5 minutes readership survey that I created on my blog’s third anniversary.
Click here to take the survey
I’m thankful to all those who’ve taken the survey and provided me with valuable inputs and suggestions to help me improve this blog.
What I can tell you now is that you’ll be reading more content at Aha!NOW this year.
As I mentioned in my anniversary post, I plan to have interviews, guest posts, reviews, and more changes happening on this blog, but all that in a later post.
Remember that not all good things in life happen by chance. You can create happiness by your efforts and change your life for the better by creating a life plan.
This is the time to start a new life and journey when lots of festivities are going on all around the world.
I wish to extend all my wishes to you for a brighter, healthier, prosperous, and more importantly, a happier year ahead.
“Plan for the future because that’s where you are going to spend the rest of your life.” ~ Mark Twain
Over to you –
What are your views about scripting your life plan? Have you ever created one? If yes, then please share your experiences and tips to make our lives meaningful in the comments below.
Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos
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Awesome post, quite actionable tips. Thank you maam for a post that has now made me sit and think deeply about life.
I just came across this post from google and wonder how I missed it. You can delete the comment if it is short but this was to let you know how much I loved this post.
I came across to this blog from one blogger who is also being impressed of your blog. It is truly awesome and great blog with great advices that could help new bloggers like me. I am new in the blogging world and I hope I could be like many of the successful bloggers like you. Thanks!
Hey Harleena Singh,
Really enjoy your articles. I think creating a life plan is one of the greatest tasks a person could do to get their life together. It may seem bothersome and a waste of time, but by taking time to yourself, getting a piece of paper, and writing the type of person you want to become, it sets you forth on a self development course. We have so many thoughts traveling across our minds on a daily basis that we tend to falsely believe what we want, but until we write it down as a confirmation, will always be a thought cloud. Once you have the type of person you want to become, it narrows your path and sets you forth on a journey of success.
Glad I came across this post, a mapped out life plan is surely an ideal starter point for individuals who are working towards a specific goal, insightful article.
madam little bit late for to read your blog, now I read this blog, give good stuff, and why create life plan everyone know we are create life plan if we have future plans there is no way to go forward.
Although everything here is nice and good but still I think the post is an overkill. Shouldn’t we take each moment as it comes and enjoy life while making the most of today?
Why so much planning? Why so much thinking? Having the basic goals and idea is good but thinking too much only contributes to headache. (just my two cents, because maybe I like spontaneity too much!)
Hello Harleena
This is a great post that is very thought provoking. Most people don’t think about a life plan and wonder why they don’t get anywhere in life. It’s a lot like getting in your car without a plan, and driving around aimlessly. You never get anywhere.
The Know and Purpose section is key. Digging deep to find out what really matters and know your true mission in life is an altering experience
Thanks again for another terrific post!
Lisa
Thank you,it is good material to read this post increases my knowledge. What a wonderful piece of information. Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer.
Hi Harleena,
Yet another motivating article from you. I always had a passion for writing and I am quiet hard working also. But the major fault was that my plans were all in my mind and there are times when I struggle to remember it. After reading your article the first thing I did was to take a paper and pen and write down the plans I had. I must thank you as I find it very useful and helpful.
Madam, I want to make a plan to be focused towards my goal.
I have also followed the above mentioned detailed steps.
The only problem i am facing is to follow that plan daily.
I have worked according to my daily plan for around a week but after that back to same as earlier. Madam will you please guide me what should i do? Please,So that i really follow my daily plan.
Hello! Thank you for this very insightful article! I lose sight of the bigger objective too often. I get carried away when I discover new self-help programs. It’s good to have a larger life plan to ensure that the main direction is steady!
Hi Harleena,
I find creating a life plan a must do if you want to reach success.
I have precise goals for my life, and I have accomplished already some of them.
And when I reach some of these missions, it’s like to have made a step ahaed in achieving a better quality life.
Very interesting blog post, thanks for sharing!
And have a fantastic week! 🙂
This is something we should do. Creating life plan can surely change our life. This post is really very nice. If we are not planning for our life then we are missing something in our life. This should be the first thing in our life that we have to plan for our life.
I really love this article..I started my career with freelancer and now owner-ed at 30+ kick starters with 4 tech blogs… More than motivation from my parents and friends. I adept the way of life plan to bring my life to somewhat settled..
As a freelancer my life plan and my business plan tend to merge together at times! Good to learn to seperate them out, and let them complement each other. Great post, thanks!
Hi Harleena, You make aware to everyone about life with your post “Creating a Life Plan Can Change Your Life” There are many people ! Those are just living their life without any Aim & Goal. Life Plan is must important than everything. If a person is living without life plan it means that person is just passing the time. I do 100 agree with “Life plan is a structure that gives shape to your hopes and dreams”
Hi Harleena,
Everyone seems to know the adage: Plan your work, work your plan. But few follow it. I would suspect the percentage would be even lower for a life plan.
Your post is a much needed reminder for us as readers to create or update our life plans.
– Cole
Thanks Harleena Singh I really love your post. You can’t even guess how much it inspired me. Now I will create my plan and start doing my best to be what I want to become.
After reading this article, I started to make a plan for my better life for my future. really impressive is this.
After reading the comments I have to say that it is frustrating when unexpected and unforeseen events derail our plans. But the plan still gives you an overall plan that you can continue to work on in baby steps while life is tossing you around. When things calm down you don’t have to start over you can just do the next logical thing in your plan. Thanks for this blog post. Good reminder of the importance of planning!
Hey Michelle,
It’s true that events in our life could derail us from our original goals, but that’s why we have to give us the simple answer so to why we want to achieve our goal. It’s easy to say you want to become wealthy, fame, or power, but we have to take a deeper look inside our hearts and souls to determine why we want it. That way, when we do face difficult moments in our life we could be reminded by our firm beliefs and passions.
If you won’t plan, you won’t begin but instead you’ll loiter around here and there finding out a way. Once you plan, action and focus will automatically be into action and you’ll lead towards your goal.
Ma’am
Another Well Informative Article Describing All Crucial Points. Every time I Visit Your Blog, I’ve Always Find Something Really Handy With Some Unique Kind Of Writing. Moreover, Blog Is Loading So Fast. I Really Like To Follow More Articles Of Your Website. Keep On Blogging.
Absolutely right,
Harleena having Life Plan is must important for a Better life. I do see many middle class families those don’t do any planing and face many problems in their future life. So I’m completely agree with to have Life Plan.
Thank you for this article, I’m somebody who plans, revises the plan multiple times and looks back year by year to see that less than half of the goals I’ve set have been accomplished – because I set far too many! I think setting realistic and achievable goals is key, because each one you accomplish spurs you on to the next one and feels wonderful.
Hello! Thank you for this very insightful article! I lose sight of the bigger objective too often. I get carried away when I discover new self-help programs. It’s good to have a larger life plan to ensure that the main direction is steady!
Hi Harleena,
Thanks for a very thought-provoking post. I have to agree with a lot of the points Adrienne has made. Personally, I prefer posts on one page, rather than having to flick through separate pages, which makes it more difficult to scan back and forth through the whole post, though I realise some readers may prefer it split up like this.
I appreciate that some people may find the idea of a Life Plan helpful, but I’m afraid I don’t think it’s something I could do – it seems too “big” somehow, for me. As Adrienne says, things often don’t work out as we plan, anyway – I’m not saying that means we shouldn’t bother to plan at all, but I find it’s better to set small, manageable goals for different aspects of my life – I don’t think I want to try to come up with one big plan. I feel “life” as a whole is too vast for that, and my mind too small to encapsulate it in a single plan.
Were I to try to express it, I guess the main things I want to achieve in what remains of my life are to be happy and fulfilled, to realise my creative potential, and to be the best and kindest person I can be by becoming increasingly self-aware.
I wish you ever success in the months ahead, Harleena, with your own personal objectives and the plans you have for this marvelous blog. Thanks for a great post 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I see you have a new format for your blog. I don’t really care for having to flip through pages to read your post myself but if you like it then that’s what matters.
I also noticed that when CommentLuv pulls in my links they are all running together. That was the first time I’ve ever seen that happen.
So on to your post and as you already know I’ve mentioned planning my life in recent comments. How I had my life planned out and was set on achieving those goals and twice in my life things drastically changed that were out of my control. I just decided after not once but twice this happened that planning ahead just doesn’t work for me.
I do the best for planning for things today, right now, but I don’t plan my life our anymore. I live more in the present moment but all I really desire in my life is to be healthy, happy and financially free. I work towards all of those goals on a daily basis and that’s about all I plan on doing from this point forward. I can only pray that it all continues to work out but only time will tell.
Glad to have you back and I hope you’re totally over your sickness. I know it’s not an instant cure and does take time to get back to feeling worth a darn but I also hope you enjoyed your time off.
Great to be back over here commenting and here’s to a great weekend and year for us both.
~Adrienne
Love the new format, Harleena 🙂
Btw, not sure if it is just Chrome, but you might want to scroll down all the way down and check the page(the poll on life planning is behind the content and footer).
I checked it with Firefox and the problem persists. Do let me know if it’s just my computer 🙂
Apart from that, this is a wonderful (and important) post 😀
Your question about having a life plan…well, I do have a life plan, sort of.
I know what I want to achieve and how I am going to achieve it (at least the first few steps..I am not concerned about the others right now).
Would it make me happy? Don’t know…I am already satisfied with my life, but there are many things I (feel) could do, to improve the lives of many – including my own.
Can I die peacefully after that? Sure. I could die right now, and I would be happy about my own life…but, I would be sad about my contribution towards our planet (it’s not about my name..or being known…it’s about improving the lives. I argue for and against a lot of things in our planet…and what is the purpose of arguing/debating if I don’t do anything about it, like a lot of people in our world?).
Anyways, thank you for sharing this with us, Harleena 🙂 Appreciate it!
Hope you are enjoying your weekend!
Hi Harleena,
Oops… Sorry for dragging it to the weekend though I had it in Pocket dear.
You got me there! 😀 lol… I thought I’m going to say “This is your shortest post ever”. But then I noticed it’s not really the shortest after all.
You have definitely got me thinking about some aspects I’ve been planning Halreena 🙂 I’m striking off some to-dos in mine which I find no value after all. Kinda useless goals I had. It’s really a relief to have least amount of goals in life, so I can devote so much into ’em.
I think having a plan itself means we are looking at some sort of a purpose in our lives Harleena 🙂 Isn’t it? However it should be purpose first, then the plan. Excellent plan in wrong direction can cause a lot of trouble. Yet I believe it REALLY depends on how much we truly understand ourselves and the perception towards the values in our lives.
Some just believe planning is merely restricting themselves and they go with what life has to offer. Eventhough I love the carelessness in life, yet I wanna be strategic and organized too 🙂 You know, for the best of my family, myself and future generation. Anyway, it’s not all about sticking to the plan, but how we deal with it. Nah? 🙂 Hence I love the unpredictability in life which makes us ready and not so boring like working in an office.
Mmm… The new format is interesting and I can see many readers happy with that too dear. Honestly, I must confess I’m definitely an odd fan of yours now. Previously, I’ve came across the same format in Mashable website and fortunately they had “View as one page” option to see it all in one page. Could you have such an option too? See how odd I am? 😀 lol…
I’m wishing you all the very best for you and Aha!NOW, Harleena 🙂 I know you already got the best wishes you ever wanted.
Have a lovely weekend there dear!
Cheers…
I’ve always been a bit of an “over-planner”. Now that I’m older, I do believe in knowing where you’re going and where you wanna go; but I do so in moderation. Sometimes people get frustrated when life doesn’t goes as they plan and forget to enjoy the things they didn’t expect or plan for.
Thanks for this insightful post, Harleena!!!
I’ve always wanted to create some sort of life plan. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activities that we don’t think about our future and the things we want to achieve. This year I’m really focused on getting healthy and creating a life plan would make for some great motivation on those days where I just don’t want to be “good”. Sometimes fear has held me back from being forward-thinking. It’s like if I release this thought out into the world, now I have to make it happen and what happens if it doesn’t come to fruition. Or will be think I’m silly for wanting this, etc. I need to worry less about what others think and really dig deep and figure out what I want out of life.
I love life plans, but maybe that’s because I am a planner! 🙂 You cannot plan out every moment of your life but I do think it’s important to step back and think about what you want to accomplish in life. Beyond just your professional life too but what are the things you want to look back and see that you did and to start doing them. Don’t wait for “some day”. There are always things you want in your life that you can do now. Great post!
I think it’s important to really think through what you want. Don’t choose goals just because someone else thinks that’s a good goal for you. When you are clear in your mind on what you want, it’s much easier to go for it. Break down your goal into steps. Those steps become your action plan.
Good post, Harleena! We can all use this process to refocus our lives!
Hello Harleena Singh,
At first I wish to tell you I love your new blog style. Here the article breaks in different pages. I have not seen this style in any blog yet. Its new experience to me but I love it.
Yes.. a life must have a plan- how you want to build your career, how you achieve your goal & finally how you sustain in this world. May be we’ll not get what we think but if we have plan at least we achieve 70%-80% of our target. You added excellent life leading points with masterful quotes.
Anyway have a smooth New Year journey 🙂
Happy new year Harleena and welcome back,
Indeed, no meaningful thing can be achieved in life without a good and definite plan, it’s the thing that gives life to our dreams and without a good plan in whatever we are doing, it will just be like pouring water on top of a stone.
Before you can build a house, you must first have a good plan if not, you will end up building a useless house that can collapse any day.
All these goes to say that life itself is a plan and for you to live a well fulfilled life, you must make adequate plans.
Thanks for sharing sweet heart :).
It’s wonderful seeing you back after soo loooong.It won’t be right today that this post is very well expressed as each one of your post is better than the other. I am among those few lucky ones who are Gods children for whom every thing falls in place hence HE does the planning for me.
Harleena,a very happy NEWYEAR
Hi, Harleena,
A very happy new year you too! 🙂
Life does need a plan to move ahead with our dream. Plan backs us in our temporary failures. A person who has plan or has clear concept of living life, has better chances to win or having happiness in life. Life use to change its color so it is very necessary to has proper program to deal with it.
Well said,” Life plan is a structure that gives shape to your hopes and dreams.” True, without a roadmap, one cannot build the skyscrapers. The first image included in the post of a Civil engineer (Perhaps) suggesting the same thing.
I am agreed with your point that planning for a beautiful, happy and structured life does not need to wait for a proper time. I do believe, proper planning brings proper timing. Knowing our inner self, our hopes, our dreams and our destiny can cater us great help in getting up with a good plan.
“Ropes of Hopes” yes, you sound like Spiderman. 🙂
Thank You very much for sharing, such a wonderful post. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Another resourceful article.
Planning really helps us to complete our work correctly. Without planning life, there is a possibility to move like a boat without having a boatman. So planning is much more important.
Thank You.
Hi Shoukot,
I’m glad you like the post. A boat without a boatman is a nice way of explaining the importance of a life plan.
Thanks for visiting the blog and sharing your views. Do have a great weekend! 🙂
Hi there Harleena,
I have a personal development plan and that has helped me stay accountable to my daily goals. On Tuesday I didn’t get a chance to workout and just seeing that I didn’t cross that off my list had me obsessing over that.
I love the idea of a Life Plan and all these measures you’ve written out for us go hand in hand…we can’t miss one bullet else it won’t work.
I had created something similar to this a couple years ago and called it a 5-year plan. My husband and I wrote one showing where we would like to be in five years in terms of a better neighborhood, finances, and business.
What we didn’t plan on were obstacles. There wasn’t a back-up plan so some of our goals weren’t achieved. Of course we put those on the back burner and never looked back.
I’m motivated to give it another try, now that I know what I need to do from beginning to end 🙂
I for one wish you all the best and that your plans for 2014 are successful and then some!
Thanks for sharing this motivating posts with us. And I love the quotes…my favorite was Mark Twain’s.
Happy Wednesday…well Thursday to you now :).
Hi Corina,
It’s great to know that you’ve a well-defined and detailed plan that you use on a daily basis. That’s the way to go!
It’s a good idea to have a 5-year plan. Even nations have it to plan its progress and development. Things don’t happen if you don’t plan for them.
You’ve provided a great tip for me and all the readers. It’s important to plan for the obstacles, and how to deal with them. It’s important to have a back up plan.
It’s good to know that you’re self-motivated to re-try and achieve your dreams by creating a new plan, that’s the spirit!
Thanks so much for sharing your life experiences about planning that I’m sure will help all of us. Thanks for visiting my blog and giving it your valuable time and effort. I really appreciate it. Have a great weekend.. it’s Sunday morning your end! 🙂
Hello Harleena,
What a nice post crafted for all like minded people. I did really content to the post…
Many people don’t make life plan and that’s bad, I have seen somebody who truly do not know has purpose in life and i feel sad for him because to me, he is lost.
I love the tip where you said “Make an action plan and commit to it”. There is no greater thing then being comitted to what you’re doing. I have a life plan and i am pursuing it and hope to grab it by force… lol 🙂
Thanks for this inspiring post dear friend. do have a good week ahead
Hi Babanature,
I’m glad you like the post. Yes, the life plan acts like a compass and a map to help you from bring lost. Sometimes we make plans but fail to commit to it to make it happen, and then if we fail, we blame it on the plans. So, the commitment part is more important then planning.
It’s good to know that you’ve a life plan and I wish you all the success for that. Thanks for visiting my blog and for sharing your thoughts. Have a great weekend! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
What a wonderful post, my friend!
Creating a life plan is so important. I say this because if I’m struggling with a particular aspect of life, I can always find the root cause, and much of the cause is due to lack of planning.
This type of realisation quickly sets me into action to come up with a plan of action. After I’ve created a plan, everything seems focused and clear.
Thank you.
Hi Hiten,
I’m so happy you liked the post. I’m glad you accept the importance of planning. Thank you for explaining how creating a plan helps you.
A life plan makes the picture clear, so you can better focus on it and find the way. Thanks so much for your thoughts and views, I’m sure they’ll help the readers. I really appreciate your time and effort for contributing to the post. 🙂
I’m not sure if this would be considered a Life Plan, but I have mapped out where I want might life to be in the next 3 years! It sounds scary because it’s approaching fast — it’s the middle of January already!!
The biggest thing for me was to mind map anything and everything I wanted to be doing and wanted to be. I just let my mind go without judgement. I wasn’t necessarily going to add these things to my plan, but they surfaced in my mind and I wrote them down. From there, I figured out the things that really resonated with me and that were exactly what I wanted out of life.
I know this is an ever changing document as I change with the days. However, it’s something that I tend to keep filed away on my computer. So, I need better way to consistently review it to ensure that I’m on the right path, to understand my Why, and to keep my motivation.
Thanks for this post & Happy New Year to you!
Hi Jennifer,
You’re right – you don’t come to know of how fast time flies! And if you’re without a plan, you waste a lot of it. But you surely do have a goal and a plan, even if its short-term, it will help you to find the final destination.
Life plan on the other hand is all about a bigger picture, which is not only concerned about jobs, careers, or money. It’s about knowing what’s your reason to be here, and then working to make it possible. The good things like successful career and money are just byproducts out of it, but the primary motive remains to have happiness and to be happy.
Mind mapping is a great tool and technique, and its good if that works for you. We must use our mind to mine into our deep inner self and you’re often surprised that solutions surface up that you never thought of earlier, right? I’d say you’re going great – aligning with your innerself is the best way to go forward.
Yes, your life plan needs to be flexible, and the short term or intermediary goals keep changing, but generally your purpose of life remains more or less stationary and unchanged. It’s good that you go about systematically about your planning, and I’m sure you’ll benefit by your practice.
Thanks for visiting my blog and I wish you all the success in this new year. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your useful information. I do believe that creating a life plan will help me to archive to my life goal for this year.
Hi Dominic, welcome to my blog!
I’m glad that you believe in a life plan and wish you all the success in your endeavors.
Thanks for visiting and sharing your views. Have a great weekend! 🙂
Yes, Harleena we do need a life plan. But we have to remember that at times we may have to change it or reroute it.
The one thing that I believe more people have trouble with is trying to figure out what there purpose is. Like you say once we do write out a life plan our purpose can be visualize. It is like trying to drive across a country without roads. We can end up in the wrong place. You are off to a good start for the New Year. Thanks Harleena for your wisdom and keeping us on the right road.
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
You’re right – we need to have life plans that are flexible. We must always be ready to change our course or make improvement as per the need of the time.
I agree that defining the purpose of life is definitely difficult. I believe that you need to first know and understand yourself to do that. A life plan comes after we’ve decided our goal or objective.
Sometimes, we may decide small and intermediate goals to start off and find or realize our purpose of life later on the way. But you need to get started in some direction, and you need to have a plan for that.
I’m glad you like the post. Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your wonderful thoughts and views. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Happy New Year to you too Harleena.
I read your newsletter where you mentioned that you will be doing something different with the blog. I think you are going in the right direction and its time you should do it too. I also like the new tag line or punch line what ever you call it, its quite good.
You are right about having a life plan otherwise one can become a ship without a rudder and wander off in all directions. By the way, Harleena I can see some changes in the blog. For some reason,the page keeps going up and down while I write this. I am not sure its just me or others too. Please take a look into this.
Hi Shalu,
Wish you too have a great year!
Yes, I’ve plans for the blog, and to do more things. You need to do things differently to bring a change and keep it interesting too, isn’t it? Thanks for all your wishes and support. I’m glad you like the punch line, and its actually what the blog is all about, talking about and finding ways to resolve the issues of life to bring happiness into our lives.
A ship without a rudder – that’s a good example of a life without a life plan. Thanks for reporting the display problem, and I’ve got it sorted out. I’m glad Enstine was able to spot the cause and report it to me.
Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your wonderful thoughts and views. Do have a great week ahead! 🙂
I stopped planning. I know it sounds all wrong but I work better like that. I do have a broad picture most times but refrain from planning.
Hi Latha,
Each one to his or her own regarding living the life. If things work for you without having proper laid out plans, then its good. However, even then we’ve plans like the broad picture you have, which gives you the required direction and an idea to take which path and what steps to reach there.
Wish you all the success and have a great weekend! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
That’s an interesting format you have here. I don’t know if it’s my computer or what, but you page keeps moving in an up and down fashion making the post really hard to read. I tried another brother but it’s still doing the same thing.
Having a plan is essential. As they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I have lots of plans this year that I’m putting into action, and it really calls for organization and action, but that’s all very exciting too.
I hope you’re doing well. I knew you were around because I saw you on other blogs, but I knew you took a little break from here.
Hi Sylviane,
Thanks so much for reporting the problem you had viewing this post. It took some time but I got it corrected. And, it was Enstine who helped me spot out the problem.
It’s great to hear that you’ve many plans, and yes things work better only when you’ve plans. Oh yes, it’s exciting to achieve your goals and objectives, which serve as a measure of your success, and it feels good and exciting doing that, isn’t it?
I took a long break from writing a post on my own blog, but in the meantime, I did do lot of pending work, visited many blogs, been on social media too, and wrote a long pending guest post that you’ll soon see on Jane’s blog. So, actually, you don’t really have much of a break, do you. 😉
Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your thoughts and views. Have a great weekend ahead! 🙂
What a way to start 2014, Harleena! I must confess that this post is coming at the right time.
Life plan is very important, and as a matter of fact, it’s compulsory for everyone to plan his life. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to plan. A lot of people just wake up in the morning and face the day like that, achieving whatever they can for the day and leaving the rest to fate.
Some don’t even know there should be planning. They feel everything takes care of itself. It is an unfortunate way to reason. Things really don’t happen by accident; they come through meticulous planning.
I would say planning starts from a dream. If you have a dream you would plan towards achieving it. But where there is no dream, there would be nothing to plan for. If you have a desire or an inspiration, plan towards achieving it. It is only by planning that the right measure of energy required to accomplish your dream is released.
The New Year has just started, I have started to think of what I should achieve this year and plans for achieving them (I was actually a victim of not planning), and I believe that if I am hungry enough to stick to my plans, success would be sure at the end of the year.
Thanks Harleena, for this wonderful and inspiring post. Do have a lovely day
Hi Efoghor,
It’s great that you like the post and its timing. I’m glad you agree with the need and importance of having a life plan.
Dependence on fate alone is a bad habit. We might not have complete control over our life, but surrendering to fate is not a good option. We must try to find a direction and make efforts to gain how much ever control we can get over our life, apart from also heeding to our inner voice and God’s plans.
You’re absolutely right in that things don’t happen by accident but through meticulous planning. You nicely explained the whole process, and yes you need to have a dream, desire, or inspiration to plan your life.
Yearly plans for the blog are just a small part of the large planning for life. However, we have to concentrate on the present and make sure each of our step taken is successful. You’ll be successful if your drive is strong and continuous.
Wish you all the best in your endeavors and thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your wonderful thoughts and views. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Harleena, warm wishes for the new year 2014. An extremely relevant write up here. I have been observing some current trends of planning among the young adults, the teenagers who graduate high school. Many students are taking a year off before deciding the next course of action; there are some who go to college for a certain course and four years later decide it wasn’t for them (does not necessarily mean success or failure); then there are some others who complete a three or four year course and join the workforce with an inclination for social service. This confusion among the young Indians is because of lack of self planning as most of our early years planning is done by our parents for us. Our personal planning only starts at the age of 18, maybe even later, and by then we have little or no experience. Life is too precious to be left loose, a little planning, a careful thought goes a long way. The qoute is quite relevant – “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.” I wish this blog attracts maximum readership.
Welcome to my blog, Anita!
Hope the new year brings all the happiness to you. It’s good to know that the young people are conscious of making plans for their life, especially when it comes to career. The world is so competitive, and you can’t get the best without planning. I agree that it’s better to take a break and know exactly what you’ve to do and where you need to go, then to go in a certain direction and regret later.
As in context of young Indians, I’d certainly agree that they need to exercise independence in planning for their life and career from an early age and parents need to stop guiding them by hand all the time. I like what you say – life is too precious to be left loose, a little planning goes a long way. So true!
I’m glad you like the post and thanks for contributing your wonderful thoughts and views. Hope to see you around and wish you have a great weekend! 🙂
Hey Harleena,
It’s good to see your first post of the year. Wow, this is the shortest post I’ve ever read from you. What happened? Did you plan to have shorter post this time?
I cannot agree with you more. You have to have a plan in life, like you said it’s like a map. You can see where you going and keep track of your journey. Well, sounds like you have a plan. I don’t exactly know them all in details but I know you are preparing for a greater year.
Sounds like a great plan!! 🙂
Guess in this world there are two kinds of people. Those who strive for the best. And those who just wanna get by. People who plans their life always strive for the best. Aim for the stars…if you fall you’ll land on the moon…right? And planning helps us strive to become better!
Anyway…
I’m in bed already reading this…I just keep reading till I fall asleep on my kindle. Hehehe…and so I’m gonna say goodnight to you dear. Have a nice week.
Angela
P.S. loved your new format and your new logo.
Hi Angela,
I’m sorry if I didn’t make it obvious that this was a post divided into five parts, and presented in form of slides. I realized that after your comment and added the “contd..” words at the end of each slide.
I wish I could write such small posts, it’d save me lot of time, right? But I’ve no plans for doing so. 🙂
I’m glad you agree with the need and importance of a life plan. Yes, I do have a plan for the blog and want it to reach greater heights based upon the last year’s results. I also used this opportunity to think deeply about my life plan, and interestingly it makes the present problems or obstacles seem small and not important when you overview life with a bigger and panoramic perspective.
Definitely, if you want the best, you need to have the best plans laid out. The aims should be realistic and achievable too, so I’d say aim for Mars, and you’ll definitely reach the moon. 🙂
I hope you made your life plans in your dreams after reading this post. 🙂 It’s good to know that you liked the new format and the logo.
Thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts and views. Hope you’re having a great weekend! 🙂
I do like your steps but it’s so easy to run out of steam in life plan. It’s silly right.. as in we can’t keep doing the same thing but expect different results, yet change and comfort zone are tough to break. Also always wonder about change being inspired from God and when to change, i.e. not to do so for the sake of adventurous, but with purpose.
Welcome to my blog, Mei!
You’re absolutely right. If you don’t plan carefully or don’t implement it in the right way, you may run out of steam of your life plan.
And, also you need to go out of your comfort zone to make the change happen. But if your purpose if strong enough, it will drive you and make possible the seemingly impossible, and no inspiration is greater than what comes from deep within or from being inspired by God.
Thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts on life plans. Hope to see you around and have a great weekend! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Happy New Year to you! And Welcome back! I am also back from India and just a couple of days ago, published my first post of the year!
Well, coming to life plan, I loved the first quote you started with – “A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.”
And then I do believe in the life plan because when we don’t plan to succeed, we certainly plan to fail. Not planning simply means we don’t care about our own life. I can’t imaging living 100 years knowing not what really I wanted to accomplish in this lifetime. That thought itself is very scary!
I do plan my life on a yearly and monthly basis (although I plan to have a bit more discipline to my daily goals which I do miss to plan a few times a month). Does everything fall in place as I plan every month? Hell No! But knowing that I did my best to achieve what I had planned to begin with, gives a tremendous satisfaction. Lord Krishna said in Bhagavad Gita – “You can only control your actions, results are not in your hand.” When I plan and act in accordance with the plan, I know that He is watching and at least He knows, I tried 🙂
Thank you for this very valuable post. Many many people are going to benefit from this.
Have a wonderful week!
Regards,
Kumar
Hi Kumar,
Wishing you too the best for the year ahead! I hope you had a memorable and enjoyable trip. Thanks for your warm welcome, and I reciprocate the same to you as well.
It’s good to know that you believe in life plans and that you’re passionate about planning. It’s such an important aspect and we do involve planning in various forms and at different levels in life. But life plans are altogether different and you become an integral part of it.
You’re right, if we care for our life, we’ll always plan for it. We can’t take life for granted and let our life be driven by fate and chance.
You’re an organized person to meticulously make monthly and yearly plans. No planning is every successful without the factor of discipline in life.
That’s a great quote from Gita and so very true. Whether the plan worked or you achieved is not the question, but the fact that you tried your best is what matters. Most people give up on plans and planning if they don’t work in their favor or produce expected results. Actually, you need perseverance and patience, and keep making efforts.
I’m glad you like the post and I also hope it may benefit all readers. Thanks for visiting the blog and spending your time and efforts by sharing your valuable thoughts and experiences. Do have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena! Happy New Year!
And what a great new look and format for your blog. But best of all is your detailed Life Plan process. I think those of us who take the time to come up with such details and intentions can’t help but reap the greatest benefits because all the time and effort that goes into creating them surely helps to bring them about in our vibration. I can’t wait to see and experience more of your unfolding plan. ~Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Happy New Year to you too!
I’m glad you like the new format, though I may only be using it for long articles. Nevertheless, it’s good to have some change in life.
When I was reading about and preparing my article on life plan, I remembered old days when I used to think a lot about the purpose of life. However, the quest continues and later you realize that your life depends on your purpose.
Yes, I believe you’re right in that you really benefit by positive thoughts and creation process that induce the good vibrations. No good every goes waste, and I too hope that I’m able to develop further and implement my plan.
Thanks for your kinds words and beautiful thoughts. Would love to see you over again, have a great week ahead! 🙂
Happy New Year Harleena and good to see many more changes popping up on your blog.
I never thought of creating a life plan before. It never came to my mind really but I’m seriously thinking about it and thanks for giving some useful steps on how to go about it.
“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” Very true. No one can plan better for you.
A lot of stuffs revealed in this post
Hi Enstine,
Thank you for your wishes. May the new year be good for you too. Yes, I believe in change, and wanted to start the new year with a change. Some surprises in life are good. 🙂
Like you, I also didn’t have a life plan, the kind of a meticulously and systematically planned one. But, it’s good to have one, and I’m glad you too think the same. I hope this post helps you and others too.
We all need to live by our own definitions, assessment, and plans. If we don’t do that, then we’re either going directionless or living someones else’s plan, unless we’re really guided by our innerself.
I’m glad you like the post and thanks for visiting the blog and sharing your thoughts and views. Have a great weekend ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I was thinking that I didn’t get any updates related to your post for some time now or maybe I was imagining it. But I’m glad you took a break. I think we need a break from things (sometimes even people) we love. I get it, some people may not agree.
About life plan: Okay, after thinking about it for some time, I have come to the conclusion that I had too many plans for my life once upon a time. Thing is I rarely follow a definitive plan; it makes me feel suffocated, the more room for choice the better.
Over the couple of years, I have learned that following my heart is the best. It’s not always in-sync with my to-do-lists or plans, but somehow it works out better than any lists I have ever made.
But I couldn’t agree with you more on this: “define what success means for you.” I wish more people planned their lives, keeping this suggestion in mind and not what others expect them to do.
Thanks for writing and sharing this post! Love the new format!
Regards
Hi Priya,
Welcome back to my blog! I took a long break, which I did write about in my break from blogging and the following post on my blog anniversary. I agree and you’re right in that we do need to take a break from things and people, even if we love them!
Well, having too many plans really make things difficult, and more so confuse us. But even if you create the best of life plans, they aren’t helpful either if you don’t follow or implement them. You really need to be committed and dedicated, be disciplined and keep regular checks to make sure you’re following the plan.
But then, if some other way suits you better and brings you the same expected results, then its good for you. Following your heart is following your innerself and intuition, so if you do that, you’re most likely to be guided onto the right path. Plans should always be flexible and dynamic to take into considerations your inner feelings and intuition. I’m glad this way works for you.
I believe there’s a subjective part of success too, and that more closely aligns with our self. You can’t plan for your success based on someone else’s definition. However, in general the purpose of life and the real success is achieving happiness in life, in good ways.
I’m glad you visited the blog and liked the new post format. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I really appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
Good to see you back, before I could comment any further I wish you a Prosperous and Successful New Year. Coming to the post as usual a though provoking, this post reminds me of my friend who said we should plan everything ahead. Even in the missionary school I worked earlier our Principal sister used to plan monthly schedule in previous month itself. So all those things just came into my mind as I was reading your post. I just saw the poll results which shows that 80% of them are not good at planning even I too can say I am one among them. But now on I will see that I will go with a perfect planning in all my upcoming tasks, be it blogging or my personal life.
I liked your quote from Zig Ziglar “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” Even I loved Anatole France and Napolian Hill’s quotes overall I loved all your gathered quotes.
I also appreciate your thought on knowing what your readers want by posting a survey. This survey itself shows that you are doing what you are writing. I mean you wrote a post on how to plan and you yourself showed us on how you are planning for your future. Thanks for this post at right time…
Hi Vijesh,
Thanks for the welcome; I’m glad to be back too! Thanks for your wishes and I wish you too a happy new year and may your plans unfold in the way you want them to.
Thoughts are at the base of everything that we do. If I’m able to stir those in you, then the rest happens on its own. Your friend was probably right, however, I’d advice not to go to extremes and become stringent with your plans, unless the situation demands so.
Planning makes things easy, and I’ve learned that the rough way. The poll results actually show that most people do not know “how to” create a life plan, even if they wanted to. I believe planning about life is an important skill that should also be taught in school, don’t you think so?
I’m glad that you’re motivated to include and implement planning in your life. yes, I found the quotes very empowering and couldn’t stop myself from including in the post, though doing that really made a post much lengthier.
I had created the survey for my December post on my blog anniversary, and yes, I wanted it to help me plan ahead. I may not do all that I say, but I make my best efforts to do so, and this survey is an important part in my plan for the blog. I had actually planned ahead that I’ll write a post on plans, and there’s more to come in a couple of weeks, so you can stay tuned!
Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your valuable experiences and view. Do have a great week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I must admit I’m in love with the new post format you have adopted, it makes navigating through your points a lot more easier; just like the regular magazines.
One excellent quote I pick from this has already summed it all up for me. I am talking about the quote from Zig Ziglar
Really a great post to start the new year with. Thanks for sharing and also do have a lovely year Mam.
Hi Obasi,
Wow! I didn’t expect this new format to be liked so much. Thanks for your appreciation and feedback, and yes, making the navigation better was one of my main objectives for choosing this format.
I agree, this one leaf from Zig Ziglar’s wisdom says a lot. We all have great potential hidden within us, and only those who know this secret, and work smartly to use it in their favor become successful.
I’m glad you liked the post too. Yes, it’s been a good start and I feel happy to be back posting on the blog. Thanks for visiting it, and sharing your views. Have a fantastic weekend ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I am so glad to note that you are back with a new plan and purpose.Its really good to have a well planned plan. I like the new format
or the new page style, 5 part post, i just went through the pages but this post needs a thorough reading, so I am book marking it for my further read, I will come back again with a elaborated feedback.
Let us cautiously move forward to fulfill the plan we take in our daily life.
Have a good day.
Phil
Hi Phil,
Thanks for your warm welcome, and yes, I’m excited that I’ve a new plan for myself and the blog too. It’s really a new beginning and this time I want to plan and make efforts that things go as per the plan.
I’m happy that you like the new format. I used it because this was a long post, and it helped me make it easy for the readers by breaking into parts. I’m glad that it has gone down well with most of the readers.
I look forward to your feedback, which I value a lot. Thanks for book marking this post and for visiting my blog. Have a great week ahead! 🙂
Great post Harleena!
I hesitate to create an in-depth life plan, again. Why? Because when I plan, it doesn’t work out. I remember hearing Colette Baron Reid say, “Man plans and God laughs.” This resonates with me to a certain degree. I planned my move to AZ in 2007 and it did not work out they I expected. I had everything figure out, right down to the finances. But three years later I had to move back to my home state. I stopped asking questions such as: What happened? What did I do wrong? Where did I go wrong? What did I miss? I let it go because analyzing the experience to death was not helping me.
Today, I’d rather ‘sketch out’ a life plan and leave room for the universe to work its magic. If I hold tightly to what I want, I end up squashing it. 😉
Hi Amandah,
I’m glad you like the post. I can understand your views about an in-depth life plan, because I too don’t really go in much depths.
Like you I prefer an outline or a sketch, with all aspects and factors clearly written, along with and the specific commitments, leaving much scope for choice and freedom. A good plan should always be flexible, that you can change any time, turning its sails in the direction of the wind.
It’s said that God or life has a plan for us, and I do believe in that. However, I feel that God or life in its bigger plans, wants us to have a plan and make efforts in the direction of progress.
Many of my plans too didn’t work. I think I changed my ways and views, and tried things differently. Of course, since you did all as per the demands and your best assessment of the time and situation, you’re not wrong. However, in such cases, I do analyze everything, and look out for the positive outcomes and the opening of new pathways and opportunities due to the fallout of my plans. I look for signs, because everything action has a reason.
I think you’re just doing the right thing with your present philosophy about life plans. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Thoreau – “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”
Thank you so much for coming over and sharing your wisdom. Your experiences are valuable, and I’m sure others will stand to benefit from them. Have a fabulous rest of the week ahead! 🙂
Hi Harleena, Congratulations on your new format! I really like how you broke up your post into pages. Well done.
I took the poll but not the survey because I took the survey when you published it on your third anniversary of this blog.
I had a life plan when I was younger. I wanted to be a lawyer and have children. Those things happened but a lot happened that I didn’t have planned, some good and some not so good.
I am very content with life now. The Wonder of Tech is going great and I am really enjoying writing for it. I am helping my oldest daughter with her life plan as she heads out to university this fall. My husband has been planning our retirement for years. I told him that I want to keep our family home and if he wants to get a retirement home somewhere warm for us, that’s fine, just so long as we can keep our family home.
So I don’t have a plan because I always expect the unexpected and because I am very content with life. But I think it’s very important for younger people to have a plan so that they can get the most out of life.
I like not only your suggestions about how to make a plan but also the reasons for making a plan. The quotes are fantastic, even from Confucius!
I will be sharing this with others, Harleena, as I know this will help many people.
Hi Carolyn,
I’m so happy and excited to be posting again on the blog, and I’m so glad that you like the new format. However, I might keep it only for the long posts, and this one turned out to be the lengthiest, but you couldn’t make out, could you?
You’re one of the most loyal supporters of my blog and yours continuous motivation really helps. Thanks for taking the survey.
The poll results so far are interesting – not many people know how to create a life plan, and probably they’d have if they knew. That’s the irony – we are proficient in planning so many things, but not life, which should receive the first and foremost focus.
You’re right in that the young should imperatively have a life plan. of course, not everything goes as per our plans, and this fact is something that dissuades many.
It is apparent that you’re really working hard on your blog, and I can see it growing day-by-day. If it’s your passion, then it’s bound to succeed. I’m really happy for you that you’re on life’s plateau where you can enjoy and rest, feeling content and happy.
The youth needs to think about life plans the most. I’m sure your daughter will pay heed to your advice and implement one that helps her to be happy in life. Nevertheless, there’s no age or time for planning, and planning for retirement is another big thing too. I wish you and your husband successfully and happily spend the rest of your life, as per your plans, keeping the family home.
It’s a good quality to be ready for anything, because there are no certainties in life. Even a plan doesn’t promise you a cent percent expected outcome. Even living contentedly day-to-day increases the happiness in life.
I’m glad you like the post, and yes, I worked hard on it. I really wish people benefit from this post, thank you for sharing it and giving your valuable views and time. Have a great day ahead!