No one in life knows exactly what they’re going to get, or what exactly they should go towards. Some people have decisions made for them, others fall into a certain lifestyle, while other people may even decide on a pathway only to change it halfway in.
For instance, you can have all the best plans for your career, but if you have children unexpectedly, you may need to reign in those plans a little while you figure things out. So, no principle that iams to help you figure life out will ever be foolproof, nor should you rely on them as a manual.
That being said, it’s good to have a general outline for your life – even if that changes every few years. Knowing what you hope to pursue gives you purpose, and it also encourages you to move forward and enjoy the most out of life. This way, you’re more likely to take risks, or to work harder, or to express that which you want in the first place. That can be a healthy use of your time.
But what does all this mean in practice? Let’s consider:
Flexibility
Flexibility can be a solid grounding point to consider. None of us know how life will go, or what exactly it has in store of us. Even the best-laid plans can be upended. That’s why, when creating these plans, it’s very much worth considering their flexibility, and what exactly it is that you can do to aid them. After all, it’s the branches that bend in the wind that aren’t as likely to break off under pressure.
It might be that you wish to move to another country, such as in a Condo near BTS, but you’re open to exactly where that might be. Having a few towns on your list could help you adjust depending on what the housing market looks like at that time. Perhaps you’re not planning to have children, but if someone you love comes along, you know this could be a potential measure one day. Flexibility means staying open, and always staying receptive to a different approach.
Prioritizing Certain Tasks
Of course, if we’re going to make plans, we have to make certain value judgements about what direction we’d like to follow and why. This means we have to ensure there are a few things in life we seek to pursue above all else. For some, this might be a career, spending time working for a company so that they can one day leave and take their expertise into their startup idea. This can change how you manage your schedule, how you invest in yourself, what networked contacts you pursue, and more.
For instance, is working overtime important to you? How far up the career ladder do you feel you can go? Those questions are worth asking. They give us a grounding point for our actions, and help us stay consistent. We’d recommend doing exactly that.
Care For Others
Of course, no life principles are worthwhile if they completely disregard other people in the process. While it might seem as though you have to sacrifice all personal relationships to be great, that’s not the case, and it’s also not healthy. If you wish to move countries for a great job opportunity, for instance, something that seems to be a no-brainer in your mind, it’s worth working through all of the effects this could have. Your family might miss you, or they might have to switch schools, and it could take them all time to adjust. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go for your dreams, but rather, you should always think through the consequences of your decisions. This helps plan them more readily, and with more confidence. In that effort, you begin to feel better about making decisions you may not have otherwise – and that can be a powerful thing.
Sacrificing Certain Things
Important to remember that we can’t have everything in life. At some point, we have to specialize our ambitions and figure out exactly what focus we hope to follow. That’s good, because it gives us direction. However, it’s hard to become great at a career, to run a large family, to curate several hobbies, and to engage in art at the same time. We have to decide what’s important to us, and discipline ourselves in a certain direction so that we become something in the long run.
For that reason, it’s also worth asking what it is you’re willing to sacrifice, and what it is that’s most important to you in that goal. This dispels the notion that you can do everything you want in life – actually, the real truth is that you can do anything you want in life, not everything. Keeping that in mind can help you avoid disappointment when reality comes knocking.
Taking Your Time
Take your time to assess if this is what you really want. It might be that creating life plans takes upwards of two years as you go through college or university, or dip your feet into a job path. You may have attended film school for four years, for instance, only to realize that production design is not for you when working in the industry and that you’d much rather move to actually producing. It takes time to figure this out. The main thing to remember about ‘life plans’ is that ‘life’ is the grounding principle.
You cannot know everything you want right now, it might take experimentation to get there. Giving yourself that openness and willingness to try something new, even as a complete bumbling novice, will help you learn more about life and stay open to new experiences. That can be a tremendously wonderful place to start with, and it can also help you feel less neurotic about ‘having to’ plan your entire life perfectly.
With this advice, we hope you can create life plans in the best, most engaging manner.
