How to build your life plan?

As you may know (and if not, please check here), I’m a fan of “The 7 habits of effective people” by Mr. Stephen R Covey. 

The second habit is, “Begin with the end in mind.” And it’s a crucial principle. It’s relatively easy to grasp when we speak about a business project. (Even though we don’t always apply it.) 

But what about the project of your life? How do you build your life plan? 

Stephen R Covey proposes to build a personal mission statement. I’m used to doing it in business, but I have neglected it for myself for too long.
I understood the concept, but I wasn’t applying it. It’s typically an “Important and non-urgent activity” (Habit 3: Put first things first). You can easily postpone it. 

I’ve started to dig into the topic and searched how to build my life plan. In March 2016, I discovered the book “Living Forward, a proven plan to stop drifting and get the life you want” by Michael Hyatt & Daniel Harkavy. 

It was the blueprint I needed to execute..and maybe the one you’re after?  

I built my first life plan in 2016 and I’ve updated it once a year since. It’s like the spine of my life. My yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily plan becomes much more straightforward as I have clarified the big picture. 

How does it work? 

The authors have organized the blueprint into three parts

1. Understand your needs
2. Create your plan
3. Make it happen

Understand your needs 

 “Everybody ends up somewhere in life. Blessed are those who end up somewhere on purpose.” Andy Stanley

 It’s the “why” to do it. 

For me, it all comes to the importance of the big picture. It indeed takes time and energy to build it, especially the first year. But, when it’s in place, everything becomes more manageable. 

• You clarify your priorities.
• You filter the new ones that inevitably pop up in your life better. It’s often said that the ability to say no is a key success factor in business and life. With your life plan in place, saying no becomes easier.  
• You manage your work/life balance better. As you holistically do the exercise, you integrate everything that matters to you. It has helped me create better harmony between my family and my work life. 
• You become the actor of your own movie. You wrote the script, and you execute it. It trains your proactive muscle (Habit 1: Be proactive).

In the famous book “The top five regrets of the dying” author Ware Bronnie, who was caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives, summarized the 5 regrets as follows :

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Your “life plan” is more than a document you build; it’s a lifelong practice to avoid regretting things when it’s too late. I would classify it as a high leverage activity, following the 20/80% rules of author Richard Koch.

Create your plan 

So, what is the life plan concretely?

 The authors describe it as “a short written document, usually eight to fifteen pages long. It is created by you and for you. It describes how you want to be remembered. It articulates your personal priorities. It provides the specific actions necessary to take you from where you are to where you want to be in every major area of your life. It is most of all, a living document that you will tweak and adjust as necessary for the rest of your life.”

That’s it. They advise to dedicate one day per year to build it. 

I’ve been doing this since 2016, and I love the exercise. It’s one day for me; one day for thinking and writing. I’ll start my plan in a Mindmap (like most of my thinking process), and I’ll then write it in Evernote. Mine is between 3000 to 3500 words depending on the year. 

The structure proposed in the book is the following: 

Write your eulogy. Maybe the most challenging part, especially the first year. It’s such a profound exercise. Before starting this post, I reread my eulogy, listening to classical music, and it brought me a lot of emotions. 

It’s all about answering one question: “How do I want to be remembered? “

Establish your life accounts. I have seven in my life until now. It can change every year when I review it. Here are my actual. 

1. My personal growth: emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical part
2. My wife, 
3. My children
4. My extended family
5. My friends
6. My work
7. My finances

Determine the conditions of your life accounts.
Where you stand now on each of these accounts, that is your actual situation. You are acknowledging your real truth. Are you, in a way, unbalanced? Are you investing too much in one part (professional) and leaving another part (family) behind? 

Prioritize your life accounts.
What matters most? Based on your big picture (eulogy) and your actual situation (conditions of your life account), how do you want to prioritize your accounts?

Prioritization gives clarity. Clarity brings simplicity. Simplicity brings change. The authors strongly suggest that you keep your “own account” next to the top. I agree.

I really believe that in order to take care of others, I first need to take care of myself. 

Fill out each account. How can I get from here to where I want to be? In this part, you go through your purpose, envisioned future, select a few inspiring quotes, face your current reality, and define where you want to be.  

And then it’s time to make it happen.   

Make it happen. 

Sometimes there is a debate about what is more critical in business: the strategy or the execution? There is no doubt, both are crucial. But I believe that companies who execute an average strategy have better results than a perfect strategy poorly executed.  

And the life plan is your strategy; you need to ensure that you execute it. 

The critical part here is to plan for it, to implement it in your yearly, quarterly, monthly, and daily planning. For each account of your category, you described “what” you want to achieve first. 

It’s now the time to plug it into your schedule as a “working session” with yourself to find/dig into the “how” or start executing when your next steps are already evident.   

In 2017, I noticed that I was drifting on my physical account, which is my top priority. You know, adding weight, feeling that I had lost the control of my body. I had decided to build a 3-year plan to come back to my “20-year -old bodyweight” by the end of 2020. 

In the beginning, I did not have the full “how” in place. I plugged a working session on my list for thinking about the plan. I came up with many ideas for the long and short term. 

As I started “with the end in mind (habit 2)”, it was easier to split my plan on targets for the year, the quarter, the week, and even the day. That’s it, I was starting my journey. It will end on the 31/12/2020. So far, I have accomplished: 

• My 7-minutes “easy work out” every day. I use the 7MWC app. And I warmly advise it for you. 
• I ran 3 marathons and one 100 km. 
• I’ve started to use the 16/8 intermittent fasting for one year. And I do it quite every day. 
• I’m starting every day with fruit before eating anything else
• I’m running between 2 to 4 times a week, depending on the period and the events I’m preparing for.

And so the question that you might ask yourself. “Are you on track with your target?”
The answer: “I’m on the verge of success if I can maintain myself at this weight until the end of the year. 😊”

But that’s only a small part of my journey. What gives me the strength and the clarity is to have “the end in mind.” I want to enjoy every day, every moment in my best possible shape, and for as long as possible. Maintaining my health is one crucial component. 

The book “Living forward” is a concrete blueprint that guides you in each step of your life plan. The first year might be tricky, but it’s really worth it.

For me, it brought me a system that I can apply every year. I feel aligned and drive actions with the end in mind. I’m looking forward to my next plan in December 2020 😊

How do you ensure that you put habit 2 “begin with the end in mind” in practice for your life project?