Why should you reconsider your five-year plan?

There is no better way to find out whether this or that thing works for you or not than to track the result throughout the process with the help of specials. applications, a helper partner, or a spreadsheet - any tracking tool will work when applied consistently. The 5-year plan is practically the grandfather of all methods for planning your own life and achieving important long-term goals. It helps to move towards them accurately and purposefully. Unfortunately, the five-year life plan has suffered the fate of all good classical methods - it is gathering dust, completely forgotten, in a dark corner.

But the point is, if you neglect to draw up a five-year plan, it is as if you are ignoring the big picture of your life. If you are good at short-term planning, then all the more you need to try to make a five-year plan.

Why 5 years?

Five years is long, but not too long. This distance is long enough for you to set goals that will lead you to significant achievements, but not long enough to be sucked into the swamp of procrastination. Of course, working with short-term goals is easier and more enjoyable, since either the deadlines are rushed or you will have a quick result. When you set long-term goals, it is much more difficult to work with them, but in the end you will get much more meaningful results. You must surrender to the power of your own imagination, be bold enough to clearly envision and strive for the life you want. And then establish a detailed plan that will make your dream come true. It can be tricky, but definitely worth it.

If you cannot imagine in some detail what you want in five years, then it will be quite difficult for you to be at the point you need. Almost impossible.

Investment is proportional to success

You may currently be living in a one-room apartment with three other tenants. You tell yourself that this is temporary and calm down. People rarely change their lives if they are unhappy with something. Usually, changes need to reach the maximum tipping point, but sometimes this is not enough.

By creating a five-year plan, you greatly increase your chances of success in achieving your goals and living the life you want in five years. People who write down their goals are 33% closer to achieving them than everyone else. And according to a study by Dave Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, people who regularly write down their goals earn nine times more in their lives than those who don't.

When we have no direction, we move aimlessly. By detailing what you want your life to look like in 5 years, you sign up to your own vision of your future and start detailing the steps. necessary to achieve a particular long-term goal.

Daily work and transcendence

A 5-year plan is a balance between main goals and dreams and small details. One of your goals in life may be wealth, another is buying a house. Both goals will play an important role in developing the plan.

First, think about your life in general:

How do you want to see her? Think global things like health, adventure, experiences you want to have in your life. Having a business, family.
How will you live within the context of these goals for the next five years? Examples: starting a business, traveling to three different countries, or reducing stress.
What would you like different from what is happening in your life now?
What would you like to change over the next 5 years?
What tasks do you want to solve?
What experience to gain?

So, you have general and more specific goals for the next 5 years. Now it's time to detail them further. If, for example, you want to visit three different countries in the next five years, what needs to be done to make it true? Save money, learn a new language, make time on vacation? Break each of the resulting sub-goals into a chain of steps that will help you achieve it. For example:

Main goal: travel

Five-year goal: visit three countries

What needs to be done to make this happen?

Money. Estimate how much money you need. How will you save this amount and when and how long will you have to save to collect it.
Knowledge. Explore the countries you intend to visit and sign up for language courses.
Vacation time. Review the vacation policy of your current job and adapt your plans to accommodate it.

Do this process for each of the Mega Goals and their corresponding five-year goals. The more detailed your plan is, the more likely you are to see it implemented at the end of the first five-year plan:) Break the five-year plan into annual action sequences with deadlines. Then, detail the current or next month of that year. If you need help putting together a plan, try the specials. apps or services, such as MindTools.com, which has a variety of tools to guide you step by step.

Review your plan frequently

Whichever tool you choose to help yourself, the most important aspect is its frequent use. Review your 5-year plan on a regular basis to see if it is working or not and to remind yourself which direction you are going. 5 year plans are not tough. As you grow, your plan will do the same, helping you focus on the long term. The ultimate goal here is progress and growth. A 5-year plan allows you to build your life the way you really want, because you have a purpose and focus. At the same time, it is flexible enough to adapt to your changes as you go your own way.

Based on the materials of the article.