Where do you see yourself in five years? It’s the favoured question of many recruiters and employers in job interviews, but it’s really a question that you should be asking yourself in your personal life. When you ask yourself where you’re going to be in the next few years, can you picture it? Can you imagine the destiny you have mapped out for yourself and see how you’re going to get there?
The chances are that you can’t picture it, because most people don’t think about where they are going to be in five years or ten years. Life is for living, and you would want to live every single day as they come. The thing is, there is nothing wrong with a good daydream because dreams often turn to plans and those plans can turn into a reality if these are the things that you want.
You might not necessarily map out an exact five-year plan, but you might think about the things that you could want from your life. For example, if you’re not a homeowner right now, you might consider being a homeowner one day. If you don’t know how to drive, perhaps learning how is on your list of things you want to achieve. Maybe you want to completely change your life by changing your career. The list is endless, and this is not just a bucket list of “I want, I should, I can”, this is a list of what can I do to change my life and give myself the things that I want?
The one thing to remember is that you can use websites like https://www.juliettekristine.com/blog/vision-board-quotes-and-affirmations to help you to plan your life. Defining your goals and those destinations you want to go to one day is something you have to think about carefully and you can take as much time as you need to get this list together. Why should you plan your future? Because you have one!
If you are fortunate enough to know that you are going to achieve great things and have confidence in yourself, you’re going to shoot for the moon and land among the stars. It doesn’t matter whether or not your personal goal is as big as being able to go on vacation, you deserve to put these goals on paper and envision this life for yourself. Here are some of the ways that you can plan your life goals so that you can make it happen.
Make a list
There is nothing better than the satisfaction that comes from making a list of the goals that you have for yourself. Your goal destinations are the things that are important to you in life, and whether that’s having a beautiful wedding, or being able to go and see the Easter Island stone heads, you need to make sure that your ambitions are written down on paper. Writing things down can make things feel more real. If you are currently a retail worker but want to be a doctor right down the pathway that’s going to get you from A to B in one piece. Writing things down could help you to bring them into reality.
Consider your timeframe
Now, it’s important to know that your vision board needs no time limit. You don’t need to put a time limit on the goals that you have for your life. You don’t need to feel like a big clock is sitting above your head and panic because you’re not going to get there on time. Instead of worrying, consider your timeframe in terms of maybe your age, or simply ‘one day’. It doesn’t have to be now to have the goal accomplished, so remember the differences between the short-term goals that you would like to achieve now and the long-term goals that you are happy to be patient with.
Be clear with your goals
Once you have written down each goal that you have for your life, write down a secondary list of the steps it will take to get there. Your initial goal is your endgame, but the smaller goals or how you are going to achieve that endgame. For example, if you want to go back to college and learn to be a lawyer, you may have to take some additional classes to be able to get into college in the first place. So taking classes could be a sub goal of your main goal. Your next goal could be to achieve entry to college. Tick it off as soon as you get your acceptance letter. If you are clear with your goals, you can breathe these into your reality. Any of the smaller goals that have sub-goals will end up looking like a map. This is the map to your future.
Don’t forget your affirmations
Every single one of your goals is going to become a reality if you believe it. To be able to believe it, you need to affirm yourself in these goals. Are you heading for college? I am smart. Are you looking to make new friends? I am kind. Are you looking to get fitter and healthier.? I am healthy. Affirm your goals and make sure that you aren’t doubting them. There is no maybe for if in the sentences. There is no ‘maybe if I do it’ in your sentence. There is I will, I can and I should. You need these phrases in your life and it doesn’t make you arrogant to say them out loud. It makes you convinced of your own brilliance and that’s not arrogance because you as an individual are fantastic.
Create individual vision boards for each goal
Your main goals have so many sub-goals that you’re going to need more than one vision board. There needs to be more than one visual plastered on your wall so you can watch your dream come to life. Being able to tick off your goals step-by-step can feel so satisfying and you can watch yourself become closer to them. When you put your goals into vision boards, you are saying ‘this is my plan, I want this to happen’. It’s one giant affirmation.
Create your own schedule
Once you have your vision boards, you need to put together an overview of your goal destinations. If you want to be able to gallivant across the Galapagos by the time you are 30 years old, make your vision board a part of what you want to achieve in your 30s during your life. Write all of your action points on a schedule, so that you can feel like you’re achieving as you go.
Celebrate your progress
When you are planning for your future, you need to remember that there are small celebrations before you hit those main celebrations at the end of your goal. A medical degree can take seven years, and in that time you will achieve a bachelor’s degree and then your doctorate. Once you hit the level of achieving that bachelor’s degree throw a party for yourself. Even if you haven’t quite made it to graduate in medical school, you have still got that far already – and that’s brilliant.
Why should you plan for your future? Because it’s right there in front of you and you only get one shot at this life. Don’t throw it away, don’t waste it away, and don’t get to 50 years old and wish you had done more.
