Are you a planner, a sideline cheer leader, or a person who plans and reaches your goals? Your answer is crucial to the way you view life planning.

A life plan, especially a financial plan, gives you more control of your life. It also provides a clear path to reaching your dreams and your life purpose. It all begins by sitting down with a trusted advisor and writing out your thoughts, your pressures, and your ideas for the future.

At no other point in time is life planning more important than NOW! A life plan is a living, breathing document that becomes a compass to your future. It requires checkups from time-to-time to ensure its accurate and reflects where you want to go. But that is where you get to be creative!

A plan is used to prioritize what is important. It provides guidance for decisions based on your priorities and then keeps you on track and moving forward when you feel discouraged or when you are tempted to give up. Each one of us needs a life plan so we are living life to its fullest.

Plans are nothing; planning is everything! —Dwight Eisenhower

My 411 weekly plan is a great way to start each day! Basic 411/Perfect Day refresher: Work on your core values, look for ways that you can experience life in a fresh way, contribute to the world around you through random acts of kindness, and then work to keep your finances in order, especially during this time of shift and staying put. A Perfect Day attitude works(!) regardless of your circumstances. Let’s go deeper! Let’s dig deeper, so you experience even more in life

Six reasons why you need a life plan

• A Life Plan Creates Vision. Life planning gives you the opportunity to dream big. It allows you the space to imagine what an average day in your ideal life looks like. You can imagine where and how you would work and the income you would earn.

Maybe your ideal life means gaining new skills to find a more fulfilling job. Maybe it is honing your skills to increase your marketability and discover new ways to enjoy life, plan for better opportunities for your career. Or maybe it’s working from home to spend more time with your family.

Life planning is not just locked into your financial prowess. It also takes in areas like your career, and health. It strengthens your weaknesses and teaches you to sport areas you want to overcome. Clearly defined: a life plan outlines what success looks like for you.

• Life Planning teaches you to be honest with YOU! True life planning creates the right atmosphere where you become very honest about your limitations, desires, and what you want to achieve. Life assessment includes the roles you have in life, your satisfaction with different areas along with your strengths and weaknesses.

It’s holistic and takes into account your career, finances, personal development, community involvement, health, relationships, and your faith.

• When you plan you learn to prioritize what is important. Once you identify the roles you play in life, the areas you want to improve and your strengths and weaknesses, you can prioritize these to discover what is most important. Financial goals are essential when it comes to caring for your family.

Through planning you learn to prioritize areas of your life according to what is most important to you. For example, I have found that at a certain point in life health and family become even more important than just climbing a corporate ladder. Hobbies and friendships gain traction and you may find yourself wondering if you should take a step forward and actually do something you have longed to try!

• Life Planning identifies your own values and self-worth.  Your values represent who you are as a person. When you identify what is important in your life, decisions become much easier because you clearly see what does and does not align with your values. A good example of this is the value you place on work. You may see your work as being gratifying and serving a purpose more than you value the size of your paycheck. Understanding this helps you narrow your job search to opportunities that are more gratifying instead of a position with a higher salary.

• Life Planning establishes a pathway so do you reach your life goals and dreams. After you have established your values, you want to set the right goal into the plan. This includes establishing high-level goals, mid-range goals and short-term easy-to-reach goals. Each of these levels are outlined through life planning. For each role and area of your life, consider the big goals you want to accomplish, but also make them realistic. Goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

• Let’s outline an action plan and go forward! This step is crucial. You don’t want your action plan to end up in a file drawer under the label of unclassified! You want it to be beside you on your desk as a reminder and road marker to where you are going and how you will get there.

As a trusted planner and financial advisor, I can show you how to create a plan that works and will work! Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with me and let’s get a plan in place for you that works today and into the future.