What is life planning, and why do you need it

Anna-Lisa Natchev
4 min readNov 27, 2022

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Life planning is a personal development process that enables individuals to take control of their lives, create a clear purpose and vision, and set achievable goals.

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It is an empowering tool that helps you assess where you are currently in life. When you clarify what matters most, you gain an unique perspective on personal skills and values. Use it to identify opportunities for personal growth and professional development. When you have your plan clearly set out, it will help you to establish healthy boundaries and relationships, pursue personal ambitions with confidence, as well as make well-informed decisions about your life.

Life planning provides the structure needed to help uncover personal strengths while also providing clarity and focus on areas that need improvement. It can help you navigate the complexity of life by giving you a roadmap toward personal satisfaction and success.

Whether for career advancement or personal fulfillment, life planning can give you the tools necessary to define your dreams and turn them into realities.

How to set your priorities in order

Having a plan for life is essential to remain focused and productive. An excellent place to start is to set your priorities in order.

Begin by visualizing what goals you want to achieve over the long term. Build up a dream in years that will motivate you daily. Once your overall vision is established, then take the time to map out a plan in months that gets you closer to achieving it.

Take account of the small victories and set targets for more significant accomplishments along the way. Those key milestones can help keep motivation and progress toward reaching the desired result.

Finally, learn how to constantly evaluate areas for improvement each week so that this process of self-improvement never stops and ensures that all efforts are going into places that give maximum value.

Setting one's priorities fully, thoughtfully considered, and in proper order lays down strong foundations to achieve any goal successfully and sustainably over time.

Tips for creating achievable goals

Have you ever set yourself a goal, only to never achieve it?

It’s an all-too-common problem, but it can be easily remedied with the right approach!

To create successful and achievable objectives, separate your goals into three categories: short-term, medium-term, and long-term.

Start by raising your awareness of each step needed to reach the intended outcome. By breaking these steps into smaller pieces, you’ll have a clearer idea of how far you have to go.

Once you have each segment mapped out, look at what resources you have to move forward — time, money, or any other needed skills. Once you have identified what’s required to take action on your objective, plan and make sure you factor each of them into the timeline for achieving success.

Lastly, develop resilience methods along the way that will keep you motivated when facing challenges — like listening to music or having inspiring conversations with trusted friends.

How to track your progress along the way

When creating a life plan for yourself, one of the most important steps you can take is keeping track of your progress.

This is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to make long-term accomplishments, as it provides insight into what was effective and what wasn’t.

The best way to do this is through journaling. Journaling helps you hone in on your goals and dreams while highlighting any areas in which you may fall short. For example, if your goal is to save money, writing down exactly how much you have saved so far — and what obstacles have been preventing further savings — can provide helpful insight into why you haven’t yet reached that goal.

Journaling can also help you decipher the motivations behind your actions, allowing you to adjust those motivations accordingly if need be. Through meticulous record-keeping and self-reflection, tracking your progress will set you up for success in achieving whatever goals or dreams you may have set for yourself.

Another highly effective method for tracking your progress is creating visual representations of milestones or checkpoints that correspond with specific achievements.

That way, as long as you are making steady progress towards these checkpoints (and thus towards reaching larger goals), any momentary setbacks can be easily accounted for by looking at the bigger picture — something that regular updates on one’s situation allow them to do better than ever before!

Celebrate your wins and learn from your mistakes

Everyone experiences both wins and losses in life.

However, it is essential to remember that despite experiencing setbacks, you should also take the time to celebrate your successes.

Reward yourself for any wins, no matter how small they may seem; these will help you stay motivated and on track with your goals. Additionally, try not to dwell too much on any mistakes or losses you have encountered.

Acknowledging them is essential, but allowing defeat to overwhelm you will cause more harm than good. Instead, attend to what was learned from the experience and use that new knowledge to continue striving for success in the future.

Life planning may seem like a daunting task, but it’s essential to take the time to set your priorities and create achievable goals.

And hey! One last thing, don’t wait until New Year's Eve to start!

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Anna-Lisa Natchev
Anna-Lisa Natchev

Written by Anna-Lisa Natchev

SaaS Growth Navigator ,also sharing insights into reaching happiness from the Happiest people in the world...