Possible Life Planning Headings

Things that could go into a Life Plan, courtesy of Josh L.:

1. Purpose / Vision / Mission Statement - I like the idea of a bunch of pictures for the vision representing what you want in life. The purpose or mission statement should be clear and concise.
2. List Core Values / Beliefs – list of a handful of what you believe / don’t believe. What do you want to stand for? What are your top organizing principles?
3. Heroes - List a few people you strongly admire and why you do so. This will serve as guideposts for your own progress.
4. Life Categories:
1. a. A brief mission statement for each category of life: career, family, creativity, spiritual, educational, giving back, health / fitness, etc.
2. b. Break each category into 20 year, 10 year, 5 year, 1 year, 6 months, and 90 day goals that are as specific and measurable as possible
5. SWOT Analysis – re-do yearly, and confront the brutal facts. Need to have an accurate picture of your starting point, so you can map your route to your destination point.
6. List your main “sabertooth tigers” – those things that are most likely to take you off your path. The more aware you are of them, the more you can avoid them. In addition to distractions, list your top fears.
7. More of / Less of list
8. Commitments (see Achieve! Spreadsheet). Breaking down your goals into specific, measurable, trackable behaviors
9. System for penalties and rewards – build in accountability mechanism
10. Daily affirmations / inspirations
11. Write your own Epitaph. They always say, “start with the end in mind”. This applies to life also.

My immediate thought on this was:

These are great sections. It would be easy to turn this from a valuable personal exercise in developing a life plan, into a mechanical exercise in developing a template for life planning. I suggest a buffet approach, where a series of possible areas or thought exercises are out there, and everyone chooses the areas that are most meaningful to them. I personally love the visual (picture) vision statement, affirmations for each life category, 5/1/90 day goals for each life category, weekly and monthly commitments, etc. and will be developing those specific areas out for my plan. I would expect overlap with someone else's plan, but not 100% conformity.