I guess you've come here to read my life plan. I've written it before. It therefore might look pretty similar to that as it's only a few months later. Remember, it's ideal lives we're talking about so I'm hoping you're all using lots of positive language in your posts. I shall be checking your work later, she said in her best schoolmistress voice.
We'll start, as before, with five years from now. By then, Monkey will be 11, nearly 12 and Missy Woo 10. Monkey will have just started at high school, one that we believe is right for him. Missy will be in Year 6 and due to follow her brother the following year.
We're living in the same place but with the house well maintained and a new kitchen installed. Workwise, I see myself doing the same thing, working from home, kept sufficiently busy to be earning a good income, possibly with enough work to require some help, from a varied portfolio that is both interesting and challenging. Financially, we will have enough to pay all the necessary bills, leaving a reasonable amount of disposable income for nice things like holidays and a bit in reserve for those unforeseen events. We'll be a couple of years off paying off the mortgage, if not paid it off a bit early.
In terms of my health, I'll be in good health and have maintained a size 12. I take regular exercise that I enjoy and eat healthily most of the time. When I'm not working, I'll have time to pursue interests that keep my brain ticking over as well as spend quality time with friends and family.
What about a year from now? To be honest, it's not that different to a lot of the above. I'd like to think that I would be kept sufficiently busy to be earning a good income within a year as I'm doing more all the time. As we're not planning to move, I'd like to think that we could spend some money on redecoration or updating parts of the house. The key thing for me is that I intend to be a size 12 by then (if not sooner). Everything is pretty much the same, except that the children will be younger. I'd like to be able to afford a new car by then, partly because I don't think my current one is going to remain viable for much longer.
Having completed this exercise brought into sharp focus how much importance it is for me to sort out the work/money issue, and achieving a size 12 again is a close second. Most other things are minor in comparison, probably because many of them depend on or are connected to these two things. You'll notice that the vision I have for my life is not massively different to my current life, but I am not after total life change, which was reflected in my scores on the Wheel of Life exercise.
How was it for you? What is your ideal life like? How did it feel to be imagining it? Did it throw up any issues you'd not previously considered? If so, what were they? What does it tell you that needs to change sooner rather than later? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Just a quite note in case you are new to Life Circle. Please visit the Life Circle page above for more information and links to previous posts. Feel free to join in where it suits you - you can go back and do the previous tasks on catch up, or just start with the current task. Doing the previous tasks may help your thinking and inform the current task but you could equally start from now and it wouldn't be a problem. It's your shout.
Link up your posts below. The linky will start to accept posts from 6am on the day of publication, then will remain open until 9th February. When you link up, remember to put the URL of your blog post in the URL field and this needs to be WITHOUT the http:// bit at the beginning, because your link won't work if you do. If you get stuck, just shout as I can edit the links from the Inlinkz website. This time, I have allowed you to delete your own links if you so wish.