So, this week, we're all writing our life plans. I'm going to share with you as much of mine as you will read. Remember, it's our ideal lives we're talking about so it's all going to be good, right? Right?!Starting from furthest away, we'll start with five years from now. By then, Monkey will be 11 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. (And yes, it's my life and I've started talking about my children; they are an important part of my life).
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 decent 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 to do other things. We'll be a couple of years off paying off the mortgage.
In terms of my health, I'll be in good health and more importantly, a size 12. I take regular exercise and eat healthily most of the time. Outside work, I'll have time to pursue interests that keep my brain ticking over as well as spend quality time with friends.
So, that's five years. 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 sorting out work/money is the most important thing and achieving a size 12 is almost as important so second priority for me. Everything else almost pales into insignificance. And yes, the vision I have for my life is not massively different to the one I have now, but it doesn't have to be completely different. If it ain't broke, after all, why fix it?
How was it for you? What is your ideal life like? How does 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. Publish your post - with a link back via the badge (code here) or direct to this post - and come back to link up below. The linky stays open so you can join in at any time. I'll check this post regularly for new links for the first week but after that, please comment so I know there is a post to read.
I promised when I set the task for this week that I would set the next task at the same time as posting my results. This si so we can build up the pace a little, but also, it's building on the work we've done on this task. This week's task will be about Goal Setting. What I want you to do is to review the exercises we've done so far and set some goals for you and your life. Goal setting is really important. It gives you something to aim at. It helps you make plans. It's not a tool to beat yourself with if you don't achieve it but it's important. Why? It helps you achieve more. A study was done of some MBA students and the 3 percent who had clear written goals earned ten times as much as the rest - put together. Proof enough of the power of this process.
Write a list of goals for yourself. They can be anything you want. It can cover as many or as few of the aspects of your life that we've already considered as you like. Write what you like. Don't worry about them being right or wrong. Why not? Because we will work on them later. Right now, I just want you to get some goals down on paper (or electronic media). Then blog about it. As usual, be prepared to share as much or as little as you want, although it has to be said, sharing your goals with others makes them more real and makes you more accountable. However, I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable with this process so I'd rather participants kept some things private if that suits them.
In particular, once you've written your list, I'd like to know from you whether you feel your list is too big, too small, too easy or too hard. I'd also like to know how committed you feel about the goals that you've set.
If you are new to Life Circle, then 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 (and we're only just on Week 3), 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 detrimental.
Thanks for reading and I can't wait to read your posts.