Creating a Life Plan: Why It Takes One Day
Think back to your last vacation. Chances are, you didn’t just walk into an airport on a whim and book a seat on the next available plane. Instead, you probably spent hours thinking about where you wanted to go, researching your destination, gathering supplies and arranging transportation and accommodations to have the best trip possible. You took the time to make a plan.
Now think about this past year. Did you start off with a plan for how to be the best spouse, parent, friend, leader and community member you could be? Or did you wake up each morning to fight new fires, only to find yourself wondering where the time went? It’s hard to get anywhere good in life without a plan — and the best plans take time and effort. That’s why for more than 20 years, we’ve coached our clients to take one full day to get away and create a Life Plan.
Our system has helped thousands of leaders design the life they want to live — and it can help you, too. This isn’t something that can be done piecemeal — it won’t have the same impact. This is something that requires you to focus and think deeply. And it’s worth every minute. Here’s why you need to schedule one day to create your Life Plan.
Free Yourself from Distractions
We love Mark Batterson’s saying that “A change of pace plus a change of place equals a change of perspective.”
When you take a day to break out of your normal routines and fully unplug, you can discover a whole new level of concentration. Free from work, obligations and the constant buzz of device notifications, you’ll be able to focus on what’s most important to you — without the rest of the world pressing in. You’ll be surprised by how much you can get done when you’re not multitasking all day long.
Consider Your Impact
What’s your purpose in life? What kind of impact are you having on others? How do you want people to remember you after you’re gone? We can all agree that these are important questions, but we don’t spend much time thinking through them in our busy day-to-day lives. That’s why it’s so important to break out of our normal routines and dive deep.
Taking a full day to create your Life Plan will give you the time and space to really think through your purpose, impact and legacy. By the end of the day, you’ll be motivated to live out the commitments you make in your Life Plan not just at the head level, but at the heart level.
Create a Meaningful Plan
Writing your Life Plan isn’t easy; it takes focus and deep thought. But it’s not rocket science — we guarantee that if you commit to the process for one full day, you’ll finish the day with a working draft. And the sooner you have your draft, the sooner you can start thinking through how you want to carry out the commitments you made in your Life Plan. By following through with your commitments, you can start to experience the meaningful and significant impacts of designing the life you want to live.
Your Life is Worth It
What do you want your life to look like a year from now? There are 365 days between now and then, so set one of them aside to transform the rest. Your life is worth it.
