Do you have a plan for your life? That’s the question we’re asking on this episode as Jeff walks through how he developed and is pursuing a life plan.
Zig Ziglar, a well-known author, and communicator said this: “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
Sadly, that is how many of us live our lives – aiming at nothing. We’re just letting life happen to us. And If you let life happen to you, you may end up living a life where nothing worthwhile happens.
Now, you don’t have to have a life plan in order to succeed in life. I think It creates some focus to succeed, but this isn’t a requirement to live a successful life. If you want to see what my life plan looks like, I’ve provided a sample portion of it as a download below.
I’ve also included a template for you that follows the process I used. You can use this blank template, which includes all the instructions you need, to build your own life plan.
Daniel Harkavy — https://www.buildingchampions.com/who-we-are/coaches-and-staff/daniel-harkavy/
Becoming A Coaching Leader Book
Building Champions — https://www.buildingchampions.com/
Eddy Shigley — https://www.indwes.edu/academics/faculty/edward-shigley
Seven Steps To Creating Your Life Plan:
1. Schedule the time — This is where so many people get derailed when it comes to goals, dreams, bucket lists, and life plans. They simply don’t schedule the time to do it.
2. Seek God in prayer — A bucket list is one thing, but this was a life plan. This is what my life was going to be focused on for the next 20 or so years, I didn’t want it to be just about things I love to do. I wanted this to be about my legacy. What would I leave behind? What would be the lasting impact of my life?
3. Set the length of your life plan — Now, there is no set length of time you have to do. I would suggest no shorter than ten years and no longer than what is humanly reasonable. Ten to thirty years is probably the most common range.
4. Start with Scripture — I wanted a Scripture that would guide my Life Plan. Again, I didn’t want this to be just about things I love in life, but about my legacy. What I wanted to leave behind. Because of that, I wanted Scripture to be the foundation for it all.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that will prevail.
Psalm 92:12-15 But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!”
5. State your values and your vision — If you write down values but don’t live them out, they are just words on paper. They aren’t values, they are aspirations.
Values are not just the words that we say, they are the way we live, born out of what we believe, because of who God is.
6. Set your goals — I loved the idea in Harkavy’s book of accumulating net-worth in each account. When you think in terms of net-worth, you are thinking of the long game. That’s what I wanted to do in these accounts.
So often, we make decisions based on what will make us feel good on Friday, not what will be best for us and others in the future. Net-worth is future thinking, not Friday thinking.
7. Systemize the review — If you aren’t going to review it, don’t do it. Like for real. This is way too much work and too important to do it once and then not review it. Reviewing it is going to get it connected deep into your heart.