Examples of other roles include (but are certainly not limited to): chef, dog lover, brother, photographer, boss, mentor, traveler, grandchild, thinker, etc.
To help you form your list, think about things that you hope to do. Do you want to travel to another country because you’ve never left your home state? If so, ‘traveler’ would be added to the future list.
A helpful way to figure out the reasons behind your desires is to imagine your own funeral (while this is a morbid thing to do, it really does help!) Who would be in attendance? What you want people to say about you or describe you as? Perhaps the most important things you would want someone to say is that you were an amazing mother and changed the lives of thousands of animals through the organization you volunteered with.
For example, you list might include: am ‘sister’ because I always want to be there to support my brother; want to be ‘writer’ so I can write down my grandparents’ story, etc. You could also try writing your own eulogy. Think about what you would want people to remember about you and your life if you died tomorrow. This can greatly help you in figuring out your priorities.
Career/Vocation; Social (family and friends); Finances; Health; Travel; Knowledge/Intellect; and Spirituality. Example goals (according to the order of categories): Become a renowned architect; get married and have two kids; make enough money to comfortably send my children to college; maintain a weight of 120 pounds; visit every continent; earn my master’s degree in Architecture; visit Borobudur Buddhist temple.
Lose 10 pounds by June of 2014. Be accepted to master’s degrees programs in architecture by April 2015. Travel to Indonesia to visit the Borobudur temple in 2016.
From now until April 2015, you will need to: A. Research graduate architecture programs. B. Write any necessary documents for the program’s application. C. Fill out the rest of the application and submit it to the proper authorities. D. Wait to hear back from the schools. E. Pick the program that you want to attend the programs that accepted you. F. Enroll! Think about any potential people and resources that you can use to help you achieve your goals. If you know someone you know works in an industry you want to get into, for example, reach out to them and ask them to mentor you.
This is a good time to review the details of each step–like the names of the specific graduate programs you are going to apply to. Or, if one of your goals is simply to be happy, write out the details of what will make you most happy along the way.
When you review your life plan, also assess the successes that you have achieve so far. It is good to keep track of your accomplishments.
Don’t limit yourself to a certain number of goals–your life plan is a fluid thing. Add goals as they become priorities in your life and remove those that aren’t as important anymore. Failure at some points in your plan is inevitable. That doesn’t mean it has to derail everything. Consider options and actions for when failure occurs. How you deal with setbacks can be the difference in whether or not you achieve your goals.
