Creating a Plan for your life.

Creating a Life Plan

What are the benefits of creating a life plan? What is a life plan? And what would be the best life plan for you?

You may also wonder if it's actually worth it. Will you see a significant improvement in your life? Will having a life plan make you happier? More successful? Wealthier?
From my own experience and that of countless others, I can assure you that creating and using a Life Plan is extremely beneficial.
Most times the term "life plan" is used to refer to a financial plan or a career plan. These life plans are very worthwhile and have provided innumerable benefits to their creators.
The term 'life plan' is also increasingly used to define a plan for our lives. Does making a plan of our lives make our lives restrictive, binding, too controlled? Or does it actually give us 'more'? A lot, lot 'more' ... more success, more money, more happiness and more freedom?
Ironically, the latter is true. If you want to live a rich and full life, then creating a Life Plan is absolutely necessary.

Another monumental outcome that occurs when we create a Life Plan, is that many of our problems 'disappear'. (You'll believe it when it happens to you!) Dr Martin Seligman, Psychology Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, founder of Positive Psychology, and best-selling author of Authentic Happiness, states- "I used to think that all you had to do to get a happy person was get rid of the negatives in their life, but if that's all you do, you don't get a happy person, you get an empty person. You need the positives too."

A Life Plan is all about filling your life with positives. A well planned and written Life Plan will be full of the things that you want out of life. It's true that people who USE a Life Plan live more purposeful, fulfilled and happy lives.
Whichever format you choose to use, there are three foundation elements to include. Thoroughly considering these three 'steps' and then using them to develop your Life Plan is, I believe, essential to being able to live a fulfilled, successful and happy life.
The following three foundation steps not only address 'getting rid of the negatives in life', it ensures you add the positives. These are elements that every successful person has applied to their lives in one form or another, and they are the Steps I recommend when developing your Life Plan.
I have developed these Steps into the Lovely Life Plane-workbook: a step-by-step process of creating a Life Plan. It is as simple, or as complex, as YOU would like it to be. It is not 'controlling' and does not restrict spontanity. A Life Plan should be what YOU 'are' - and include what you WANT, from the heart. And if "not having too many plans" is one of your 'plans', then that's great - include it in your Life Plan! Why even bother with a Life Plan if it's not going to help you live the life you want to have lived?!

The Lovely Life Plan is an A to Z process of developing a whole life Plan. There are simple, straight-forward 'steps' to take that do take time and effort – but for those who are willing to put in the preparation, the result is truly magnificent.

The Lovely Life Plan is not about 'working on problems' (though it will 'fix' most of those as well), it is about re-thinking and re-organizing the foundation aspects of your life, while at the same time ensuring you don't lose all the wonderful things that you still want - those that you have already achieved/created in your life.

The foundation Steps the Lovely Life Plan Workbook leads you through are:

step 1 : KNOW WHO YOU ARE (i.e. BE THE REAL YOU!)

Firstly, you must learn about yourself. You might think that's fairly straight-forward, but the fact is that a lot of us don't really know what we want, or what would make us happy, or even how to treat ourselves well. For many people, if they treated friends like they treat themselves, they wouldn't hang around!
If we start by learning about ourselves (i.e. what is in our hearts), and learn how to look after ourselves as our number one priority, we become much more effective, exciting, and lovable people. Also, we feel much more fulfilled, happy, excited, and loving as well. Therefore we feel happy, and the people around us also feel happy because of us – our partner, children, parents, work colleagues, church and club members. Yes, everyone 'wins' – 'looking after yourself' is extremely beneficial!
By 'looking after yourself', and therefore being at your physical, emotional and spiritual best, you are then able to contribute to the lives of others to your fullest extent. Of course you'll also be as highly motivated and productive that you can be! Simply by creating a Life Plan you will become a more fulfilled, successful and happy person.

step 2 : KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY WANT, AND WHY

The second crucial 'Step' to creating a Life Plan that really works is to identify what TRULY makes you happy – from your heart, not your head. By pinpointing those things that give you a tinge of exhilaration – that make you feel alive, or simply content – they are the things you want to spend as much time of your life doing as possible. These 'things' range from the every day activites right through to the 'big hairy goals' that you'd LOVE to do but just haven't figured out how to yet, or are scared to have a go at.
Most people yearn to be successful and live happy lives; yet most people don't even know what they REALLY want, and/or what would actually make them feel successful and happy. It's easy to find out, it just takes a bit of 'being good to yourself time' to work it out!

"The indispensible first step to getting

what you want is this: decide what you want."

Ben Stein

step 3 : KNOW HOW YOU ARE GOING TO GO ABOUT GETTING IT!

Ah, now it's time to get what you want! This is the third 'Step', which most people consistently put first. Rarely does it work when not preceded by the first two 'Steps'! Even if we have already created a Life Plan for ourselves, often we soldier on for years and years, trying to achieve our goals and 'dreams' that will make our life better, until finally we're totally disheartened. We then either keep trudging on, or we give up trying altogether ... for whatever it might be - a satisfying and interesting job, to lose weight, to become more healthy, to take that extended vacation we've always yearned for, or for a better life all round.
Getting what we want isn't actually that difficult. Of course the 'grander' your wants, the more dedication and effort it will take, but that's the fun of it! Allowing ourselves the freedom to be happy is what takes the work.

Follow Step 1, Step 2 and then Step 3 to creating a Life Plan that will enable you to live, what I call, a lovely life. Successful people all over the world follow these steps. Certainly they don't follow the Lovely Life Plan to do it, but they DO apply the principles outlined – step–by–step – within the Lovely Life Plan .

Lovely Life Plan is all about you learning how you can live a purposeful, passionate, peaceful – and therefore, fulfilled, successful and happy life.

It's not a 'pep me up', nor is it unrealistic in any way – it doesn't tell you that your life is going to be perfect, or that you can have anything you want. It IS about applying a few age–old principles that will allow you to live an exceptionally fulfilled life MOST of the time – and for the rest of your life.
If you choose to use the Lovely Life Plan e-workbook when creating your Life Plan it will take several hours of self-paced 'work'; it also takes a mental and physical commitment; and it costs a small amount to purchase. You are also invited to use the ongoing free services to assist you. Then be prepared for the most wonderful results in your life!

Our society gives us the gift of choosing how to live our lives. As Dr Seligman points out, we do not have to live a life of 'learned helplessness' - we simply make a choice, follow through with action and then commence living a successful and happy life. It really is as simple as that - when you know how to do it. Creating a Life Plan is simply a tool to enable us to take baby-step-by-baby-step until we have learned a new behavior of accomplishment, success, and therefore fulfillment and happiness.

"You are never too old

to set another goal

or to dream a new dream."

C.S. Lewis