Preparing for the Future: Develop a “Life Game Plan”

There’s an old expression about planning that will set the stage for this blog, “If you don’t know where you are going, how you will know when you get there?”

A person wouldn’t think about building a house without a blueprint or buying a new car or home without a really thorough analysis or going into battle against the Pittsburgh Steelers without a game plan. Yet, there are a great many late Baby Boomers and Gen X and Yer’s who stumble through life without game plan for where they are going or how they are going to get there. In other words, they simply take a day at a time and hope for the best. Worse yet, some may simply procrastinate and put off the inevitable.

The problem with not having a life game plan is that you may come to your senses some day in the future and wonder how you got there, sort of like waking up in bed on a Sunday morning with a stranger.

This is not heavy duty psychological stuff. It is simply common sense that everyone needs a life game plan that hits the key requirements for what you must do to achieve your goals in life.

There are three areas of goals in life: personal, career and spiritual. Personal goals deal with what kind of a person you strive to become. Career goals involve what you choose to do with your time and talent to achieve a strong sense of accomplishment and self-worth. Spiritual goals deal with personal religious convictions and the supernatural aspects of life and death. A complete person should have goals established in all three areas. We will focus on the personal and career goals.

When we were kids, our parents and relatives pestered us with the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” If you said a “Doctor” or “Nurse” or “Teacher”, etc. they let you alone. I stopped them in their tracks by responding, “I want to be an urban shepherd…or a septic tank engineer.” But, behind the irritating question was a reality: if you don’t have a game plan for what you want to become, personally and career-wise, your life will manage you and you won’t manage your life.

Your future game plan starts by re-asking yourself, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Whether you are well into your career, or just starting out, the question is extremely relevant. There is a great difference between a person who has personal and career goals and a person who is simply working for a living. A person with goals can focus on their purpose and determine what they need to do to ensure their success. A person without goals usually waits for opportunity to come to them, if it ever does.

Setting your life goals is vital, but even more important is the need to work on implementing the game plan. A person with goals is highly motivated and focused on results. A person without goals may wander from job to job or relationship to relationship without ever feeling satisfied because they have not as yet determined what they want to accomplish with their life and career.    

The world is filled with people who work for a living. What we really need more of is people who live and work, fully and purposely, to achieve their life goals. Ask yourself the question, “What do you REALLY want to be when you grow up?”

Next session will focus on the need to stay positive.