Writing a Simple Life Plan, Part 2

This is part of a series of posts to help you develop a life plan. I hear people talk every year about resolutions — some make them — some don’t. Some hate them — some don’t — most don’t.

I’m confident the main reason most do not keep them and many refuse to make them is that they never put a plan of action together or applied enough discipline that would ensure success. Why make a resolution if you can’t ever keep it — right? We don’t like continual failure.

The point of this series is to put some feet to the idea of New Year’s resolutions or life planning. It’s probably the most simple version of such you will find. (But, it’s free and sometimes – many times – simple works.) In the last post, you were asked to list three or four goals you have for the new year. If you haven’t done that or didn’t read that post, start HERE.

If you have your goals listed, today we’ll get more specific with them. The key here is to further define your goals into something measurable – something where you can clearly track your progress and success.

To help with this part, ask the question for each goal:

• What would success look like for this goal?
• What would make me feel I’ve completed this resolution?

For illustration purposes, I’m using the same goals I listed in the example in the last post. First is the stated goal, followed by the more specific description of that goal:

Lose 10 pounds – I want to lose 10 pounds by (Insert realistic date here) by eating less and exercising more. There are a million diets you could take, but all of them are going to basically have you do those two things. The key is actually doing them. Let the goal – weight and date – be your marker to make you do the hard work of eating less and exercising more.

Improve my marriage communication – I want my wife and I to argue less about things, mostly due to poor communication. I want to understand her better and find more times when we are on the same page without arguing to get there. I want us to be able to talk through issues without raising our voice at each other.

Pay off my credit card – I want to pay off $7,000 worth of debt by (insert realistic date here).

Read through the Bible – I want to be able to say I have read the entire Bible and finish all of it in 2019. I want to read the Bible consistently throughout the year at least 5 days per week.

Write a book – I want to finish one of the many book ideas I have, have it completely written, and either have a publisher for the book or decide to self-publish.

Do you see the progression to a more measurable, specific goal here?

Don’t be too hard on yourself either. Small steps, repeated over time, lead to huge results. I wrote some examples of those type steps in THIS POST.

At times, while completing this second step it may redefine, shape, or even change the original goals. That’s okay. Keep in mind, this is your plan and no one else’s. The hope is you complete a plan this year you are pleased with and you make progress towards achieving some of your ambitions. The goal should not be for you complete them in a way, which only pleases others. Those type goals are not usually sustainable or repeated.

Again, the win here is to take this in steps and make it simple. Next time we’ll take this process another step forward.