How to create a life plan
Write a life plan that lets you live every day with a deep sense of meaning.
Life is an unfolding story that we live and write each day. There’s no pause button, nor can we go back and restart. Life continues as we speak, and our time (on earth) is finite.
The question is, then, are we using our given time to create a story that is meaningful?
Most people today who say they’re not interested in life are simply not interested in the story they’re living in—not life itself.
I just finished reading Donald Miller’s book ‘Hero On A Mission - A path to a meaningful life’. (Releases Jan 11).
The book, also a course, invites readers to discover and design a meaningful story for their life, using the characters of storytelling - the hero, victim, villain and guide, as well as a practical life plan and daily productivity tool.
The book is both inspiring and highly practical. It’s really an antidote to what is now rampant nihilism (a lack of meaning) in culture today—especially among young people, which as a soon-to-be father is concerning.
Don explores a key question and choice we all must face in life: do we let fate write our story (which does a terrible job), or do we pick up the pen and write a story that’s meaningful.
“I used to think life is something that happened to me, but now I think life is something that I get to create” - Donald Miller.
And you get to create yours too…
Image: I revise and edit my Life Plan at the start and end of each year.
What is a life plan?
Everyone ends up somewhere in life, the question is: will it be where we intended it?
Why do many people find themselves stuck and unhappy with where their life is going? One of the reasons is that is they’ve allowed others to write their story — be that friends, marketing, politicians, religion, the media, and so on.
To create a life plan, then, is to pick back up the proverbial pen and create the life we envision. We don’t have to let fate be the writer anymore —we have agency to edit and rewrite the story of our lives.
Now, a life plan itself doesn’t create meaning — it’s just a document. Meaning comes from wherever you find it. Whether that be your faith, a loving family and friends, helping others. I’m not here to say what is meaningful, rather, how you can take what is and create a beautiful story with it that you can live out each day.
Who needs a life plan?
Leaders
Managers
Employees
Students
Everyone who wants to live a meaningful story will benefit from creating a life plan.
Is a life plan prophetic? Perhaps. Does it guarantee a smooth sailing life? Of course not — but it does help you navigate challenges.
We all tend to get bogged down in the day-to-day running of our lives. The problem with that, though, when life throws a curveball, we can easily throw aside our dreams or give up on them altogether. We forget the main story.
What a life plan does is ground you in the bigger story that’s being written, whereby the hero (you) is on a mission to achieve something meaningful. Easy? No, but meaningful? Yes. There’s a truth about life — good things are always on the other side of hard things.
And to stay the path, we need a plan to keep coming back to.
How to create your Life Plan
Step 1. Write your eulogy
The first step is to write a eulogy for your life. This may sound a bit morbid, even cryptic to think about. But believe me, this assignment is life-giving.
Life is temporary, and we aren’t here for long. Writing your eulogy helps you envision how you want your life to have turned out. From a story perspective, this is starting at the ‘climatic scene’, which is in fact when we finish our story — death.
“Begin with the end in mind” is the second habit in Dr. Stephen R Covey’s infamous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s based on principle that all things are created twice: once in your mind and once in the physical world. The assignment to write your eulogy (albeit fictional at present) is so powerful.
It’s important to note: You’re not writing your actual eulogy. This will not be read at your funeral (or maybe it will be!?), rather, this is an exercise in envisioning how you’d like your life story to be remembered by those closest to you.
Benefits of writing your eulogy:
It gives you a visual story of your life in which you can aspire to live out
It gives you perspective of your limited time here on earth
It helps you think of yourself as a creator in life, not just a consumer
It gives you ‘narrative traction’ to create something new and do hard things
It allows you to look back over your life, before you’ve lived all of it
I encourage you read Don’s book where he unpacks the key elements and steps to writing your eulogy.
Some of the things to include in your eulogy:
Major projects you worked on and accomplished
Causes you were passionate about and were part of
Significant relationships you engaged in and what those people meant to you
Communities you belonged to or created
Significant challenges you overcome
A legacy you hoped to leave behind
Tips to get you started:
Keep it short
Use a template. You can use the one that comes with the Hero On A Mission book.
Make it ambitious, but realistic
Don’t get bogged down in the details
Revise it often
Step 2. Cast a long and short-term vision
The next step is to cast a 10, 5 and 1-year vision for your life. Now that you’ve written your life story (eulogy), you’re probably wondering where to start.
Following the framework in Hero On A Mission, you’ll want to create a:
10-year vision,
5-year vision, and a
1-year vision
These vision one-pagers will give you short and long-term direction for your life.
Areas of your life to include in your short and long-term vision:
Career
Health
Family
Friends
Finances
Spiritual
Tip: Add your age, at the time this vision is set. For example, If I’m 30 years old and setting my 10-year vision, I’ll be 40 at the time it is fully realised. Adding your age helps you put the vision into perspective and helps you realise the clock is ticking!
Again, Don’s book has all the downloadable templates you need to do this.
Step 3. Create a plan to achieve your goals
We don’t fully transform by thinking or dreaming, we transform by doing. This is where the rubber hits the road— and where many get lost knowing where to begin.
I’m reminded of a quote by Michael Hyatt: "To accomplish our goals, we must distill our dreams into daily actions."
To achieve our goals, we need a plan that turns them into daily actions.
There are a lot of different goal setting tools and frameworks out there, and Don includes one in his book, but here are the key things you’ll want to include in your plan if you’re serious about achieving your goals:
Have a clear and specific goal (‘lose weight’ is not specific)
Have a deadline/completion date
Have partners to help keep you accountable to your goal
Have milestones to measure your progress
Have a reason why this goal matters (to you)
Reaching our goals isn’t easy, it doesn’t just happen —it requires daily sacrifices. For example, if you want to get out of debt: you’ve got to stop using the credit card and instead, allocate money to repaying the debt, which can feel unpleasant in the moment.
That’s why we need a thoughtful planning tool to take action daily to realise our goals.
And that brings us to the last tool needed: A Daily Planner.
A daily planner, in any shape or form, is critical to prioritising and making the most out of each day. I’ve personally enjoyed using Don’s daily planner from the Hero On A Mission Book, and also recommend and use Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner.
Whichever planner you choose, remember this: writing and living your own story stems from your daily habits.
Things a good daily planner will include:
A daily ritual (to review)
Primary and secondary tasks filter
A daily schedule/appointments feature
Plenty of space to take notes
Reflective questions (or notes space)
3 ways to implement your life plan
If you don’t wish to do this on your own, and you’re looking for a plan or guide:
Read Donald Miller’s book which unpacks in detail how to create your life plan.
Take the on-demand course: Hero On A Mission
Hire a Coach* (one-on-one) to help you create or refine your Life Plan.
A final thought:
Healthy people grow and transform. Creating a life plan will help you go from thinking ‘life is happening to me to ‘I am transforming to become the person I intend to be’. The difference is a person that is resilient in the face of challenges and finds a deep sense of meaning and purpose in every day of writing and rewriting their story.
Written by Lachlan Nicolson.
Further Reading:
How to achieve your goals in 2022
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*Leader Guide Coaches are Certified with Business Made Simple. As well as helping create a Life Plan, we can help you implement all of the BMS frameworks across Messaging (StoryBrand), Marketing, Sales, Leadership, Management & Execution and more!
