Creating Your Goal Plan, Part 1: Tips From A Life Architect

Have you ever seen people looking at a plane? Did you do it yourself? It always seems like such a wonderful experience: analyzing the details, going from a wide view to the finest details and vice versa.

In the past, I wrote about goal mapping and now I’m changing my language around goals to create a plan. Why? A map will show you how to get from one place to another, and that’s nice, but it seems to me that a map could be even better. A floor plan shows you what the end point will look like: the shape, size, and relative position of each room. A plane can be readjusted. It is personal and tangible. You set your goal within the rest of your life rather than simply giving you directions to get to a destination.

Any GPS or mapping device will ask you some questions about your trip: Where is it now? Where are you going? How do you travel (walking, public transport, driving)? Do you want the fast route or the scenic route? There are also questions related to creating a blueprint. How big will this structure be? Each room? How many rooms do I want? How are the rooms interrelated?

In this article, let’s focus on the general structure. What do you think is the general size and shape of what you are building? This is generally called an overall goal. It is a final point. Think of this overall goal as your mental image of your finished building (project). How big is it? How many stories? Because it is there? How will you use it? Perhaps the simplest way to answer these questions is to use a proven formula for setting goals: SMART goals.

Write down the biggest goal you can think of, a really long goal, something that will definitely expand your comfort zone. Now, check it against the SMART criteria and adjust it until it is as clear and robust as possible. If you don’t have a very clear idea of ​​what the finished building looks like, it will be difficult to plan individual rooms.

These are the criteria:

S – specific – Have you been as specific as possible? Can you clearly imagine this structure? Is this a country house, a beach hut, a castle in Switzerland? Maybe you want to create the perfect Manhattan apartment with park and water views, full concierge services, three bedrooms, an office, a library, a formal dining room, a breakfast bar, a laundry room, a large enough balcony area. to entertain at least 6 people, three and a half bathrooms and a state-of-the-art kitchen four blocks from the main public transportation. That is quite specific. As a business goal, it could be: In the next 24 months, I want to build a coaching and consulting business that works with wealthy, high-potential, high-performing women who want to put time and energy into creating their ideal lives and / or businesses and I want to have a constant income of $ 1 million from direct services and $ 1 million from passive income while working no more than 20 hours per week, no more than 30 weeks per year.

M – measurable – Can you incorporate real measurable criteria into your goal? The above examples have measurements: number of rooms, type of rooms, dollar figures for profit, time figures for amount of work, standards for clients.

A – Achievable – Is this something you can really do? Do not go into details here, you will develop subgoals and action plans later. Is this something you are comfortable with when creating an action plan? Is this a blueprint of something you can build?

A: realistic – Can this really happen? Can you find examples of what you want to build? I have been in apartments very similar to the one I have described; I know entrepreneurs who have the business I have described. I know these are things that can and do exist.

T – Timely and time-framed – Is this the right time to work on this goal? Do I have a realistic idea how long it will take?

If you have paid close attention to the examples, you will notice that the first example does not have a time frame, although it may be timely. Supporting targets (spaces in the plan) will need to be created before a time frame can be determined for this target. The second example, however, is both timely and timed. This is driven by desire and research. All support objectives will have time frames, so it will be possible to see how quickly it can be built. That is a great start. You now have the general shape and can begin to complete your blueprint. In the next article, we’ll develop your subgoals: the number of rooms on your floor plan.