What is the appropriate timeline? Is there an appropriate timeline?
I felt having a timeline was the most important part. I still feel a person needs to decide for themselves what their most appropriate timeline is. It does not matter if it is 5 days or 5 years. Set personal bounds and then stretch them.
I was sitting here tonight attempting my 5 year plan. Five is my “Nth year plan”. Why because I heard it in a movie. And no I don’t have old balls and yes my plan is not to die. (I digress) As I worked through my 5 year plan, I realized that 5 is not my bound. Your plan needs to be dynamic, elastic even. Now I feel you need a combination of detail and broad strokes. Some things can be 5 years, some things can be 2 years and, others can not be bound by time.
Tonight I began to tweak my 5 year plan. I was able to pencil large trips for the next 5 years. I was able to set 4 years of financial goals. I was able to set 2 years for personal goals. I was only capable of setting a year of professional goals. I began to hit road blocks as I tried to stretch them all to 5 years. It reaffirms that “The Nth year plan” is really just an outline.
I now feel that this outline is only one of a few steps. I have not yet figured out what my correct number of steps will be, but I do have a starting point. As all go ideas are; I stole my current evolution. I am going to start with three layers to begin my “Life Foundation”. Like the strongest geometric shape the triangle, it will represent my foundation being made up of:
- a dense base consisting of a living vision statement (written in the first person) that will reflect the person I want t be and will be reviewed weekly
- the body will be made of the Nth year plan identifying milestones that will help me achieve my vision.
- capped off with the concise tip of the mission statement (no longer than a sentence) representing my call to order.
This triad has been test on some, but is not uniform for all. I am going to slowly incorporate it into my life. To ensure that it is not reckless or shallow. I have always had floating thoughts of the person I could be. It is now time to put pen to paper and start to flush out the person that I will attain to be.
This is a process and needs to be a living document. It will grow and evolve as I do. The foundation needs to be egoless and humble or else it will fail. I think a person is only as good as their willingness to achieve as well as fail. Like any other elastic item or cycle; you can only drift as far from center as the restrictions set by your boundaries….
