Since I turned 25 last year I have been putting some considerable thought into my future; where do I want to be in the future, what do I want to have achieved, who do I want to be? This had prompted me to start working on a five-year plan so that I have some goals to work towards rather than just let my life pass me by as it feels it has up to now.Currently the plan consists of Backpack page containing lists organised under the headings objects, personal and travel. It is still very much a rough draft and I may be should have said at the start that I’m by no means an expert at writing long-term plans.
Objects
Beneath the heading objects I have three things listed; buy a house, replace car and get a Mac. Each of the items are worlds apart in terms of attaining them and I expect to refine my five-year plan into one, three and five year goals. As acquiring a Mac doesn’t require as great a financial outlay as either a car or a house it could be achieved within one year. As cars and a house are more expensive objects, they require a bit more financial planning and by adding them to the five-year plan I can work towards putting money aside to meet the goals.
Within the next five year the housing market may well bottom out or become prohibitively expensive which will no doubt affect the prospects of achieving the goals. These are events that I’m unable to plan for (I can’t see into the future). Whilst it may mean I have to put off purchasing a house it may allow me to chase other goals within the plan.
Personal
Currently the goals within the personal list are a bit woolly; progress my career, enhance my education and get fit. These need refinement if I am to achieve them, an end point by which I can say that the goal has been satisfied. Obviously getting fit requires regular exercise and so doesn’t really have an end point but I could use a metric such as running a mile under 4 minutes as gauge to my level of fitness.
In terms of progressing my career I need to be more specific in what I aim to achieve. For example, an artistic director position working in London working for my own company on a salary of £50,000. I did say for example! As you can probably see personal goals will need to work with the goals identified in objects. Would a salary of £50,000 be satisfactory if I wanted to purchase a house in London?
Travel
Within travel there is a list of five countries that I would love to visit. These are goals that don’t require a great amount of financial planning as they could be achieved on any kind of budget. I like to think that they bring some form of balance to the five-year plan in that the other headings contain mature goals whilst travel allows that bit of fun.
As you can make out from what I currently have by means of a five-year plan it is in need of a lot of refinement and work doing to it, but I am confident that I will be able to fulfil the majority of the goals within it by 2015 just by having something concrete to aim for. The best bit will be in 2015 when I get to look back at the plan and see how many goals I was able to achieve.
It’s a nice idea to try and plan out what you want to achieve in life, luckily your goals are fairly specific and things you have a fair amount of control over.
I know you use a potential career as an example but it’s good to remember that although high salaries are nice to have it’s better to be in a job you enjoy, especially when you spend more time working than anything else.
Plus sometimes there’s something to be said for those moments in life that sneak up on you and that you don’t quite expect. It’s these things that make life interesting.
I agree that a high salary isn’t everything in life and that ideally you would do a job you love and get paid well doing it. Being a realist though you may find you have to sacrifice some of the enjoyment in order to be able to pay for a house or some of the other goals you want to achieve.
My plan isn’t going to include absolutely everything that I aim to achieve within the next five years, only the major goals as identified in the post. Nor am I going to fill myself with worry if I get off track. I hope to still have time for those moments in life that sneak up on you.