3 Personal Life Plan Tips Most People Miss

Over the past 15 years, we’ve coached hundreds of people through personal and business planning. Nearly every week I am reminded  that I am privileged to work with so many remarkably talented people. Yet event these high-performing leaders face day-to-day challenges that threaten the well-being of their life plan and work relationships.

This post is part of the series – Personal Life Planning that Works.
Your Life Matters
Grow on Purpose
3 Reasons Everyone Should Have a Personal Life Plan
The #1 Way to Get Better Results with Your Personal Life Plan
3 Personal Life Plan Tips Most People Miss

I recently spent some time thinking about the hurdles that trip up nearly everyone as they work through a personal life plan.

I want you to be effective. I want you to be successful. So here are 3 Tips for Personal Life Planning Most People Miss…

1. Schedule a day to get away

The first time I tried to write out my personal life plan, I tried to work on it at work – in my office. I made some progress but it was slow. So I decided I would work on it at home. That didn’t work either.

After several weeks, I had made very little progress. It wasn’t until I scheduled 2 days away from everyone and everything at a quiet retreat in Central Virginia that I was able to make progress. In fact, I wrote my entire personal life plan during those 2 days away.

Now I plan a day or two away every quarter. You can read about how a quarterly review can bring dramatic improvements to your life and work and download my template.

A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days alone at a secluded retreat in southern Oklahoma. These 2 days were huge for me – I spent time relaxing, reflecting, thinking, praying. And I made significant progress in a couple of areas in which my growth had stalled.

Getting away is important for me.

You know it’s true! So do it! Plan time away. Budget for it. And protect it. If you do, you’ll be more successful in your life and work.

2. Keep it simple

Every single one of us struggle here. When we finally make time to slow down, reflect, and get clarity, there comes a point at which ideas begin flooding our minds. So we begin writing down all of these ideas for behaviors and habits can be improved.

Then, 1 of 2 things happens – we either 1) become overwhelmed by the length of the list, or 2) we become determined to fix all of them. Neither will have a good end.

So here are 2 ways to keep that from happening. As you write out specific actions for each personal plan account…

1. Include only 1-2 actions per account. Several years ago a client sent me his life plan to review. For each of his 10 personal plan accounts he had written 8-15 actions. There was no way he would be able to handle 100-150 action items all at once. So keep it simple. Then…
2. Focus on one action in one account in which you can make immediate progress. Resist the urge to tackle several. Do one. When you nail one discipline, you will gain momentum and energy to intentionally address other areas.

3. Be specific

I wrote my first personal life plan in 2004. But in 2011 I completely rewrote it. Because I wasn’t making the progress that I wanted to make.

The primary difference between my old personal plan and my new one was – I got very specific with the actions for each account. In fact, I got so specific, I can now plug the actions right into my calendar.

For example, in my old plan I wrote about my relationship with my wife, Sarah:

• I will regularly communicate my unconditional love to her by always thinking of her first, valuing our differences, caring about her feelings, respecting her opinions, sharing my most intimate thoughts, and by expressing appreciation and care.

Sounds pretty good, huh? I’m a romantic!

Now, here are the actions I identified for Sarah in my new personal plan:

• Spend time with Sarah at the end of every day communicating with her with no interruptions. (9:00-10:00 pm)
• Go on a lunch date with her every Friday at noon. Leave our phones in the car.
• Take her on two weekend getaways each year – one before May 30 and the other before November 30. Unplug from technology.

What’s the difference?

I got WAY more specific.

Guess which one has had better results! Yep – the new one! Here’s why…

An executive coach once told me – Specificity produces accountability. And accountability yields more consistent results.

So if you’re working yourself to death and still not getting the results that you anticipated, then you’re probably not being specific enough.

Get more specific with what you want to accomplish and when you want to accomplish it. Get more specific with how you’re going to do it. And get more specific about the help you need and with who you need help from.

Break the action down into smaller pieces. Assign specific time on your calendar. Whatever the action is – GET MORE SPECIFIC!

When you do, you’ll be far more successful in your life and work! These 3 tips will help you avoid the most common pitfalls in life planning.

I’m so committed to helping you succeed in your life and work that we developed the SIMPLE Personal Life Plan Guide and Template just for you! I want you to enjoy the freedom and clarity that comes from identifying your top priorities and I want you to avoid the struggles that I faced personally.

Click here to download the Simple Personal Life Plan Guide and Template.

Once you download it and try it out, shoot me an email. You can even send me your draft to review for you. I’m looking forward to hearing about the dramatic improvements to your life and work.