Why you don’t need a life plan

Many people want to plan their lives. They want to know where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. In fact, it all starts when we choose our subjects at school. We’re forced to think about what we want to do with the rest of our lives and what we’re going to need to achieve it. But this sets the tone of how we should live our lives…through planning, planning and more planning. Without a plan, we feel we are wandering aimlessly or have no direction. While it’s great to have an idea about what you want to do, I believe that making fixed plans is unnecessary. I’d go as far to say it’s not advisable at all! This may be a strange thing for a coach to say, so let me explain why you don’t need a life plan. 

The beauty about life is that it changes, whether that’s for the better or worse. That’s what makes it exciting because no one wants to live the same day on repeat: 

• Your goals change
• Your circumstances change
• Your needs change
• The world changes

If the journey can change, then it only makes sense that the destination isn’t always going to remain the same either.

1. Your goals change

When we’re young, it’s fair to say we don’t know a lot about our lives. We’re still discovering who we are and what we really want out of life. Therefore, our goals are often based on limited experience. You might want ‘this career’ or ‘to get married and have children’ before you achieve ‘that goal’.

However, life invariably gets in the way and often throws curve balls at us meaning things rarely go to plan anyway.

As you gain more knowledge and experience about who you are and what you really want, those plans change. Therefore, being more flexible with your ‘wants’ and your ‘goals’ is good for the soul.

If you are too fixed on a goal, it can often cause considerable stress, especially if the plan fails. This can lead to you feeling like a failure yourself. Some people do not recover well from failure meaning they start to lose focus or motivation and never truly end up anywhere.

2. Your circumstances change / the world changes

We tend to forget that while we often think we are in control of our lives, we are in fact only in control of our choices. We cannot control people or events around us, meaning that very often, our circumstances can change; sometimes overnight. Let’s face it, anyone with big plans for 2020 had to adapt quite quickly! 

Goals and targets set for that year were likely to be unmet. Instead, those goals might have moved or been scrapped altogether, which again suggests the need for flexibility in your plan. 

I was meant to be travelling the world in 2020. But the world changed and it was definitely out of my control. Those plans are now dormant, but not dead and I am confident it will happen at some point. But if I was set in my ways, then a knock like that could have disappointed me to the verge of depression. 

Flexibility in our plans gives us strength of mind. Even though the time isn’t now, it doesn’t mean never.

3. Your needs change

Wanting to be vet or a fireman when you’re younger is absolutely wonderful. However, if at the age of 21 you’re in IT and loving it, then your needs and desires have changed. No one is ever going to say you didn’t fulfil your ambitions and neither would you. So why do this to yourself as you get older? 

We are constantly growing and learning and what we think we want and need in our 20s is very different to what we need in our 30s and later in our 50s. You could end up a single parent or not able to have children at all. You might end up married, divorced and married again. Whatever happens is your path in your life, and you can either be grateful for what you have, or focus on what you don’t have.

However, if you compared your life to the goals you set decades ago, it could create negativity or even a sense of dissatisfaction with the life you currently have.

4. The best type of plan

If you have a fixed life plan before you’ve even lived, you can often miss life altogether. You might become so deflated when the plan fails that you miss other, better opportunities.  

So, what you really need is a flexible plan that has a couple of options attached to it. 

When it comes to your career, it’s good to think about what you want to do in the next 5 years. When it comes to health, perhaps that time frame is even shorter. If you want to travel the world or retire early, there might be smaller goals you need to reach first.

Once you know what you want, it’s so much easier to get it as you can work out the steps needed to achieve that goal. The important thing is to check in regularly to see if what you wanted or needed at the time, is still what you want or need now. 

Don’t be afraid to change the plan or even change your mind completely.

The only fixed plan for life that I recommend is to simply enjoy it. I love my life. I love every achievement, every disappointment and even the things I didn’t want, because they have shaped who I am. 

Every other plan you make, should be flexible. 

So, with that in mind, get a pen and paper and go plan your life’s goals for the next 5 years! And don’t be worried if they are completely different to what you had hoped to achieve when you were younger. You are not that same person anymore and that is okay.