How do you come up with a life plan?

[JamesR]

Working a 9 to 5 job to hit ERE money is easy. Yet working for myself is hard, why?

As an INTP, I have too many ideas, dreams, and desires - many that are contradictory. I struggle with narrowing down my choices, and sticking with them.

Perhaps I need a system for creating a plan, and prioritizing my ideas/goals, and also a way to keep my eyes on the big picture - to remind me where I'm going and why.

Any ideas/thoughts?

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How do you come up with a 1 year plan or 5 year plan etc?

How often do you re-evaluate your plan?

What questions do you ask?

What constraints do you follow?

Are these even the right questions?

[distracted_at_work]

Great questions for Christmas Eve I struggle with these too but I will try..

How do you come up with a 1 year plan or 5 year plan etc?
Visualize what you want your life to look like in 1 or 5 years. Have conflicting visions? Me too. I think the solution is to have several acceptable plans and then let life go on. Depending on the events of the year odds are you will end up at one of those destinations.

How often do you re-evaluate your plan?
Constantly as new information comes available. Don't be dogmatic when a previously inconceivable opportunity comes along.

What questions do you ask?
Am I happy in X aspect of my life? What do I need to do to change? What is my timeline for becoming happy? What are the sacrifices? Are they wise? Worth it? What would Jacob do? (XD)

What constraints do you follow?
I need to not freeze to death or starve. Maybe elaborate on this question a bit. The only constraint for a life plan is survival. Otherwise everyone's will be different based on what they value.

Are these even the right questions?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The more experienced folks have any input?

[wolf]

I have recently watched a TED talk about that. The speaker was one of the authors of the book "Designing your life". It is based on the method "Design Thinking". And because I like methodical thinking very much, I will give the book a try. It is a methodical architecture based on the mindset of a designer. It must be pretty practical too. Maybe it is something for you. There are several videos about it available. These days I'm watching them to get a feeling how it works. The two authors are from Stanford University and has been researching that topic for years.
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-L ... op?ie=UTF8

[Rouva]

Priorities and realism.

I don't think that making a great design of your life is possible. If I look back, there has been many unexpected events I could not have foreseen, but they ended up changing me very much. I made different choices because of those experiences, and they changed my way of thinking permanently.

Age is another factor. For example, I think I should have stuck to my childhood idea and became a doctor. I worked in a hospital for some time, and realized I would have been fairly good at that job. But I'm not going to start studying for third degree, because I could not achieve a similar position I have in my current profession. I could become a doctor, yes, and specialize, but because I've spent 15 years doing other things, there would be other, better candidates for hospital administration positions which would be my strongest talent. So it's not realistic to pick this path. I much prefer to be a specialist in my own field than a general worker in a new field.

Mostly, I decide a few things I want to prioritize, and a time limit if applicable. Then I make them happen, and just go with the flow with everything else. The problem with complicated plans and rules is that they don't adapt well to changing circumstances, and they are cumbersome to follow and execute. If you have nine goals for a year, you will probably end up doing a great job on one or two, and the rest of them end up neglected or with sub-par results. Why to include them at all, then? I prefer 100% or 50% success to lousy 20%. It's much more motivating.

I have a general idea of where I want to go and what I enjoy. I know what I'm doing next year, or five years after that. My ERE schedule is tied to one of those unexpected life events I mentioned. I know that four years from now my ability to work full-time will be compromised. So I need to save up the bulk of my money by then. I'm planning to use that chance to change careers and start my own business. To support that goal, I've adjusted my current work role a bit, enabling me to use these four years to make a name for myself in my field.

Decide what things are non-negotiable. For example, my absolute top priority is to stay alive until my kids are grown up. I was orphaned at young age, and only one of my close family members managed to see me to adulthood. So I'm eating my veggies, keeping my BMI in check, exercising regularly, going to dentist, slapping on sunscreen and making certain all my numbers are within healthy range. Every time I catch myself slipping in any of these, I readjust and focus on how to get them done. I've already had one close call with infective endocarditis (heart disease is the bane of our family) and I was stuck in a hospital for two months, but I pulled through with no permanent damage. It's bothersome to pay attention to all these things, but I'm starting to get old enough to notice a difference in my general well being compared to family and friends who don't prioritize their health. They have aches, pains and permanent medication. I have none.

[classical_Liberal]

...

[Fish]

It's said that life is what happens while you're making plans. One approach is to focus on process over results. Instead of starting with a goal and back-solving for the sequence of actions needed to achieve said goal, just do what you want to do in the present (but make sure you can live with the consequences).

Harry Browne said in How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World that one should never set or pursue a long-term goal without being absolutely sure that it will bring happiness. Instead, the suggestion is to start by experimenting in the present (a la "spaghetti method"), learning about oneself in the process, and use that feedback to make a course correction and slowly be guided in a direction that is consistent with one's own nature.

Add in the concept of ergodicity (ERE book definition: "Attitudes combined with actions lead to habits which, over time, tend to deliver certain deserved outcomes") and the reverse fishbone technique, and you can do thought experiments to extrapolate the future results of your present actions. If you don't like the expected result, then change your plan and iterate until you are satisfied.

Mostly, I decide a few things I want to prioritize, and a time limit if applicable. Then I make them happen, and just go with the flow with everything else. The problem with complicated plans and rules is that they don't adapt well to changing circumstances, and they are cumbersome to follow and execute. If you have nine goals for a year, you will probably end up doing a great job on one or two, and the rest of them end up neglected or with sub-par results. Why to include them at all, then? I prefer 100% or 50% success to lousy 20%. It's much more motivating.

I agree with this! Especially as someone with young children at home, I've learned that there's a very limited capacity for change. I can choose 1 or 2 zeroth order goals ("tactics") and to accomplish everything else beyond that, I have to rely on the side effects of my choices ("strategy").

A lot of my recent posts on the forum have been written with this in mind... the zeroth-order goal-slots are incredibly valuable so using even one of them on "saving money" or "FI/RE" reduces the change-potential that is possible in the present. I am coming to the conclusion that if there are sources of life dissatisfaction besides the necessity of working a full-time job, those should be addressed first(*). Financial independence should either be pursued as a side effect, or be given the firehose of your attention and effort only after you are satisfied with the non-work aspects of your life.

(*) Of course, if your financial house is on fire, prioritize fixing that and do what it takes. But at some point the situation will stabilize and money will no longer be at the top of your priority list. I am advocating for switching the tactical focus when you have reached the "money is not my #1 problem" point, instead of waiting for FI/RE. (Apologies for the digression -- this really belongs in the "Money is a solved problem" thread)

[IlliniDave]

For the most part life just sort of happens and while I am a planner by nature I only make plans for short or medium-term goals I am actively working towards. So I don't make general 1- or 5-year plans but I do have a plan for accumulating resources in support of ER, for example. In other words, I don't plan out my life, but I do sometimes plan out getting to specific goals. And often those plans aren't so much intended to give me a road map from A to B as they are a way for me to gauge progress. Again, with my accumulation plan, I know what to do and approximately what I'm aiming for--I keep a plan mostly to project when I might hit the goal.

In the most general sense I re-evaluate plans on an ongoing basis. Whenever I become aware of significant new information, I fold it in. For example in the coming week or so I'll be redoing my iDaveSim spreadsheet to reflect the new income tax arrangement in the US. In the same spreadsheet I update to current account balances at least once a month. I use historic data captured in the periodic updates to refine future estimates.

In terms of the questions to ask, before I would make a plan I'd ask myself goal setting 101 questions. What is the goal? Is it specific enough I can clearly check a box that it is done/is it measurable? Is it achievable and realistic? Etc., etc. If you're searching for goals then worrying about plans might be premature.

If you are just looking for a way to transcend the day-to-day monotony I find having a measuring system in place to be helpful. I have a bunch of silly little metrics I use almost as mantras. Every calendar day I continue my full time profession buys me 3 days of ER, or every week I work puts $X into the stash, stuff like that. I've used journaling to keep an ongoing internal dialogue that both challenges my goals and keeps me focused on them. I also keep reminders around. In my office at work I have a couple photos of the view from the front of my cabin at sunrise. So when the occasional dreadful day comes along I have a palette of things to remind me that whatever is aggravating me is not the point.

How to narrow down a million dreams into a reasonable number of realistic goals? You just have to determine what is most important to you. Ask yourself why each is a dream and be very honest with the answer. One-by-one, imagine going the rest of your life without fulfilling them. Determine the kind of person you think you want to be and identify the dreams that most closely align with that. Rank them in terms of how achievable they are and what the cost of achieving them is. Lastly, be flexible. The half-life of dreams can be pretty short.

[sky]

One side of planning is identifying pitfalls so you can avoid them. In life, pitfalls include things like unplanned pregnancy, alcohol or drug addiction, impulse buying of expensive items with a loan, and illegal activities. A self-designed moral code is useful in avoiding pitfall behavior.

Another aspect is learning to make the right choices on major, complex life components such as career, education, partner, location and association with social groups. Each of these items require significant thought and research.

Then there is the large area of small decisions in life that together have a large impact on the direction your life is taking. Having effective life goals and using those goals to make daily decisions is important to promote continuous life improvement.

[Farm_or]

When NASA fires a rocket, 99% of the time it is off course. It takes many many corrections on the way to get where it is intended.

That brings to mind a post made earlier this year where somebody did an excellent job with photographs to visualize their goal and checksums along the way. It reminded me of my daydreaming during my long commutes. The ideas were close, but not exactly turned out how I'd imagined.

A lot of good advice preceding this. Particularly, not firing your rocket in the wrong direction to start. You might still be able to make your goal, but you're going to burn a hell lot more rocket fuel.

[BRUTE]

it just happens

[CS]

I'm an INTP as well.

My advice is to choose one thing at a time. Make a list of all your desires, and then prioritize them by what must be done when you are young, and what can wait. Don't spread yourself too thin with trying to do too many things at once, and don't forget that time a much more precious commodity than money.

[TopHatFox]

Working a 9 to 5 job to hit ERE money is easy.

Let's not get crazy here

[Lemon]

I don’t have a specific 1 or 5 year plan. I find such things rather restrictive, at least within the SMART format. I would probably be better for making something more concrete plan wise but I somewhat enjoy drifting. At some point I would like to do a proper ‘web of goals’

I do weekly and monthly try and reevaluate how my actions are fitting my goals and attempt to adjust sails. In this respect I ask myself if my actions fit my desired outcomes. I they don’t I try and work out why that is. In the same vein i have various people who I feel are superior in one or more field and I respect, I try to ask if I am acting in the same manner they would.

[cmonkey]

I am not much of a planner in the traditional sense, despite being full fledged INTJ. In general I try to project myself forward in time and imagine how current decisions will affect 'future me', particularly with big life decisions. Try to connect 'current you' to 'future you'. Personally, I try to maximize future me's comfort and minimize effort needed to produce that comfort.

I also have a very very good idea of the things that bring me happiness and pleasure in life and I try to support those things with every day decisions and actions. Once you can do this, it becomes easier and the effect starts compounding until its just second nature.

An example of a round of planning that I've come to despise is making up the annual veggie garden. DW loves making up diagrams and lists and stuff and I have done it in the past but only half-heartedly. When it comes time to plant, nothing goes where I "planned" it anyway because I can usually think of a better spot for something when I'm actually planting it. So now I just starting a whole crap ton of each type of veggie I want to grow and "find" room for it, even if its planting in pots and flower beds. Better to have too many than too few when it comes to veggies.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Objective-Based

I have goals in the future, which I try to general aspire towards.

Whether or not they work is up to me and luck.

[fips]

I break it down into four steps:

1) Finding my life goals
I think I derive my ideas mostly from communication with people close to me, doing my own research on the Internet and trying to reflect on what is important to me. Also, I have a personal coach, applying various techniques, helping me to prioritize. Not surprisingly, it turns out my goals roughly fall into the the categories of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Also, the goals should be interrelatable - think in terms of web of goals, if possible.

2) Breaking down my life goals, making them as SMART as possible and partly gamifying them
This is the fun part. I try to find mini experiments and make it a challenge, to build new habits that roughly help me to follow one of my goals (and not too many of them at the same time).

3) Tracking my life goals
For some goals, I have set up an online journal exclusive for one of my best friends to track our progress. If we fail, we owe each other money, and - depending on the challenge and our current set of rules - if we both fail, we donate (think in terms of win-win).

4) Adjusting course
I have found that using mini challenges for sub goals is a good way to incorporate learning cycles. Rarely the sub goal and the metric you have first come up with are the jack of all trades, so it's helpful to reflect and adjust.

Something I found most challenging about this process was to find a lasting but versatile way to document it. That was one of the reasons why I started my own blog a few years ago. I use it mostly as my own journal to document progress but also to retain interesting knowledge I have stumbled across.