My family and I are just about finished planning our annual summer trip. We love to travel and summer is the big trip of the year. This year we are going to Ireland and England for two weeks. We started planning last year after that summer vacation. So between discussing the trip, researching the countries and working with a travel agent, we have invested probably 30 full days getting prepared for this trip. That’s roughly two days of planning for every day of vacation.

I take comfort that we are not alone in our zeal for planning. Time management expert Alan Lakein said,

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”

Imagine if we invested that much time in planning for other major life events:

The average working life time is forty years. You would have to plan eighty years before your first job. Unless you are Moses planning in the desert to return to Egypt, not many wait this long for their first job. But many do find themselves out of school in their twenties with no plan; wondering what direction to take in their career. Now, at twenty years old, you may not have found your dream job, but planning works nonetheless. It doesn’t have to be the last plan you ever make, just make one so you can move in a definite direction.

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

The average life expectancy in United States is seventy-seven years. It isn’t physically possible to plan your life for 154 years before living it. But, like your career – you’ll be better off with a plan than without one.

After all, we plan lots of things in life very well. I already mentioned vacations. There are entire industries built around planning individual life events like weddings, birthday parties, relocations, and of course funerals. We are great at planning when the outcome is within reach and life changing We are sometimes not so good when the outcome is far away even if it might be just as life changing.

The idea that you can’t plan your whole life keeps people from planning anything for their life at all.

Here’s the secret to a life plan:
You don’t have to plan every turn in your life to have a life plan. You just need to have a destination in mind and plan the short term steps that will move you in that direction.

In his best selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey discusses this in his second Habit: Begin With The End In Mind. He uses the analogy of climbing a ladder as activities we undertake. We often hear about people who are climbing the ladder of success. Covey’s main point in this area is before you begin climbing you have to define success.

“If your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster.”
– Stephen Covey.

Your life plan, therefore, begins with defining where you want to end up; then works backwards planning the steps you think will get you there; finally, it focuses intently on the shortest steps that you can take today and requires you to take them. As stated by Peter Drucker,“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.”