Accomplishment is much more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects in your life. Much like a roadmap, you need to define the next details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.
Origin: What you are
A roadmap has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked introducing themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and i am a 17-year old, senior highschool student.” It doesn't tell you about who Jean is; it only lets you know her present preoccupation. To achieve insights about yourself, you have to take a close look at your beliefs, values, and principles apart from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you may also reflect in your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination is at the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she thought that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.
Destination: An image of who you desire to be
“Who do desire to be?” here's your vision. It is now important that you know yourself so you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and also the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or perspectives. Should you hardly know yourself, your vision and targets for future years would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all of the facets of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to possess a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.
Vehicle: Your Mission
An automobile is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in everyday life. To a great extent, your mission depends on which you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, which she wished to become one. Her chosen vocation would be a physician. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life focused on serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.
Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude
Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are found in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring along with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and assist you in attaining how well you see. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at the moment and what you ought to gain on the way. This two-fold assessment provides you with insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she required to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with individuals so she realized that this was something she wanted to change.
Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives
Landmarks confirm if you are on course as the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning your life, you should also have landmarks along with a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you can't set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of 3 years, because the minimum period of time to complete a master’s degree is 2 yrs. Rediscovering the reassurance of Jean as an example, she identified the next landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by age 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of the town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.
Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes
The objective of your life map would be to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that will make you lose the right path. But oftentimes our plans are modified on the way because of some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. As with any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we should anticipate them and adjust accordingly.
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