One with You
It’s easy to get swept away by the cycles of daily life. We find ourselves caught in a cycle of routines, obligations, and unforeseen events, rarely taking the time to pause and reflect on where we’re headed. This is where life planning comes into play—a process that empowers you to take control of your future, align your actions with your goals, and ultimately lead a more fulfilling and purposeful life.
Life planning is not just about setting goals; it’s about envisioning the life you truly desire and mapping out the steps to get there. It involves a holistic approach, considering every aspect of your existence, from career and finances to health and relationships. By dedicating time to planning your life, you create a blueprint that guides your decisions, helps you navigate challenges, and keeps you focused on what truly matters.
In this blog, we will explore the nuances of life planning, exploring how it can enhance your sense of direction, improve your mental and emotional well-being, and provide a clearer vision for your future. Whether you’re at a crossroads, seeking greater balance, or striving for personal growth, life planning offers invaluable benefits that can transform your journey. Life planning can help you craft the life you’ve always envisioned or create a vision for the life you want to have.
Your Personal Road Map
Life Planning is your very own guide that draws from your personally developed itinerary focused on your most desired places to go, sights to take in, experiences to savor, identifying the causes you want to champion, and being with the people dear to you, on your most significant journey imaginable.
Your guide is tailored for and by you, matching what’s core to why you are who you are; taking into account what you yearn for most. You’ll discover what obstacles might get in your way. Determine who can help you overcome them. You’ll even have the freedom to exercise your option to choose the timing to take action on possible adjustments to keep your journey on course.
When you find that certain aspects of your itinerary no longer align with your initial planning, you can let them go. This includes adding new choices to your itinerary, including changing where you wish to travel, expanding or scaling back your list of people to be with, and shifting experiences based on your change of heart.
Essentially, Life Planning is a roadmap that identifies what is most important to you that is born of your dreams and aspirations. It’s a way of taking wishes and fantasies and turning them into a plausible approach to making them a reality.
What Life Planning is not, is a plan for the end of life. By contrast, it is as the title suggests. It is a way of looking at your life in terms of what can be possible when we allow ourselves to dream and then look at ways of turning dreams into reality. It is also not a plan full of guardrails. Instead, guidelines for how to move forward. It also is not a constriction that can not be altered.
As the saying goes, “Life happens when you’re making plans.” The suggestion is that life does not go according to plan. While this is often true, the lack of a plan provides you with no starting point nor ultimate attainment of something important to you because you chose not to put whatever it is in motion.
Life planning allows you to consider what you really value most and then map out steps to move you in that direction. While you might find something else along the way, the life plan guides you to possible roads to travel. Something that I often heard as an athlete is a quote credited to Norman Vincent Peale, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
Creating Purpose and Direction
The significance of life planning is twofold. First, consider the analogy of taking a trip. You wouldn’t embark on a journey without some level of preparation and planning. Without a plan, you might find yourself overspending, ending up in places you didn’t intend to visit, and missing out on key experiences you would have cherished. Just as a well-thought-out travel itinerary helps you maximize your trip, life planning ensures that your resources—time, money, and energy—are directed toward your most valued goals.
When you have a plan for your trip, it’s easier to manage unexpected events with contingency plans. Similarly, life planning equips you to handle unforeseen circumstances with greater resilience and adaptability. By anticipating potential challenges and having strategies in place, you can navigate life’s uncertainties more effectively. This proactive approach reduces stress and helps you maintain a steady course, even when faced with obstacles.
Second, life planning fosters a deeper sense of purpose and direction. It encourages introspection and self-awareness, prompting you to identify your core values and long-term aspirations. This clarity of purpose acts as a compass, guiding your daily decisions and helping you prioritize what truly matters. Without a plan, it’s easy to become reactive, constantly responding to immediate demands without considering their alignment with your broader vision. Life planning keeps you focused on your ultimate objectives, ensuring that your actions are intentional and aligned with your desired outcomes.
In essence, life planning is about taking charge of your destiny. It’s a proactive approach to living that empowers you to design a life that reflects your true self and aspirations. By planning your life with intention and foresight, you set the stage for a more organized, balanced, and fulfilling existence.
–This post was originally printed on July 1, 2024 on Byron Darden’s website. Read the full post here.
Byron Darden Bio
Byron Darden is a global executive coach to leaders at the world’s most prestigious Fortune 500 corporations like American Express, Blue Cross, Capital One, Disney corporation and the NBA (just to name a few).
A leadership consultant at the highly acclaimed Harvard Business School, Byron was hand selected to teach in both the MBA and Executive Education Programs, blending his unique experience as a professional coach and businessman, championship level figure skating and professional actor. He also teaches executive leadership at Columbia University’s Business School, Darden School of Business, Duke University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
A former professional figure skater and 30 year master coach to Olympic-level skaters, Byron learned the rigor, discipline and training regimen needed to compete and win at a world-class level. He even performed as a Principle Skater in the Ice Capades alongside Dorothy Hamill, Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean and Debi Thomas just to name a few.
Byron earned the Registered Life Planner® designation in early 2024 and uses the skills and methodology with his coaching clients at Triple Axel Executive Coaching.
Kinder Institute of Life Planning
Kinder Institute of Life Planning provides experiential training on client-centered relationship skills to financial advisors and professionals worldwide. Since it began in 2003, Kinder Institute of Life Planning has trained thousands on its life planning methodologies that deliver clients into the lives they long to live. The designation of Registered Life Planner® (RLP®) is earned by completing an entire course of study including The Seven Stages of Money Maturity® Training, the EVOKE® Life Planning Training, and a subsequent Life Planning Mentorship Program. To learn more about life planning, trainings offered by Kinder Institute of Life Planning, or to find an Registered Life Planner® professional, visit www.kinderinstitute.com.
