Dud3s

My goals look very similar to yours, though I've fine-tuned them a bit. (I'm older, so I've had more time to think about the details!) I've already gotten 1-3 done, and I'm working on #5. Number 6... well, any answer I gave would probably make my boyfriend a bit uncomfortable. ;-)

I read this article once that encouraged you to make 1-month, 6-month, 12-month, 5-year, 10-year, and life goals, just to put everything into perspective. For example, you may want a large family, nice home, and successful career, but it helps to realize that there's an order to things: a successful career brings in the cash to buy a home and support a family. (I'm just speaking generally, not at you.) I've never been hardcore about writing my goals down like that, but just thinking about it in my head helps me determine what to concentrate on first.

If I did a 5-year plan right now, it would look something like this:

1. Continue growing my business until I've achieved real financial security.
2. Pay off all debts/student loans.
3. Grow my savings, especially my House Down Payment Fund.
4. Get married. (writing this one scared me a little)
5. Buy a house.
6. Travel the world as much as I can, while I still can.
7. Have a baby.

It appears that I'm a bit cliché, as well, but I'm more than fine with that!

I don't have a LIST of things I want to do but once we've moved out of our current house, I plan on finishing my bachelors in Political Science so I can teach High School Poli Sci.

I don't really have a five-year plan, maybe a one-year plan but that's as far out as I go right now. Back in high school I knew what I wanted to do up through my early/mid-twenties but now that I've got those things going I basically only have one goal from now on and that's to make 9rules as successful as possible. I've always had the goal of being a millionaire by age 25 so hopefully those two goals go together.

I recently wrote an article about maintaining focus, I wouldn't say it was a life plan but more of an an analysis of where I currently stand in life and how I maintain focus to get to the next stage.

Instead of regurgitating it, it's probably easier if you read it for yourself:

http://www.azcazandco.com/2007/08/14/maintaining-focus/

Kind of sums up exactly where my head is right now although I do like Mikes millionaire plan...

Back to the drawing board :(

I am a big adherant to that John Lennon quote "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

When I was younger I had it all planned out even though I couldn't imagine what my life would be like at 18, 21, 25, 30... So far my life hasn't exactly gone according to my "plan" because I'm not in 100% control of what happens in my life.

Family crises, natural disasters (my plan to work at the Times-Picayune and live at my grandma's house after college was ruined by a certain hurricane, for example), even meeting someone special whom I want to include in my future — all these things have caused me to make modifications to the blueprint.

Basically I'm at the point at which I've entrusted God with the plan. I just take everything as it comes and do the best I can.

I do have goals, though, don't get me wrong.

Why do people's grand plans always include "tour the world for X years"? It seems like a monumental waste of time, energy and resources to me. I have more focused goals in life than wondering around aimlessly around Zimbabwe or wherever people do this "touring".

My 5 year plan:

1. Sell business
2. Move to another state
3. make time to have kids
4. Open new business
5. Die happy

1,2, and 3 should hopefully happen within the next year.

LOL... I kinda did 3,2,4 and then a tonne of other stuff ;-)

@Heliophage: As a world traveler and graduate in anthropology, I can assure you that traveling is in no way worthless. Meeting people from different economic, cultures, and backgrounds benefits many people. In my own experience, it has helped form a strong value system, understand things outside my own bubble, introduced me to amazing people, and altogether changed my life. I wouldn't label that a "waste of time."

1. start university
2. finish with good grades
3. toke and drink too much
4. ???
5. Profit!

Well yeah I'd imagine it would be useful for an anthropologist, that would make sense, but I can assure you the majority of people that want to "tour the world" aren't anthropology majors, they're mostly wild-eyed kids that somehow got the ridiculous notion in their head that putting a backpack on and wandering around European train stations will somehow enlighten them and make them better people.

Oh I cant say anything here because nothing is going as I dreamed !! there is one decides everything !! .. But my Dreams are always with me..

I think that anyone who travels for an extended period of time -- especially the budget traveler who will socialize with "locals" -- will come back a changed person. Perhaps enlightened isn't the best word for it, but if you (not you you, the general you) spend a year with a pack on your back, putting yourself into unknown situations, finding your way through foreign countries, misunderstanding other languages, and getting to know people who live in anything from the most advanced city to a tiny little pueblo with no running water, it's almost impossible that your world view won't change.

Granted, when most kids set out for their gap year (or whenever), that's not their main goal; they want to drink a beer at Oktoberfest, eat fish & chips in London, and enjoy a gelato in Rome. But I really do believe that original intentions don't matter when it comes to world travel because the benefits can be so spectacular.

Everyone is different, and each of us has goals that suit us, and goals that we want to fulfill before we settle down and have a family, or become too sick to fulfill them.

I think that world travel is a wonderful idea, and I took my first trip overseas when I was 48 years old, and have been traveling to various countries ever since. I have never thought that any of my travel was a waste of time or resources...the resources were mine to use and spend how I saw fit, which included travel. Each trip has been a wonderful journey, insightful, filled with cultural pursuits I enjoy. I have children, grandchildren, a home, etc., my goals do not include those situations.

The majority of the people who want to tour the world are not "wild-eyed kids", they are stable and responsible adults, and most of them have adult children no longer living at home. It is a time of life when not having the financial responsibility to educate and bring up children allows them the opportunity to travel to places they have been wanting to see. Some adults travel to countries where their children who are in the military are stationed, some travel to countries where ancestors are from, some travel for pleasure, some travel for humane and charitable reasons...to help others in another country (nothing wrong with that), some travel for spiritual reasons, some travel because they want to show their children where they (the adults) were born, some travel to historic sites that they have always wanted to see, and there is nothing wrong with any of this. It might not be your goal, but it isn't a wasted goal in my opinion.

Each of us is an individual with different needs and goals. Your goal might not be mine, and vice versa, but we still should respect each other for what our personal goals are.

Personally, I want to travel the world because I want to gain a greater understanding of this flat world. I think, in this global economy in order to be successful in anything you do you must know about cultures beyond your own. Besides, it's fun to travel.

Honestly, it is not such an immense waste of resources/time. I plan to work the entire time I travel, either through my laptop thanks to some projects I have going which can bring in some pretty constant money regardless of my location. Besides, experiences really don't have a price upon them.
A better sense of life is worth the time invested.

(And no, I don't think that somehow by hitchhiking across Europe with a back pack my entire perspective upon life will be change)

(P.S... Of course, I'm still a freshmen in high school, so a lot is going to change by then.)

I wouldn't put "traveling the world" as part of a life plan of any sort, but it is something I would definitely do once I have the time and extra money to do so. My first trip out of the country was only a few weeks ago -- down to Cancun, Mexico -- and it was fantastic, especially since I got to rehash my high school Spanish pretty successfully.

First of all, I would like to say hello here :) I'm new here. Nice to meet you all.

Well, my life plan currently is:
1. Finish my master degree.
2. Get married - um, hopefully next year.
3. Travel to other countries.

Sounds cliche, but well... I really want to fulfill it all :)

Sometimes being flexible with your plan is more important than the plan. Life can smack you on the side of the head with little notice so I'd advise everyone to grasp every opportunity that is presented regardless of the order in which they appear.

I did #1, decided it wasn't for me, skipped to #5 which facilitated numbers #2 and #3. #6 kind of happened on it's own, but it's a more long term project as well.

Currently I'm working at getting independently wealthy enough to "retire." By retire I mean not worry about how much money an endeavour is going to make me. There will be more world travel mixed in throughout.

Can't say I have a life plan beyond being successful (at something) and having a cool family. Not a nice, good, or meaningful family, I want a cool family where every member understands the importance of wearing sunglasses inside.

I don't have much of a life plan, other than something like Scrivs: be successful at something (though I have two areas where I'm working on that: my quilt art and web design). The family part of this "not a life plan" plan at the moment would be to manage to live through my kids' teenage years without strangling them or myself, which is shaping up to be no easy task.

Other things in the works but not necessarily in any particular order (some of which are part of that "be successful" thing):

1. moving somewhere else (anywhere else almost, as long as it's not here)
2. buying a house (that would only happen if the "anywhere else" was in the States)
3. attaining "Master Quilter" status (awarded by the National Quilting Associaton for excellence in quilt design)
4. having a quilt accepted into the permanent collection of the Museum of the American Quilter's Society
5. growing my web design business to a level that is above the "starving programmer" status I'm at right now

#'s 1 and 2 are out of my control mostly, though my husband is looking for work elsewhere at the moment (thank goodness, 'bout time and all that). #'s 3 and 4 I'm well on the way, and I do feel it's just a matter of time (or timing) and making the right quilt that will take me there. #5 is something I work on every day, but takes time, obviously.

Great note! Makes you think.

I want career success (who doesn't?). A family with lots of love, laughs and we'll all be gaming pros able to leap the rocks in BFD on the first try. I spent a lot of time traveling to one city over and over that I haven't seen much of the world and I'd like to correct that. I have yet to leave the US...ridiculous.

I suppose I have a rather vague life plan, but it really is vague, and I'm more than prepared (n fact, I expect it!) to have to change my plan as life goes on. I've found that things very rarely work out how you expect or want them to, so one needs to roll with the punches.

Anyway, the "plan", such as it is:

1) Finish getting my bachelor's degree.
2) Work at some as-yet unspecificed location while my wife starts college.
3) At some point, get a master's degree.
4) More vagueness here - no idea what will be going on, so I won't really plan for it.
5) At a later "some point", get a doctorate.
6) Finally, at a much later "some point", teach at university.

I'd certainly like to travel a bit during my life, but that really depends on life, finances, etc., and I certainly won't be heart broken if I don't get to. I suppose that's the Buddhist in me talking - I'm just fine with how things are right now. Not much point in frantically grasping after something 15 years down the road; hell, I might not even be alive then!

I only really have two life goals. 1.) is to work for myself and be successful at it, and 2.) have a family. Maybe I should have more life goals, but I think those things will keep my hands full for quite a while.

I don't really have a life plan so much as I have a handful of goals for the next few years:
1. Launch the business I'm currently in the process of planning
2. Graduate university with a degree in business (August 2008!!!)
3. Spend at least three months travelling around Europe (September 2008)
4. Find a job that I love, in a city that I love
5. Travel more

I'm with MangoFalls ... as far as having a life plan, I haven't seen my past life years falling into any of the plans I've constructed in this life, thus far. Also, looking back, I am glad that was true.

I tend to think it's more about the adaptability or being able to have my eyes open to the opportunities that come my way. You could also say I'm not much of a "planner" and that I view plans more as an obstacle. Blinders, if you will.

What if my potential far exceeds the plans I have for my life?

Goals, however, are good. They are more short-term plans and are important to make progress, get things done. But even the order as to how things do get done ... not so much. :)

Jensized, I'm right there with you -- every time I've had a plan in place, life has derailed it. Of course, that just keeps things interesting. :-)

That being said, I think it's important to have the big, giant, 60,000-foot goals in mind...but to also have concrete steps to take toward achieving them. If the goals sit high up in the clouds with no steps for you to get there, there is no way any of us will achieve our personal plan.

Azcazandco, thanks for the link -- am heading over to read right now.

Here is my life plan for the next ten years:

1. Attend Naropa University and try to get a Masters Degree in Writing and Literature.
2. Tour Europe and Asia for about a year. And yes, I am going to have to work from my laptop as well.
3. Have Gender Reassignment Surgery (preferably before the end of next year)
4. Get married to another young woman, preferably another M2F.
5. Thanks to part 2, settle down somewhere where I really like it.
6. Buy a good, nice house. Live there for as long as possible.
7. Write a couple of bestsellers.
8. Escape the United States permanently.

The master plan:

1. Obtain permanent residency in Australia.
2. Start and finish my honours.
3. Get financial security and settle down with a family.
4. Start and finish my Phd in cancer research specifically dealing it on a molecular level.
5. Do my post doctorates into cancer based research.
6. Win Nobel Prize in biology.
7. Use all the contacts I know to get me funding into my own projects into human reengineering.
8. Create a better species.
9. Alter the human race and if possible make sure the old humans do not pass their genetic line to subsequent generations.
10. Ensure that the new generations of the human society is nothing like the old one.
11. Work on extending my own life span and of possible make myself clinically ageless.
12. Take a vacation and travel where I've never been before.

Of course mind you though, these are footnotes to the footnotes, the actual plan spans a couple dozen pages and I'm still changing things as things move along.

Not that anyone would take plans like this seriously anyway. Then again, they are only human aren't they?

I think 'life plans' are highly dependent on your age or stage of life you're in and facing. I'm figuring now how to make retirement just as interesting and intriguing as my career has been. I've been doing some volunteer work for Probation, Child Protective and Family Court. This brings respect and recognition and it is an extension of my work in many ways. I would like to connect with Vista and have several years of living and volunteering within this country around some issues I am passionate about. Most everything I am dreaming up is dependent on health, of course.

Funny. (Or maybe not.) My master plan has, over the last year, been completely changed. Different situations and a number of events have made me re-examine my original goals and update them, mostly out of the realization that my original goals were not what I wanted, but what others wanted for me, which while well intending limited me to what their perception of me was.

Currently, my goals are rather simple, although I will be developing these as time goes on:

1) Lose 100 lbs by October 31, 2008 (I'm currently at 275-ish, and started at 284-ish a few weeks back.)

2) Take a vacation to Alaska. This has been a life-long dream of mine and will finally be accomplished in May of 2008. (FYI: I've taken a grand total of 5 vacations in all my life, including my honeymoon, so for me, taking a vacation is a pretty huge deal.) The next dream here (not yet a goal) is to drive from Key West to Prudhoe Bay, and after that to drive around the Americas (From Key West to Nunavut, to Prudhoe Bay, to Tierra del Fuego, and back to Miami (with a few stops in between).

3) To develop $100,000 and more per year (in today's dollars) in ongoing, passive income from various business ventures.

4) To get to a level where I'm able to donate $40,000 per month to causes I deem worthy.

5) To start a school where philosophy, ethics, and the arts are intertwined with various sciences and mathematics, its goal being the overall betterment of humanity.

6) To live at least 120 contiguous, healthy years, then more, should science and technology allow.

Again, this is being redefined as we speak, but each of these, especially #1 and #6 are already in motion in one way or another.

As jensized and others have alluded to, life goals are best realized at a general level, more so than I will do (x) at a certain point. As the world changes and you grow older and more mature, your needs and desires will change as well, and your priorities will change accordingly.

Make your grand life plan one of where you live in such a way where you can say at the end that you lived through the whole process not necessarily saying you've achieved a, b, and c specifically, but rather that you got through the all the twists and turns with your ideals and integrity unquestioned.

Surprisingly, whatever I came up with never really changed with time. If anything, it's the motives and justifications of doing them that's changed, but as for the actual goals themselves, I've never lost track on them all these years.

When you look at it this way, I've wanted to do genetics long before the world heard of it back when I was 9 years old. I'm 24 now and about to finish a degree in medical biotechnology and medical science and I just handed in my application for a post grad honours degree. Where I'm headed never has changed, why I'm still heading in that direction however, I must have questioned myself an infinite amount of times on why I still persist in this crazy journey.

I've never subscribed to goals that you know are realistically achievable because, at least for me, when I look at them with what I know, there isn't any purpose or meaning. I've reasoned that life's got to mean more than just responsibility to ourselves, we've got to fit in the world with it. In my case at least I know what I want to carve out of life and I've never stopped trying to reach it.

I mean, that is what you call a "life" plan as I understand it, not just a bunch of goals cobbled together without a purpose. When you guys look at your life right now, what you plan to do, what you said you're going to do.

Is there a end motive, purpose or reason to them? Are all your goals positioning yourself for that final reason in your life for being here?

That's a good point! Goals should have a purpose and people need a motivation. Mine don't have a religious purpose at all, but more 'humanistic' in nature. I want to leave this earth with all goals having the same motivation, which is to have some positive permanent impact on children and my piece of the world. That's general enough to include many different slants.

Interesting. I don't relate to planning, actually.
I'm the wise woman with many children, very relaxed in talking to people, where before I would turn red, and I cannot believe the constrast in what I have to say now, when I compare with where I was years ago, I've grown so much as a parent and as a person.
I really enjoy helping out at the school of my little ones, where I give philosophical crafts, so when we cut paper, and glue it, I ask questions about the bigger picture. And I'm thinking of how I could invent a game or write a book about learning.
I want to moove for my husband, for his job, and for my children because of (high)schools. I hope to stay closeby my children in the future because I want to share my lifetime with them. I also have very dear friends. I have the goal to write a few non-fiction books, I finished one and started three others. Mostly related to development and school. I want to keep finishing what I start. I want to do something with my creative ideas.

Yes i do.But it chages every year so can't say anything fix.

:)

Good question. And honestly, I don't have an answer.

What do I want to get out of life? Love & Happiness.

What do I want to do with my life? This is a toughie, considering my situation. If you don't mind, I have to explain a little?

I'm sick. I was born this way. I'm not ashamed of what or who I am, nor who I'll become. My conditions are a part of me, and they'll remain a part of me for the rest of my life. The hardest part is learning to live with my conditions, moving forward one step, one day at a time, the best I can.

Unfortunately, I don't have a 5-year plan; I've never thought nor planned that far in advance. Everyday I wake, I pray, give thanks and sincere appreciation to The Big Man upstairs for letting me breathe another day; seeing the sun rise; waking up next to my beautiful wife and saying "Good morning," to my son; and another day of playing and frolicking with my 2 cats and Siberian Husky, my little buddies.

Baby steps...one at a time. And take each day as it comes and try to live each day to its' fullest because for me, tomorrow is never guaranteed.

It's great to read other's ambitions in life. I wish you all the best and know that someone out there is praying, and 'hoping,' you achieve and get everything you want out of life!

Peace,

e

It was a lot of fun reading all of them so far! I like the idea of 1/5/10 year plans myself, as that gives both the short and long term idea. I'm 25 now, so it comes out to nice round numbers too.

1 year:
Build up the site I'm working on and become more of an expert in the field I'm working in and interested in working in.
Clear out as much clutter in my life, automate and minimize finance so I can save more from here on out.

5 years:
Be working for myself and able to stay above water.
Become more business minded through experience and research.

10 years:
By then have other employees, and have the option to travel more often while the business ran itself.
Also move out of Orlando by that point as well to experience another city.

I seem to put traveling the world a lot later in life than others so far have. That might be pushed up in between time on jobs though, as that would be an amazing experience at any point in time.

Be happy all the time...wherever I am. :-)

My life plan is one goal, make lots of money and live comfortably.

One thing to keep in mind is the difference between having money and having wealth. Wealth is what you see around you, the things you own (tangibly or intangibly), and for tangible goods money is what you use to procure wealth. If I had a million dollars sitting around but no house, I'd rather take some of my money and buy a house, because if you're homeless with lots of money and no wealth, you're still homeless.

Just throwing that out there :)

^ That post was me, testing out a new account to see how new users see the site.

I wake up each morning determined to change the world and also to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes that makes planning the day a little difficult.

Wouldn't then planing my life be so ironic? In my opinion, planning is useful, plans though are useless!

My plan includes buying a house in the country, writing another book, getting to Grade 8 on the violin, having more time with my partner, enjoying life as much as I can no matter where I am or what I'm doing. I think happiness is a choice we can make about how we are anytime and is not necessarily reliant on other people, acquisitions, activities or anything external. Life is good. :-)

I usually don't realize that something is a goal until I've achieved them. So I will attempt to list what I think I am trying to achieve by interpreting what I am already participating in.

1. Work as a chef
2. Work as a baker
3. Engineer a product that receives public acceptance
4. Live in Australia
5. Live in Europe
6. Live in Africa
7. Live in South America
8. Live in Russia
9. Become a millionaire
10. Win gold in a north america open amateur dancesport competition
11. Startup my own company
12. Work as a Janitor.

Great idea for a note! My goals in life are pretty simple:

1. Have every kid in my class advance on the state test each year.
2. Give my kids love and a sense of security.
3. Make enough off freelance and blog writing to pay my student loan every month (it's a hefty sum).

If I do those I'm good.