Create a Better Future: Plan to Succeed in Life
Patrick Ow (of PracticalRiskTraining.com) notes one of the biggest ironies in life is when many people at the end of their lives look back and admit they wish they’d done it differently. They have lived lives doing things they don’t want to do, living other people’s dreams, and neglecting the things that are truly important to them.
It isn’t a big surprise to most people, that on our deathbeds, most of us regret things – like not spending enough time with family, or working too much, or not having enough fun.
Unfortunately, many of us are unable to let go of the pursuit of things that often take us farther and farther away from what is truly important, and what we should value the most. Money, professional ‘success’ or promotions, buying more stuff, driving nicer cars, dressing in nicer clothes – these things make us feel like we are ‘accomplishing something during our lives’.
Having a plan ensures that you will have no regrets when you get to the end of your life. Because you have made the effort to plan your life to achieve the goals that you want to achieve, or to live life according to your purpose or passion, so long as you stick to your plan you can be confident that you will not be looking back.
Never lose sight of the present moment. Find a balance between living in the moment and planning. You are only going to be able to control the moment you have right now.
In this practical how-to book, you will learn how to:
1. Decide what change you need to make for a better future and outcome.
2. How to vision your future success and setting goals to get there.
3. Create the necessary foundations for future successes.
4. Focus on living a purpose-driven life
5. Use your core values to drive future successes.
6. Overcome negative beliefs that are holding you back from being successful.
7. Find your purpose in life.
8. Use your vision to focus your direction and activities to live a fulfilled and purposeful life.
9. Select the right goals and implement action plans to succeed in life.
10. Use your personality to enhance your purpose in life.
This book aims to help you take control of your destiny and life so that you can live a purpose-driven life without regrets.
Contents
Preface
Deciding to change for the better
Visioning and goal setting
Foundations for creating your future
Living a purpose-driven life
My core values
My beliefs
My purpose
My vision
My goals and actions
My personality
Why read this book?
Outside of my professional life working as a risk expert and professional in the corporate world, it has been my passion to see individuals and families manage their opportunities and risks to succeed and thrive under uncertainty.
This is where planning comes in, especially if you want to succeed and thrive under uncertainty.
If you ask a large group of people what they would like to achieve in their lives, the answers will vary considerably. Some of the more common answers you can expect are:
I want to make more money
I want to be happy
I want to be healthy
I want to lose weight
I want to travel and see the world
I want to have meaningful and happy relationships
I want to stop worrying
I want to be respected
I want to stop procrastinating
All of these are worthwhile goals to pursue.
However, if you ask the same group of people if they have developed a specific plan to achieve their goals, it is more than likely that only a small minority have taken the time to do just that.
In other words, while all of us have desires and dreams, very few of us have taken the time to write down a specific plan detailing how to go about achieving them.
Planning your life is one of the most powerful and effective ways to attain what you want. Nobody plans to fail; they simply fail to plan. Put another way, failing to plan is akin to planning to fail.
Think about this for a second: if you travel, you plan your trip. If you are getting married, you plan your wedding. If you throw a party, you plan the event. You would not dream of doing any of these without some form of prior planning.
Living a life of success filled with meaning, happiness, and fulfillment is no different. Yet most people neglect to plan their lives and then get disappointed and discouraged when they do not attain what they want.
Planning your life is equivalent to having a road map that helps you reach your desired destination. Unless you have already been to the place you want to go numerous times and already know how to get there, you will need a good map. It would be foolish to get in your car and drive around aimlessly, hoping to eventually reach your destination. Despite this, so many people in the world today fail to plan their lives and end up lost or stuck where they are.
When you take the time to plan your life, you are taking the steps necessary to not only identify and reach your desired goal, but also to do so in the most efficient manner. Rather than relying on pure chance or luck, a life plan details the exact route to take. It helps you get there in the shortest time possible without running out of gas.
Planning your life gives you control. If you create a plan then you get to make choices and decisions, rather than leaving things up to chance, or worse yet, letting others make decisions for you.
Having a sense of purpose can go a long way to making you happier. A plan can help you establish your purpose. Once your plan is in place and you start putting it into action, you will no longer just “exist”, you will instead “live purposefully.”
A plan will make it easier to say “no” to things that are not as important to you. In other words, if an opportunity is not aligned with your plan, then it’s not worth your time right now and you can feel free to say “no” to it without any hesitation.
Finally, having a plan ensures that you will have no regrets when you get to the end. Because you have made the effort to plan your life in order to achieve the goals that you want to achieve, so long as you stick to your plan you can be confident that you will not be looking back.
You can avoid one or more of the top five regrets in life:
Regret 1 – “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life other people expected of me.”
Regret 2 – “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
Regret 3 – “I wish I’d had the courage to express myself.”
Regret 4 – “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
Regret 5 – “I wish I had let myself be happier.”
Do not let people and circumstances affect your moods, state of mind, and even your life. This happens at home, school, college, work, at the mall, on the street, and everywhere else.
While you don’t have control over people’s words and behavior, you can control yours. Learn to act and react, emotionally and mentally, in a different way. Learn to choose your reactions and behavior.
Most importantly, learn to plan and act to give you control, meaning, and purpose in life.
All the best to your future.
