The “5 Year Plan”: How to make dreams into reality
The end of one year and the beginning of another is a great opportunity to stop for a moment and think about where we are in life.
There’s a reason the term “New Year Resolutions” is used so often in our culture – after all, we all have aspirations, dreams and goals that we want to achieve to reach our self-fulfillment.
So let’s stop for a second, take a few long and deep breaths and understand the meaning of “self-fulfillment” for us.
P.S – the blog you’re reading right now is a product of the program you’re going to read on this post 😉
WHAT’S A '5 YEAR PLAN'?
This plan is designed to make us familiar with our dreams, divide them up into goals and to create a map of the steps needed to achieve them.
Don’t get confused – the “5-Year-Plan” isn’t like a grocery list of goals, such as:
Become a successful blogger
Lose Weight
Earn more money
Learn a new language
Feel satisfaction from job
It’s an organized work plan based on emotions and it includes sub-goals and a set deadline.
Take, for example, the first goal listed above – “I want to become a successful blogger”. To achieve this supreme goal, what will you have to do? What will be your work plan? and when would you like to achieve this goal?
Goal : Becoming a successful blogger.
Timeline : December 2019
Actions to take : In order to be a successful blogger, I have to choose a blog niche until the date of ___, then start my own blog at ___, work on the branding for my blog for ___ days, write ___ posts a week, and so on…
As you can see, the difference between the “grocery list” above and the 5 year plan is that the plan helps you choose the goals you want to achieve, define a deadline, and set smaller, easier goals to help you achieve your ultimate goal.
All of the illustrations in this post belong to the talented Nicola Huthwaite {check out her beautiful work at @stylishcreativebranding}
Sounds complicated? not as you think!
To fully achieve the “5-Year-Plan”, you need to abandon everything that you think you know about making dreams come true and goal setting.
- ״I want to be a successful blogger״
- “I want to start living a healthier lifestyle”.
- “I would like to have more money in my checking account”.
- “I want to be more spontaneous”.
These are common examples of sentences I hear people say when they think about making a difference in their lives.
There are 2 problems with these sentences:
1. The main goal that the “5-Year-Plan” is based on is emotion and not action like the examples above. {Keep reading, I'll explain in depth in a minute}.
2. These goals are very vague, and therefore it’s difficult to pinpoint a time when the objective is complete.
SO HOW TO ACTUALLY MANIFEST THE '5-YEAR-PLAN'?
Step 1 – Start thinking about feelings
In the “5-Year-Plan” it’s very important to define the feeling that you strive, and only then you should define all of the actions that can lead you to that feeling.
In other words, your primary goal of your plan should be based on feelings that you want to achieve in five years, rather than actions.
Feelings can be, for example – self-fulfillmen, happiness, financial independence, professional evaluation.
Step 2 – Which actions will make you feel the way you dream?
Now, you need to brainstorm and figure out all of the future steps that can lead you to achieve that feeling.
What are the things that come to mind when you think about that particular feeling?
If, for example, the feeling you want to achieve is “self-fulfillment” various actions that can help you realize it are: to change jobs, to try a different profession, acquire new skill, etc. …
Step 3 – Baby steps
This is exactly the difference between a random decision tossed in the air and the 5-Year-Plan : while decisions like “New Year resolutions” or even ones you decide on over a weekend {“I’m starting a diet on Monday!”} usually disappear, the 5-Year-Plan is based on small steps that are achievable – the kind that will make you satisfied and will make you want to continue the program.
The problem with the goals written above are is that they are very vague, and therefore it’s very difficult to point out exactly when you “conquered” your goal {>>> frustration!}.
What it means to be “A successful blogger”? “healthier”? “A lot more money”? “More spontaneous”?
How can you even check off such a vague goal?
The trick is to be specific and define exactly what it means for you to be a successful blogger, for example.
Does this mean to inspire your readers? Build a follow-on audience of tens of thousands of followers on Instagram? Or do you think a “successful blogger” is measured by the amount of money you will earn from the blog? Or it might even be a combination of both of them.
Anyway, it’s very important to define very clearly what will get you to achieve your goal.
If we continue with the first example about being a successful blogger, we’ll set ourselves a few small steps that will turn into habits with time – for example, start a blog, write blogposts twice a week, spend an hour a day on social networks, reply on comments and emails from readers, and more…
It’s easier to look at goals this way – breaking down the goals into smaller steps that can be achieved in a few hours or in a few days are much more realistic to achieve than achieving one big goal {if you manage to at all} in the distant future.
My biggest tip is to write a lot of small goals in your plan, and to write 2-3 small goals in your planner daily that you can check off whenever you achieve them This way you’ll reach your goal faster and you’ll feel like you’re working every day to get to it!
Great, now things are starting to get much clearer, but what’s next? Stick our plan in the drawer and check in 5 years if we actually managed to reach our goals and ambitions?
So here’s the deal – not at all!
Step 4 – Check your progress over time
You should occasionally return to the plan you made and check your progress – what have you managed to achieve? Did any of the goals change? You might discover that some of the goals you set aren’t bringing you close enough to fulfillment and then you’ll consider changing them.
Anyway – checking out your plan will continue to push you towards self-fulfillment and will remind you exactly why you started
The 5-Year-Plan will help you get a bird’s-eye view of your life and will take you a step towards achieving your dreams!
Psst…want my “5 Year Plan Workbook”? It’s a free printable you can get by filling the form below. 🙂 It’s a great asset to print out and use to plan your to-do lists!
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What do you think of the 5 year plan? Let me know in the comments below! 
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