How to Prepare for the Future, and Find New Direction in Life.

SEEKING NEW DIRECTION

Preparing for your future is important for peace of mind, and may require seeking and discovering new direction in life. Future planning is also the responsible thing to do for you and your family. If you are planning for retirement, changing careers, or have a goal of improving your physical, emotional, or spiritual life, some strategic planning will be required. This type of planning requires diligence, discipline, and time. Later in your life, however, you will be thankful you spent the time, and will be rewarded with a deeper sense of satisfaction, contentment, and peace of mind. 

In this post I want briefly touch on how to prepare for your future and find new direction in life. Here are three basic areas to consider when seeking new direction in your life and planning for the future.

Preparing for the future requires financial planning

Not only is financial planning related to money in a savings account, there are numerous other aspects to financial planning such as:

• Planning your will and estate planning

• 401K investments

• Life Insurances

• Regular savings plan

• Eliminating Debt plan

Planning for the future should start as soon as possible. According to Go Banking Rates chart shown below, in 2016, 69% of Americans had less than $1000 in savings. I don't know about you, but these kinds of stats tend to create anxiety and uncertainty in me.

I would suggest, if you haven't already done so, to seriously consider doing some strategic planning for the future. Here is a great mortgage calculator I use that has been helpful.

Another great resource many of you may be familiar with is Dave Ramsey He has a ton of material on his website, including books, budgeting tools and financial calculators. I encourage you to check it out. In addition to preparing financially:

Preparing for the future requires taking inventory of your personality and spiritual strengths

Statistics show there is a large percentage of the workforce in America who are dissatisfied with their jobs and are looking for something different. According to this Forbes article " the majority of Americans—52.3%—who are unhappy at work, according to a new report by the Conference Board, the New York-based nonprofit research group."

Why is this? There may be many factors involved, but it's my hunch and hypothesis that these 52 .3% of dissatisfied workers are dissatisfied because of not being at a job that isn't a good fit for their personality and strengths. Others may not understand what their spiritual gifs are, and go through life dissatisfied. There are many personality tests and assessments available to help with gaining a better understanding of who you are, and how you were created and wired. One of the most recent books I started reading is The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile . I hope to do a review of this book in the near future. Also check out my Resource Page for other related books. In addition to preparing financially, and taking inventory of personality and spiritual gifts:

Preparing for the future requires setting goals

Goals should have three basic components. It should be specific, measurable, time bound and realistic.

1. Specific- To be specific, your goal should say exactly what you would like to see accomplished.

2. Measurable- To measure it, it will need to answer the question: How will I know the goal is met?

3. Time bound and realistic The goal should have a specific time frame, either a date and time, or a sequence of times,i.e. every day, every monday at 7am., by the first of every month. It also needs to be time bound and realistic.

Too often goals are vegue, with no commitment behind it. An example of a poorly written goal would be "My goal is to update this blog regularly". While that may sound good, it's not very specific, not measurable, and not time bound. How will I know when it's updated? And when am I going to update this blog and how often. A better goal which includes the three basic components would be "I plan to write and publish a new post here at LifeCoachAndrew by 7am every Monday morning" It's specific, measurable, time bound and hopefully realistic. Time will tell. I may have to adjust the realistic part. You will know I have reached that short term goal when you see it posted every Monday at 7am.

Thanks for listening, and I hope to see you every Monday at 7am. And if you wish, you can sign up for email notifications of new posts here.