REACH YOUR LIFE GOALS

Where do you see yourself in three years, and in ten? That’s the kind of question you might ask yourself, or even get asked in discussions and job interviews. But for most of us, it remains at any age a hard question to answer. What do I like? What am I good at? What are my constraints? What life rhythm would I like? What am I willing to sacrifice to live out my passions? And most importantly: where to start?

Sometimes, we have so many ideas, dreams and wishes in our mind that it's hard to choose which one to begin with. Some of them are so different from each other that it seems impossible to put them all into practice. In our little free time, we're often hesitating between all the tempting options we have, so in the end we cannot choose and do nothing instead.

Do you know this feeling? Well, let me tell you that there is a way to bring some order into the chaos and to help you get started.

A SIMPLE TOOL CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

The first thing you need to grasp is the fact that you can't do everything at once. However, this does not mean that you can only choose one thing and have to drop all the others! All you need is a plan that is well thought out.

There is a simple yet successful tool that big companies use to fix their overall goals as well as the individual steps at specific times that are necessary to reach these very goals. This tool is called "roadmap" and it basically works like a project schedule that is applicable to any kind of (life) project. So for everyone who's looking for a little more structure, a guideline to follow for the fulfillment of his or her dreams: here is how you can create your own, personal roadmap...

1) It all begins with... a simple list

The first step is to put everything on a blank page, by answering questions such as: What do I like to do? What am I good at? What would I like to learn and discover? It's a bit like a "bucket list" for your life. The aim is to write down everything that you would see yourself doing willingly and happily, and you can even add a list of all the things you really don’t want to do. In this first step, you can use colors to mark differents sectors (hobbies, working activities, lifestyle…). This step takes time, and you might have ideas popping up in your head in the weeks to come, even when you think that you've already finished. But this list is not fixed, you can always add or remove items along the way. To give an example of such a list: become a freelance graphic designer, travel to India, produce zero wastes, grow food, live in a small city… Dare to dream big, the sky's the limit!

2) Spread your objectives over time

Whether you are building a roadmap for the next three years, or for the next ten years, you need to prioritize and organize. Some of the objectives you set for yourself in the previous step can be done this month, or this year, but others may require more time or simply other resources that you don't have yet. For example, if you want to change career, you might need to find and undergo an appropriate training first. That’s what you need to think of. Take your time, draw a basic timeline with as many years as you need, and start adding your objectives to it. Until when do you want to reach what? Try different combinations and rhythms, imagine yourself in this future to get an idea of the workload it might add. Don’t forget the obligations that you might already have (a loan, a family…). Even if it will take five years to reach your final goal, you will always know what you are working for, and this alone already feels great and can push your motivation to unknown new levels.

3) Detail your first year

Now that you know what you want to reach in the year to come, it's time to get organized. To plan your first year, you need to estimate how much time you have to allocate for each step that is necessary to reach the overall goal. For example, an online course might take 50 hours, spread over 5 weeks, and for becoming a perfect pianist by the end of the year you estimate 1 hour of practice per day. Once you have a rough overview of how much free time you have at hand and how much time you need for each task, it's time to go into detail. Try to develop a timetable just as the ones at school: Monday evenings - 2 hours of creative writing, Tuesday mornings - 30 minutes of yoga and so on. Move the tasks around until they all fit into your week, and never lose sight of the broader picture. If the mentioned online course starts in September, this month's timetable will probably be dedicated to this very course, whereas those hours can be used for something else after the course is finished. Creating this schedule will make you realize that postponing something does not mean that you won't do it at all - it simply means that you will focus on something equally important first.

4) Make sense of the other years

Good job! The first year is secured, yet the most important is to have an appropriate plan for the years to come, to remind yourself of where you are heading and why you are doing all these things. You can now look at the items you set for the next year(s) and ask yourself again if and how they can fit into your available time windows. Maybe you are already confident enough to make a more detailed plan for the trimesters, or even the individual months to have a clearer overview. But don’t worry too much if your plan for the other years is not as detailed as for the first year yet. The further away from you, the less precise the individual tasks and their duration usually are. It is also a good idea not to plan too much ahead in order to have some flexibility to re-prioritize later. Anyway, you will have enough time to plan and adapt the second year in the course of the first one and so on.

5) Keep it alive!

Now you have a more precise idea of where you will be heading in the years to come. The chaos in your head is untangled, your dreams have been put on paper and are therefore always visible for orientation. But the roadmap doesn’t stop here: It will be modified, adapted, changed, or even completely renewed by you at some point. Life constantly brings opportunities and constraints. When you have the occasion and feel the need to, don’t hesitate to get back to the previous steps and iterate them. And before the first year of the roadmap is over, take some time to sum up and evaluate the goals you've already reached and to congratulate yourself for it. Also, don’t forget to plan and elaborate the details of the following year. This will help you keep track of your life goals and boost your motivation every now and then.

We did such a roadmap a few months ago, and that’s how we got the well needed kick to start our zero waste actions, as well as this very blog. Because we felt that we were not truly embracing our wishes, and had too much distractions and fears, it was important to be organized and write down expectations for this year. There is less excuses and less procrastinating when you know the plan ahead. So take a sheet of paper and a pencil, get started and share your experiences with us!