Create Your Ideal Life with the Six-Month Plan
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“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” — Pablo Picasso
I am a firm believer that whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. But to make it happen, you must take every action within and without your power.
In the past years, I have developed what I call the “ideal six-month plan.” In this plan, I write down each professional and personal project I intend to accomplish by the end of this period.
It is a detailed scheme that guides me from where I am at the moment of ideation to where I want to be in the moment of completion as well as each task that I must take from one to the other.
I started using this process because I realized that I did not have the right balance between all of my priorities.
Each year I would sit down and write my New Year resolutions, and each year I would fail on achieving them. I would focus my attention exclusively on one area of my life, leaving no time or space to work on my other projects.
Why did I let this happen so many times?
I can list a few reasons, but the main one is that one year is too long to plan daily, weekly, and even monthly tasks ahead of time.
In contrast, six months provide you with a long enough period to completely change your life and a short enough time to plan specific tasks.
Since I began using the ideal six-month plan, I have achieved much more in a few months than I have ever had in years. The past 18 months have been a turning point in my life because I was able to achieve each project that I set for myself by using the process and regularly tracking the progress.
In this article, I will introduce the main things you need to do to achieve your full potential in the following six months. The plan is divided into six steps. As you read through them, you will be able to create your ideal life plan and completely change its direction!
I prefer to create my detailed plan on Word and Excel and have them on my screen at most times. But you can use whatever medium you prefer. Just make sure that, once you have everything compiled together, to keep it always at hand.
The only downside is that it takes time. I usually take a few hours of a day to plan everything and not to leave any gaps. But every minute spent on planning is worth it!
STEP ONE: DEFINE YOUR IDEAL LIFE IN SIX MONTHS
“Begin with the end in mind.” — Stephen Covey
The first step is to define your ideal life. Ask yourself these questions: How do you see yourself in six months? In one year? In three years? Which personal and professional projects are essential to you?
Visualize (and even idealize) how you want your life to look like by the end of this period. This image should align both your professional and personal aims.
Then write a few paragraphs in the present tense as if you’ve already accomplished these things. By doing so, you trick your brain into believing that this reality is an actual possibility and, gradually, a probability.
When your thoughts change, your actions will follow accordingly.
STEP TWO: CATEGORIZE & PRIORITIZE YOUR PROJECTS
“Once you have a clear picture of your priorities that, organize your life around them.” — Stephen Covey
With this ideal life in mind, divide each of these priorities under categories. It is worth taking some time reviewing your current life and scoring each of your life categories. By doing so, you will be able to make better decisions on what your focus should be.
The following categories are the ones that matter the most to me, change them according to your priorities.
- Professional
- Educational
- Health (Body & Mind)
- Relationships
- Wealth
- Leisure
STEP THREE: ORGANIZE YOUR PROJECTS
Under each category, write down your projects. Be as specific and as descriptive as you can. Each of them should lead you to your vision.
By describing your projects, you will be able to determine a set of tasks to achieve each of them. This process allows you to fill the gaps between your current reality, your ideal reality, and how you want to go from one point to the other.
Additionally, you might want to include longer or shorter-term projects into your plan. And you absolutely should. Just keep in mind the following:
- If you focus on projects that will take longer than six months, set milestones for them to lead you to this more significant outcome in the future.
- If you focus on projects that will take you shorter than six months, think about developing further projects based on these.
This step also makes you review each priority. It makes you question what you really want. Do you want to run a marathon? Or do you want to have a consistent running routine? Begin to differentiate them, and you will learn to accommodate your projects when you focus on what matters the most to you.
You must have a definite purpose, that is, know why it matters for you and you only. Write a short statement for each project. When your process becomes challenging, remembering your purpose will help you to make progress.
You must have a definite purpose, that is, know why it matters for you and you only. Write a short statement for each project. When your process becomes challenging, remembering your purpose will help you to make progress.
STEP FOUR: SET DAILY, WEEKLY AND MONTHLY TASKS
It is time to make your projects part of your current reality. Break down each project into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.
The key here is to insert these tasks into your routine. If you can’t fit your projects into your planner, you won’t be able to fit them into your life.
This plan is the map to your ideal life. If things are important as I think they are, you will be able to include these tasks into your life. As I said in the beginning, planning takes time, but it will be worth it.
Write down anything that will prepare you to reach your goal at the end of these six months — absolutely everything. Even if they are one-off activities, you must take into consideration.
For example, you are writing a book. Start by breaking down the chapters, then break them in ‘researching,’ ‘writing,’ ‘editing,’ ‘proofreading,’ ‘submitting to an editor,’ ‘rewriting,’ etc. The bottom line is, each goal must become a series of tasks.
By zooming in into your schedule, you will begin to value each one of these tasks. Every day is a step closer as long as you follow the plan.
However, do not fall into the trap of writing an endless list of actions that are not necessary to enhance the chances of achieving your goals. The key is not to leave any blind spots while achieving your maximum potential with minimum effort.
If things do not correspond to your expected results, review which tasks you might include or exclude.
STEP FIVE: BLOCK YOUR CALENDAR
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” — Stephen Covey
Once you have defined all these activities, block your calendar according to each task. It is a long process to accommodate them throughout the following months. But you will only know what works for you until your daily and weekly tasks are on your schedule.
Scheduling tasks is vital to move from planning to acting; it allows you to be proactive with your schedule, rather than being reactive to it.
Accommodating tasks on your routine will also make you see how each day is daily progress to your goals; for this reason, consistency is essential.
In addition to your time blocks, add a column to include commitments. Commitments are every task that you must accomplish by the end of this week in order to make progress before the following week. It keeps you grounded on what is essential for your projects.
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” — Stephen Covey
STEP SIX: MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS
One of the most important steps is to measure your progress. I do so every day, week, month, and quarter. Each of them has a different purpose. But all of them help you to stick to your ultimate goals.
- Daily
Every day, I track what I accomplished that day — from habits to tasks or major project breakthroughs. I use the same tracker for everything I do.
For me, it is motivating to see squares piling up and keeps me going. If you feel overwhelmed by too many things, track just the project tasks defined on step three — it shouldn’t be more than three each day.
- Weekly
Every week, I review the week before and what I have planned to accomplish this week. I do this every Sunday evening, before starting my week.
- Monthly
Every month, I zoom in into specific projects. I make a small retrospective to review the highlights and lowlights.
- Quarterly
Every three months, I zoom out on my plans. I write a new ideal life paragraph, which often does not vary too much, and if my priorities have changed, I use this mid-term break to re-plan accordingly.
BE CONSISTENT, BE PATIENT
Once you take the first step, repeat for 180 days.
Do it again, day after day, week after week, month after month. As long as you are consistent with your actions and patient with your results, you are set for success. Accomplishing each task will gradually build momentum, and you will see the importance of each one of them along the way.
One step you take is one step into the journey of achieving your ideal life.
The ideal six-month plan is the process I have been using for over a year and a half and has helped me achieve the most of my dreams in a timeframe that I had never expected.
You might want to include a step or exclude one. But if you create a personal plan detailing each step of your journey and be consistent with it, I am confident you will succeed in achieving your projects!
In a nutshell,
- Define your ideal life;
- Categorize and prioritize your projects;
- Organize your projects;
- Set daily, weekly and monthly tasks;
- Block your calendar;
- Measure your progress.
And lastly but most importantly:
Be consistent. Be patient.
