FOUNDATIONS

In this and the next five posts, I’ll help you build your life plan by expanding on each stage of the FUTURE process I described in my previous Insight post, starting with Foundation.

Understanding where you are now, even if you’re unhappy with your situation, will ease your anxiety and help you sleep at night. Do these steps first to establish a firm foundation and give you the peace of mind to make informed decisions and build a plan for the future.

Life Arenas Foundation.

The Wheel of Life is a common exercise for assessing your state of play. However, if done incorrectly, it can result in a false reading, so:

1. Create your life arenas; don’t use someone else’s. For instance, politics may play a major role in your life, while your neighbour may want to include spirituality on their wheel.
2. For each arena, mark the importance, satisfaction and attention you give to that aspect of your life, and draw a line connecting the marks for each attribute (different colours work well here).

The resulting diagram will give you a good indication of which arenas need the most attention in your plan.

FYI, research shows that people regard health, wealth and relationships as the most important arenas.

Story foundations.

There are many reasons for writing your autobiography, including:

• It’s easy to forget, and a written account of your life will help to jog your memory of important traits.
• It’s easy to be dishonest with yourself. Committing your story to paper makes you vulnerable and helps you overcome the shame of your mistakes.
• You may add gloss to elements of your story as a means of self-protection or self-glorification. Your written story will help you be true to yourself.

If you have never done this before, start by building a timeline of your life on a spreadsheet. Then,  write your story, starting at the beginning. (“I was born on * at *”).

Revise your SFD (“Shity First Draft, as Anne Lamott calls it). Keep revising until it is complete, truthful and up-to-date.

When you read your story, you will be amazed at the wealth of your personality, experience and skills. You will spot behaviour patterns and draw out the lessons of your mistakes and successes. Your story is an essential foundation of your plan for the future.

(PS. You don’t have to write a book, although you can if you want. My story runs to just six pages, including a few pix).

Value foundations

As you compose your story, you will identify your important values, another essential foundation on which to build a plan for your future.

Your values are closely related to your goals. These are about doing. They typically include a verb (“My goal is to walk ten miles this week.”). They are achievable, and you can tick them off as complete.

Your values typically include nouns or adjectives (“My health is important to me”). Values are never complete and drive your goals.

Use my template to build a statement of your values.

Financial foundations

Money makes the world go around, so understand your financial situation by compiling statements of your assets, liabilities, incomes, and expenditures.

Then, work out your key financial ratios and identify any remedial actions you need to include in your plan.

Use my template to build a statement of your values.

How resilient are your foundations?

Like the wheel of life, a resilience assessment will help you establish your priorities.

However, the resilience assessment serves another function. It tells you what you don’t know about yourself, encouraging you to discover and increase your self-awareness.

Use my Resilience Assessment questionnaire.

Over to you

Don’t stint on building solid foundations for your plan. Good data will stop the “garbage in, garbage out” syndrome that prevents your personal growth.

TAKE IT FURTHER

Reflect

Here are three statements on which to reflect. Think of stories relating to the question and ask yourself what happened, so what and what next.

• Which life arenas are uniquely mine, and how much attention am I giving them?
• What patterns emerge from my life story, and how do they shape my future?
• Working backwards from goals to values is insightful; what are my main goals and do they align with my core values?

Comment

You can make your reflections real and actionable by recording them in writing, video or audio; if you want, share them using the link below.

Share

Share your thoughts, comments, and reflections in the comments section below and forward the post to a friend or colleague.

Discover

Help yourself with more posts, templates, factsheets and exercises.

Self-help
https://jeremydeedes.com/self-help/
A selection of information notes, exercises and templates

Related posts

Starting to plan your future can be difficult…

How to reduce anxiety and fear of the future

Pay attention and don’t let fear of the unknown stop you

Attributions and references

Photo attribution

Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash

Audio link

https://audio.com/jeremy_deedes/audio/foundations/

References

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York, Anchor Books, 1994.

ABOUT

I work with ambitious, family-oriented professionals transitioning to independent consultants to create a 3 to 5-year holistic plan so that they grow wealthy, make a difference and find meaning.

My clients are aged 35-50. They are in a long-term relationship with family and parents who are supportive but ageing. They wrestle with personal and financial responsibilities and dream of more control, wealth, time and purpose.

If this excites you, you are coachable, willing to change, and want to stop going around in circles, then find out more at jeremydeedes.com

Then, take your next step and explore your way forward with a Mapmaker, a one-off online coaching gig to help you decide your options, assess our compatibility, and determine whether we are the right fit. Mapmaker is excellent value, held in confidence and without further commitment.

What do you think?

Your views are important, and your fellow readers would love to hear your opinion,
so share your thoughts in the comments box below, and thank you for your time and generosity.

What do you think?

Your views are important, and your fellow readers would love to hear your opinion, so share your thoughts in the comments box below, and thank you for your time and generosity.