For the first time in my adult life, I don’t have a five-year plan.
People who know me well won’t believe this. In my friend group and even in the See Jane Write community I’m known as the queen of goal setting and planning. My best friend once said to me, “Girl, your goals have goals!”
I have an elaborate system for setting goals and achieving them. This system has helped me grow See Jane Write from a blog and informal women’s writing group to an award-winning website and business. This system has helped me grow my freelance writing career. And this system helped me quit my day job to be a full-time writerpreneur.
But that’s exactly why I don’t have a five-year plan right now. Before quitting my teaching job my plans were all about how to be a better teacher and how to balance teaching with writing, blogging, building a business, and trying to have a life.
Once I resigned from my position I realized I was standing before a sea of infinite possibilities. I even listened to that Amel Larrieux song daily for two weeks straight. My options were endless and I was elated — at first.
Soon I was just overwhelmed. My options are endless! How do I choose what to do next?
I don’t have a five-year plan right now not because I abandoned my goal digger ways but because I have so many goals I don’t know where to start!
I know there are plenty of folks out there who don’t have a five-year plan and they are successful, nonetheless. I’m not one of those people. I need a plan!
I don’t believe we should be too rigid with our five-year plans. We should allow room for the surprises that life brings our way. And we should also give ourselves grace if we don’t reach a particular goal by a particular time.
But I’m a believer in that old saying “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.” My five-year plan helps me shoot for the moon. Without it, I’m not even going to leave the ground. I’m just going to wander around lost in the woods.
Whether you want to be a best-selling author, a prolific freelance journalist, or a top Instagram influencer, a five-year plan can help you set goals for your writing career or your blog and plot out the path to achieve those goals.
When You Know Who You Are, You’ll Know What to Do
On Sunday at church, the minister bringing the message this week said something that reminded me that I actually knew exactly what to do. I just hadn’t been still long enough to realize it.
While discussing making important decisions he said, “When you know who you are, you’ll know what to do.”
Yes! That’s it! I needed to reconnect to my vision and my values — to who I am and who I want to be — and use those to figure out what to do next.
I already knew this! This is exactly what I teach my coaching clients and participants in my goal-setting workshops. It was time for me to coach myself!
So, I’m going to give myself a dreaming day — a day to think about the woman I am now and the woman I want to be in five years. Then I’m going to make a list of all the things I need to start doing (or stop doing) to become the woman of my dreams. And then, I will have my new five-year plan.
If you need help with your five-year plan or your vision for 2020, join my mailing list. I’ll soon be announcing my upcoming goal-setting workshop and 2020 coaching program.