Sunday, March 15, 2009

Designing Life: Strategy for Life

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are that you will fall into someone else’s life plan. And guess what they have planned for you? NOT MUCH!
Jim Rohn

I have experienced and seen this throughout my life and have recently started to seriously wonder how people cannot have a plan for life. It is astonishing to say the least but, living a life without a plan or even without the slightest of ideas as to what you want to make of it, is literally like a blind person walking in the middle of a busy highway. Sooner or later, you are bound to get hit and suffer the consequences.

It is of paramount importance that one identifies the most significant and important aspects that encompass one’s life. There are several things we need to keep in mind. These may include your education, career, health, family, social life and personal development to mention a few. We will talk about these as well as other aspects of life in more detail in another article but first we need to identify the importance of designing and planning your life. Remember, it is your life and only you know how you want to live up to this great gift given to us by GOD. So make the most of it and do not let it go to waste. We are only going to end up with regrets later. It is always better to live a life of purpose and with your own aspirations rather then to let it go about blindly and later cry over spilt milk.

So, let us see and try to work out what the real benefits and drawbacks of having a life plan are and what the consequences might be if you do not have one at all.

Benefits of having a strategy for Life

Focus on Goals & Life: You will have goals for your life and a central point to focus on. This will result in you not falling for the petty worries and unimportant issues in life that so many of us have fallen into without reaping any rewards or any sort of satisfaction from them. You will live a balanced life and with focus on goals and life, you will see yourself where you want to be and seeing it is half the job done.

Direction: A life plan reassures you and keeps you conscious to the fact that you take care that you are on the right track at all times and even if you are not at some stage, you know what you need to do to set things right. You know exactly what needs to be done to achieve what you want to achieve.

Discipline: A designed life plan will ensure that you are disciplined and are living by solid and concrete principles. Hence, you become an unforgettable example for the world.

Accomplishment of Dreams: When you have a focus, you move forward and you move in the right direction. Moving in the right direction means achieving the real purpose and accomplishing your dreams.

No Regrets: You would have lived a life which was chosen by you and was not out of mere coincidence or directed by someone else. Your life would be yours and would have been lived according to your will and desire. This will lead to contentment in your efforts and would be a life without regrets. At least you chose it and you lived it the way you wanted to.

Happiness & Contentment: When you have finally accomplished and achieved your goals, it is going to result in the ultimate peak of satisfaction with life and that is all what we are living our life for, Happiness & Contentment! This happiness would be in the present life as well as in the life hereafter.

Drawbacks

Thinking of the drawbacks, I really can’t think of too many drawbacks except one major one, and that is the fact that things might not go according to plan. What fun would life be if everything went according to plan? Having said that, you would at least have a direction in life if nothing else.

See, we plan a trip, a wedding and even an uneventful day in our lives but we are never sure if it is going to be the way we plan it to be. This doesn’t mean that we do not plan. We do the best we can and have no choice other than to leave the rest to destiny. This drawback is too insignificant compared to the benefits. I say it is worth taking the risk and giving yourself at least a chance to live the life that was lived on purpose and was lived consciously.

As the common saying, ‘MAN proposes GOD disposes!’

So what happens when you live a precise, designed and planned life? When you plan, you plan good and you plan big and you live it consciously. When you do that, you will most probably then not, achieve it and even if you don’t, you would be remembered for the way you lived. With discipline, dignity and principles! Therefore, leaving an example for others to live by and we would have lived according to our wishes, we would be satisfied, our family would be proud of us and most importantly our GOD would be proud of us. We all would be the ultimate winners! Hence, we prosper in the world and also in the world that awaits us after death.

But remember, the plans need to be realistic. Having wild plans that are not practical and not realistic is almost always going to lead you to disaster.

6 comments:

  1. A very nicely and well articulated article. Coming from a young man of 23 years of age, it shows his depth of mind and a great promise for the future. However, one thing the young man forgot to mention is that the essence of being successful is to be flexible and adaptable in order to achieve your set goals. These goals if set for longer periods of time cannot succeed without showing the above two attributes. I would suggest shorter goals of lets say 5 years duration which will allow for adjustments if and when required, to achieve the plan set for achieving your given aims in life.
    Best Regards

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you very much for visiting my page and for your lovely comment. I am fully aware of what you are trying to say and it is a fact agreed upon. Flexibility and adaptability are very important attributes and goals are always supposed to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant and Time constrained). There are certain rules for goal setting. There should be 1 or 2 goals that one must strive to achieve every year and work on them one by one. These goals need to be balanced, not so easy that you do not have to make any effort towards it and not so difficult that they are not achievable. The goals need to be set, reviewed every week and changes should be made according to the circumstances and situation. The goal achievement might take longer but one would be sure of remaining on track. I will write in more detail on 'Goal Setting' soon to explain the phenomenon more cleary and how one should go about achieving their goals.

    Keep Visiting!..;-))

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post Talha. I like your point about direction, I think this is one of the key aspects, to ensure you have something which motivates you towards accomplishment and fulfillment. And certainly is very difficult to accomplish your dreams without setting goals.

    I would like to add one idea of my own regarding happiness and contentment, and that would be to find happiness in the process of achieving goals, not only in the end result. Take pleasure in the journey, and know that once you reach your destination, you will then have a new destination before you, and only momentary reflection upon the success you just achieved before you are looking forward to the next success.

    I agree with Tashfeen's comment about flexibility. Oftentimes life brings us completely unanticipated opportunities, which may not be aligned with the specific goals we set. We need to remain open minded and ask ourselves whether they support the higher level goals for our life. My own career took a turn I would never have predicted, and for awhile I was very resistant because I had mentally told myself I would never end up in that direction. But when I stepped back and really thought about it, I realized it actually was the right career move, and still supported my higher level goals.

    Steve
    http://www.personal-development.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mr.Steve. Thank you for visiting my blog and for your comment. I agree with you. We should always keep in mind that Happiness is a journey and not a destination and that is something that most of us ignore. It is a core point, which if realized would lead to happiness and contentment of the highest level.

    Keep Visiting!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Time for a desi comment ;) Chaagaye jigar thaa karke thaa karke! Maza aagaya! Mashallah Mashallah! Amazing! Im damn impressed!!! I have got no words! :O

    ReplyDelete
  6. AOa talha great work u have done .....watever u said is true but the problem wd me is i always design a strategy and set goals but wen i cant achieve that goals i get so much depressed and u canot imagine how bad that situtin is........plz help me

    ReplyDelete