Gold Nugget Coaching

There really is no standard definition of a life plan. If you go to the mother of all resources, Wikipedia, the last time I checked (June, 07) there were no results returned.

For many people, a life plan is a plan for what they want to do in their life. And what is a plan? Well, one dictionary definition is: A method for achieving an end or goal. Therefore, it is a method for achieving a goal (or goals) in life.

You may be wondering, why didn’t I just say that? Well the reason has to do with a valuable lesson I learned a long time ago . Namely, often times staying with the question is much more valuable than the quick and easy answer. When you want to know how to drive from Park Street to Elm, the quick and easy answer is exactly the right thing. But when the subject is your life, well, the quick and easy answer is often not very useful. In fact it can be down right harmful to the quality of your life.

There’s a subtle but important difference between talking about “what you want to do in your life” and “goals for your life.” The former invites vague answers. The latter, invites focus and clarity.

Think of all the quick and easy answers you are bombarded with in life every day on TV or radio. Buy this skin lotion and you will look five years younger. Go to Las Vegas and you your wildest fantasies will be fulfilled.

At the same time, that same Las Vegas commercial never even suggests that you stop for a moment to get clear about what your fantasies are. No, it’s just come to Las Vegas and you will be magically fulfilled.

But be honest with yourself. How likely is it that your life planning will result in a satisfying outcome if you’ve never taken more than a few fleeting moments to figure out what would fulfill or satisfy you?

It’s the same thing with planning your life. Sure, you could declare some quick goals and come up with a plan to reach them. Unfortunately, if you don’t set the right goals (for you) you’ll be as dissatisfied as you are now. Even worse, you will have wasted a lot of valuable time.

Please, for your own sake, when you’re doing your life planning, don’t take all the shortcuts. Take some time to reflect on what it is that will truly and deeply satisfy you. And here’s a tip: Probably the first thoughts that comes along won’t be “it.” Probably, the first thoughts that come along will be the ones that you’ve been programmed to think: look younger, make more money, have more fun, be happier, etc. When you work on your life plan it’s best done in a time and place where you are relaxed and can dream about your future.

What I recommend is that you “dig deeper” in each of the domains of your life such as: livelihood and career, health, finance, lifestyle, relationships, and spirituality.

First, identify what will inspire and motivate you now and will continue to do so, perhaps even for the rest of your life. You’ll be in a position to take the next steps. They include defining the (flexible) plans to achieve your “inspiring” dreams and learning how to deal with the challenges and pitfalls life will inevitably put in your way. Approached this way, your life plan efforts will serve you for many years.

CareerBuilder.com [link] (also found through the URL careerbuilders.com—with an “s”) claims to have more job postings than any other site. That’s a pretty big claim and hard to validate especially since there are one-stop job search sites such as Indeed.com that I discussed in the last post.

Regardless, careerbuilders.com is rich in resources and can be very helpful if you know how to use it. So in this post, I’ll give you some valuable time-saving tips. . . .

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You’re working hard in your current job and, at the same time, trying to plan your future. Maybe you’re thinking about a potential career change. Or maybe you have “layoff aversion” and would be comforted by having a sense of what the future might bring in your current occupation.

As I noted in the last post, regardless of where you are in your career or what experience and skills you have, there are market forces at work in the job arena that are beyond your control. And whether or not you’ve experienced a layoff yourself, we all know it’s not the most pleasant of experiences.

Your best insurance against the effects of market forces and/or a layoff is to be proactive in designing your future, rather than just waiting for it to show up.

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Obviously, most people use online job search methods and tools like monster.com, CareerBuilders.com, and others to find a job. These resources (and the others that I’ll talk about in this series) can be incredibly useful if used the right way.

And I have, in fact, seen many people be very successful in finding a job using these tools. But, unfortunately, there are others who, even after much time and effort, are unable to find a good job “match” and end up very disappointed. The disappointment often turns to frustration and then to resignation. And then they stop looking all together.

The process of online job searching can feel like the lottery: sometimes you win, but most times you don’t. Regardless, it practically always feels as though it’s all outside of your control. And, frankly, in large measure it is.

But there are strategies that can help put you in the driver’s seat. So let’s begin exploring what underlies being successful with online job searches. . . .

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There are many factors that determine work satisfaction. Overriding all of them is the path you choose to follow, whether it’s the “traditional” career path (which, as described in previous posts, other experts consider to be obsolete), or one of the life style paths I’ve mentioned: a Professional’s Path or a Service Path. (If you’re clinging to the obsolete notion of career, I suggest that you read this series from the start in case you’ve just dropped in to this post.)

Getting clear about this overriding choice of path and how it fits into your life will pay off for you whether you’re doing goal setting for your life and/or career, considering a career change, or perhaps working on a personal mission statement.

So before you start your job skills list, or take that “perfect job quiz,” or peruse the “top jobs in the usa,” my advice is this: get clear about your path.

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