I read a lot of newsletters and articles on careers. In fact, I subscribe to one career ezine that shows up in my inbox every day.
It has some great advice. Provocative questions. And, keeps trying to sell me some products for "planning my life" … and career!
And, I keep resisting.
Today, I finally realized why I resist.
It’s because fundamentally these folks want me to "plan" my life down to every teeny tiny step. And, I KNOW life ain’t like that!!
I’ve learned from experience that many of the most rewarding learnings and progress steps in my life have been unplanned. They just seem to happen serendipitously.
That’s why I advocate what one of my OD professors called "loose-tight" plans. That is, plans with just enough structure to guide you, but enough freedom to jump on sudden opportunities.
So, I’m sorry folks… I’m NOT going to create a detailed, numbered, exactling plan for each of my life goals. My life just doesn’t work that way.
Instead, what I have is:
- A Life Goal for each of the Action Areas in my Life (9 of them by the way),
- A reasonably exact Annual Objective for each Action Area,
- An even more precise list of Objectives for the next 6 months for the Top 3 Action Areas, and
- A few of the first steps jotted down.
That’s all I want and need.
Then I can get moving and see what shows up!
