Vision and Action.

Want A Different Life In The Future, Start With A Vision. Four years ago I decided it was time to change my life. I had just turned 65 and I wanted more freedom. A life less tied to going into my office every day. A life with less stress. So what was my first step. I bought a spiral notebook. On the first page, I started a little exercise in which I imagined it was five years in the future. Then I wrote a little more than a page describing what my life was like. Where I lived, what my daily activities were, what my hobbies were, how I was deriving the income necessary to fund my lifestyle, and what I was doing to help my family. I put the notebook down and picked it up a few days later. I re-read it carefully several times, made a few changes and re-wrote the final version. I call the process I just described as developing a vision statement. The more you develop a detailed and comprehensive vision statement, the more likely you are to get to where you want to be.

Why aren't you living that life now? Ask yourself what is keep you from living that vision right now. Take an inventory. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What needs to be changed to get you to where you want to be? Do you need more investment assets? Do you need to improve your relationships with your family and friends? Do you need to change your spending habits? Abandon an addiction? Improve your Health? These are but a few things that come to mind. Everyone's questions and answers will be different. Write all this down in your spiral notebook and refer to it from time to time as you work towards achieving your vision.

What Steps Can You Take To Remove Obstacles? Write down some steps you can take right now. Keep writing, revising, and re-writing until you have a clear plan to get where you want to be.

Put Your Plan Into Action. Start working on the steps you have identified. Refer to your notebook at least once a week and make notes as to your progress, obstacles removed, and obstacles remaining. You might even uncover some new obstacles you have to deal with. One thing is clear to me after 4 years of working with my spiral notebook. It works. Much of what I learned in my financial planning training is of little use here. I can remember putting together long computer print outs projecting a client's financial situation far into the future. It was boring and it did little more than collect dust. A five dollar spiral notebook and a few hours thinking an reflecting have proven much more valuable to me than 200 pages of computer printouts.

A Few Final Words. A wise man once said, "Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world." I've never wanted to change the world. Just my little corner of it.