Time to Take Action

It is important that our work and life have a balance. You may hate what has happened to your life. But, you probably don’t know how to change the landscape. You will be happy to know that you can change your life.

Whether you make this decision for health reasons, relationship reasons or simply out of the need to get control over your own life, you have more than enough justification and motivation to make the move.

However, you need to make a firm commitment to this change. Be realistic about how fast and how far you can go with this plan. But, let’s be clear about something. What we are talking about here is not quitting your job and hoping that someone will donate money to the cause. There is a real difference between achieving balance in your work and family life and the idea that you don’t have to work at all.

Work is part of life, and it is healthy and constructive. It pays the bills; it gives us the reward of real accomplishment and feeling of useful participation in the community and in society. What we are talking about here is the rational balance of your work and social life – a balance that is all too rare in today’s society, and one whose absence has caused sky-high healthcare costs and a dramatic increase in stress, psychological and relationship problems.

If you have decided to jump off the merry-go-round and seek some occasional solace with your family and friends, you must have a plan for your escape.

First, and foremost, you must set goals, Involve your boss, co-workers, friends and family in the process and keep the lines of communication open, and you’ll end up where you want to be. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Depending on your age and how long you have run the rat race, you may find it harder than you thought it would be but with perseverance and the right support network, you can succeed.

A Vision of Success

Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin: Who you are

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m John and I am a 27-year old, university student.” It does not tell you about who John is; it only tells you his present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, John realized that he was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. His inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, he believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing John’s story, after he defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, he decided that he wanted to have a life dedicated in serving his fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on John’s self-assessment, he decided that he was suited to become an engineer, and that he wanted to become one. His chosen vocation was an electronics engineer.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. John realized that he needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on engineering so that he could become an engineer. He knew that he was a bit impatient with people so he realized that this was something he wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years.

Anticipate Twists, Deviations and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are twists, deviations, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly.