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Three Critical Strategies for Effective Life Planning

February 22, 2011

By, Karen Pool

A study of the responses of 4,000 retired executives over the age of 70 by Dr. Gerald Bell revealed a common regret: They wished they had done more life planning. “I would have carved out life goals and owned my life.” I should have taken charge of my life through goal setting.” “I would have spent more time on my personal development.” If we want to start on the path of life planning, we must listen to our hearts. The truest answers for what we want come from our hearts. The three critical strategies for effective creative life planning include brainstorming, going for detail, and setting plans in time.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming helps us expand our thinking to include dreams, goals, and aspirations that can be integrated into our daily lives. Our imagination unlocks possibilities and options. We can invent the future in our imagination before creating it tangibly to discover possibilities—moving ideas from vision into form. Use the following open-ended sentences to generate 8-10 new ideas: • If I could do, be, or having anything, what would my heart say? • What would I do if I could do anything without training? • What would I do for fun?

Brainstorming helps you get past the surface to the deeper levels of knowing and thinking where insight and the best ideas originate.

Go for Detail

When we create dreams without the particulars, what we want is usually too large in our heads. Our desires need to be broken down into smaller tasks or amounts, just as we make smaller monthly payments to pay off a large loan, for example. Identify the smallest piece that you can bring into the current week to move your idea forward

Set Plans in Time

Creating a structure, framework, or blueprint offers a view of what lies ahead before you move forward. Follow through is essential; it includes creating timelines and dated action plans for managing the details of dreams to ensure continued progress. Once we have specific detail, we can clarify the priorities and identify the smallest action that fits into our weekly and monthly schedules. We begin to bring our dreams into reality.

Choosing to develop your creative imagination and engage in life planning will transform your life. As your thoughts and dreams become visible, you will discover pathways leading to their fulfillment . . . and a life free of regret.

Karen W. Pool, M.S., a former university and teacher educator, presents workshops that encourage the development of creativity and imagination. She is President of lifemagination and works as an instructional writer. For more than two decades she has taught a Life Creation Process and encouraged individuals to invent their lives by creating a flexible 20-year plan. She is the author of Transformation Thinking, Celebrating Women’s Voices, and Designing Your Life Vision. You can follow her on www.karenpoolblog.com.

Written by Guest Author · Filed Under Life Balance 

Startup Princess Kingdom News * November 23

November 24, 2007

Here’s a couple of exciting updates from Royalty in the Startup Princess Kingdom: 

*New* Startup Princess Karen W. Pool of Utah writes: The best news is that my website: www.karenwpool.com is up and running. I have a bi-monthly newsletter with life creation and writing tips that people can sign up to receive. My books, Transformational Thinking, Celebrating Women’s Voices, and Designing Your Life Vision, are available to be purchased on my website. These books are fun, easy to read, full of great questions and activities, and make great Christmas gifts.

Fairy Godmother Laura West of Georgia writes: I am very happy to announce the first episode of the Joyful Business Podcast. The first podcast features Fairy Godmother Christine Closer of Conscious Business Circle. I am really enjoying connecting and interviewing some of the most talented and joyful entrepreneurs in business. Each interview is full of nuggets of wisdom about how being joyful and mindful in your business brings you the success you deserve. You’ll find tips, stories, and real life ideas for keeping the joy, passion and creativity alive. Please join us every two weeks in Cafe Entrepreneur for a new interview.

Do YOU have exciting news to share? Please email us and we’ll feature you next week!

Written by startupprincess · Filed Under Uncategorized 

  Startup Princess is an international network committed to empowering Women Entrepreneurs by offering resources for women in business to support, mentor, collaborate, learn from, and inspire one another. In 2006, after struggling to raise funding for an initial startup business venture, Kelly King Anderson recognized an important market niche existed for reliable resources educating women desiring to start and grow successful businesses, thus Startup Princess was developed.

Successful women entrepreneurs understand that for every business venture, they are in charge of creating, organizing, developing, managing, and assuming all the risks associated with their enterprise. That can seem quite intimidating but as other women business owners will tell you, it’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it! Success is within your grasp and Startup Princess is here to help.

First, join as a member of Startup Princess and start building a solid foundation. Membership entitles you to a listing in the Startup Princess Online Directory where we list women owned businesses. You’ll also access exclusive content like articles, videos, and audio straight from your email inbox. Coupled with feature interviews, discounts on events, networking connections, and press opportunities, your Startup Princess membership will give any woman entrepreneur a great start for her business!

Then, take advantage of Touchpoint, our annual business conference for women entrepreneurs. Practical planning meets sky-high inspiration at this high-impact event for women business owners to network and develop their approach to business with wisdom and creative direction from other women entrepreneurs across the country.

Need a little help taking your business to the next step? Wish you had a fairy godmother like Cinderella offering you a helping hand? Now you can! Startup Princess is the home of Fairy Godmother Consulting, volunteer mentors sharing tips and insights to bless the lives of other women entrepreneurs.

Startup Princess can offer many benefits to women in business from future women business owners to successful women entrepreneurs. Please call or fill out our contact form with questions, concerns, or general interest and let us help you by giving you full access to everything Startup Princess has to offer!