How to make a five year plan.
Five years is half a decade.
That’s the perfect amount of time to set life-changing goals that’ll help you to transform your life into the amazing destiny and experience that you desire.
With that being said, this won’t happen automatically.
If you want an amazing life, it’s in your best interest to plan it out.
And planning out your goals five years in advance is a fantastic way to get started on this process.
At first, this may seem like an overwhelming concept.
But don’t worry.
It’s a lot easier than you might think.
Plus, once you do the work to actually set the goals and create your action plan, you’ll realize that it’s really just a matter of sticking to the plan and following through.
Yes, you actually do have the power to radically transform your life in just five years.
And in this post, I’m going to show you exactly how to do it.
What Should A Five-Year Plan Include?
First off, it’s important to know that you can set five-year goals for pretty much any area of your life.
You can set far-reaching goals that affect every single vital domain of your life, or you can just set goals in a few specific areas where you want to create the most change.
Here are some examples of different types of goals you may want to consider setting as you explore how to make a five-year plan.
- Career goals
- Personal goals
- Personal finance goals
- Relationship/family goals
- Spiritual goals
- Health/fitness goals
- Personal achievement goals
- Life satisfaction goals
Of course, the sky is the limit.
It’s really all about what you want to achieve for yourself over the next five-year period.
What Are 5 Year Goals Examples?
The thing about five year goals is that they give you plenty of time to accomplish relatively major tasks.
Five years is technically the timeframe for a long-term goal.
Here are some examples of the different types of life changes you could very reasonably expect to accomplish by setting and sticking to a five-year goal plan.
- Getting a college degree
- Increasing your income by a significant margin
- Transforming your body to get into better physical shape
- Improving your health outcomes
- Taking a new business or side hustle to profitability
- Enjoying a deeper spiritual life and practice
- Improving your marriage
- Becoming a better husband/wife and/or parent
- Start a thriving volunteering routine
- Learn a new language
- Relocating/moving to a new part of the world or country
Of course, learning how to make a five year plan, in and of itself, will really start with figuring out what you want to achieve.
So you may want to do a bit of soul searching to decide for yourself exactly what types of changes you want to make in your life—and then work backwards from that to go through the following process for how to make a five year plan, stick with it, and achieve it.
With that being said, let’s jump into the process—where I’ll explain exactly how to make this happen.
How Do I Make A 5 Year Plan? 11 Specific Steps To Follow Today
1. Figure Out What You Want In Life
We’ve already talked about this just a little bit.
But it’s such an important step that it bears repeating.
It’s important for you to identify what success means to you in your life.
Every life is different, and we all have different desires.
So figure out what you would like your life to look like in five years, and what types of goals you’d like to achieve in that timeframe.
For best results, you can even put together a vision board to help you piece together a vision for how you’d like your life to look.
If you’re not sure what kind of life you want, consider reading this guide: 12 Steps To Finding Your Passion And Purpose In Life.
2. Look Ahead 5 Years And Figure Out How You Want Your Life To Be Different
Figuring out what you want in life is one part of the equation.
But you should also take look at different areas of your life and decide how you might like to make them different.
Five years is more than enough time for a fairly radical life transformation.
Are there some areas of your life that you’d like to upgrade, replace, or make significant changes to?
If so, this is a great time to look ahead five years and see exactly how you’d like those changes to take effect.
Visualize The Outcome
Creating a vision for how you’d like your life to look in the future is a crucial part of this process.
Remember—the sky is truly the limit.
I’m a huge proponent of dreaming big dreams, turning those dreams into goals, and then writing those goals down to create a roadmap to success.
But this all starts with visualizing how you’d like your life to look.
3. Decide On Your Long-Term 5-Year Goals And Write Them Down
Alright.
At this point, you’ve done some prep work and some soul searching.
Now it’s time to choose your goals and write them down.
Don’t worry.
This part doesn’t have to be perfect.
Of course, the more specific you can get with your goals, the better.
However, just start with what you know, and then plan to fill in the gaps as you move forward.
But here’s the important part.
Actually write them down.
A lot of people make the mistake of keeping their goals locked away inside their brain.
But this puts you at a significant disadvantage.
Make sure you write those goals down to begin the process of manifesting them in the real world.
If you need some help with the basics of how to write goals, sign up for my email list to get a free copy of my Goal Setting Essentials Start Kit. It contains two ebooks and four different goal sheets to help you get started on the journey today—and it won’t cost you a thing.
Use SMART Goals
As you write out your long-term goals, you’re going to get much better results if you use the SMART goal system.
In other words, you want to make sure that each goal is:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
People who set SMART goals tend to get much better results than people who don’t.
Make Your Goals Ambitious, But Achievable
If you set goals that are too difficult, you’re going to set yourself up for failure right from the beginning.
However, if you set goals that are too easy, you’re going to cheat yourself out of a ton of forward progress that you could have been making.
The very best goals are always a delicate balance between being ambitious and being achievable.
So push yourself—but not so much that you set yourself up for failure.
Consider Using A Goal Planner
Writing down your goals on paper is a fantastic way to get the process started.
You can also use a notebook, a bullet journal, or even the back of an old envelope or napkin.
I’ve always said that where you choose to write your goals is not nearly as important as just making sure to write them down.
With that being said, there are all kinds of amazing goal planners that you can use to help you track your goals and get better results.
Personally, I tend to recommend the Self Journal for beginners and the Full Focus Planner for more advanced goal setters.
But you can check out my full goal planners list to find a huge range of planners, one of which will likely be perfect for you.
Heck, you can even use a notebook! Just make sure to write your goals down on a daily basis.
4. Break Your Long-Term Goals Down Into 1-Year Goals
Now that you’ve set your long-term five-year goals, it’s time to start breaking those goals down.
This is where the magic of goal setting really helps you to achieve huge milestones over longer spans of time.
Break each five-year goal down into one-year increments, and figure out what you’ll need to accomplish every single year to reach that five-year milestone.
5. Break Your 1-Year Goals Down Into Monthly Milestones
You can probably see exactly where this is heading.
Breaking those one-year goals down even further into monthly milestones lets you know what you need to do each month to stay on track with your five-year plan.
6. Break Your Monthly Milestones Down Into Weekly Goals
This is where the process starts to get really exciting.
When you start breaking your monthly goals down into weekly goals, you start to see exactly what you need to be doing on a weekly basis in order to stay consistent with your five-year plan.
The amazing part about this is that once you see your goals broken down like this, all the way down to the weekly basis, you’ll likely think to yourself:
“Wow, as long as I stick with it, this will actually be a lot easier than I thought it would be.”
That’s the power of goal setting.
7. Break Your Weekly Goals Down Into Daily Tasks
This is where your goal planner or your goal-setting sheet really comes into play.
When you break those weekly goals down into daily tasks, this empowers you to take action every single day to help create the success you desire for your five-year plan.
When you break your goals down to this point, all you need to do is make sure that you’re showing up every single day to write down your goals and accomplish those daily to-do list items.
As long as you stick with this, you’ll be on track to achieve those ambitious five-year goals and create real, incredible, positive transformation in your life.
8. Write Down Your Goal List Every Day
It’s vitally important to write down your goals every single day.
Here’s the thing about five year goals.
It’s really easy to get sidetracked and distracted from the end goal with such a long timespan.
This means that you need to stay focused.
And one of the best ways to stay focused is to make sure that you’re writing down those daily goals and those long-term goals every single day.
This keeps your mind focused on the end goal, and helps you to focus your energy where it matters the most—on building the future that you desire for yourself.
9. Find An Accountability Partner
Science tells us that people who write down their goals are much more likely to succeed than people who don’t.
However, science also tells us that people who write down their goals and also find an accountability partner are much more likely to succeed than people who only write down their goals.
In other words, finding an accountability partner gives you a super boost of success power.
So make use of this powerful scientific fact—and make it work for you by finding someone who will help to walk with you as you accomplish your goals.
10. Review And Revise The Plan As Needed
Five years is a long time.
Over the course of this journey, you may come to realize that some of your goals will either grow outdated or shift a little bit.
This is totally normal, and it isn’t something to be worried about.
Don’t give up or discontinue your journey.
Instead, just make adjustments as needed—and shift your goals to align with your new direction.
Keep up the momentum, and keep on making progress.
Just because the path may change a little bit doesn’t mean that it’s time to cancel the goals or quit the journey.
Stick with it and keep going.
11. Stick To It And Don’t Give Up
This is the final part of the puzzle.
Stick with the journey and don’t give up.
You can accomplish amazing things in five years, but you’ll need to stick with the program.
If you give up on the goals or get sidetracked and stop putting in the effort, guess what?
You won’t create that amazing transformation for yourself.
It’s worth it, so stick with it.
FAQs
How do couples make a 5 year plan?
Making a five year plan together as a couple is an amazing way to strengthen your relationship, your bond, and your commitment to your family and future together.
To do this, just sit down together and go through the 11 steps listed above.
You can do this together just as effectively as you can do it alone.
In fact, when you work on it together, you have an accountability partner built right into the process.
This makes it even more effective.
How can I make a plan?
To make a plan, you just sit down, figure out what you want, and go through the above-listed 11 steps to create a five year plan that will help you to transform your destiny in the way that matters most to you.
You can do it.
You just need to get started and stay focused on the goal—so write down those goals every single day.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has given you some useful information that’ll help you with learning how to make a five year plan—and how this can help you in your goal-setting and life-success journey.
Of course, at the end of the day, this is just another part of the larger, overarching process of turning your dreams into goals, and writing those goals down to create a roadmap for success in your life.
This is how you begin your journey to success and crush it.
You’ve got this. I believe in you.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Best wishes…
Jay O’Donnell