Do You Need A Life Plan

I have just been reviewing and editing my new book, that will be published next year. “Out Of The Blue”. I was going over the part about free will. It seem very relevant that I am now writing this blog. One of the big issues that I deal with in the consulting room is the ‘what shall I do with my life?’, question. Or the same things from the other way around is ‘why does this always happen to me?’ This raises the issue of is life predetermined or is it something that we create? Are we the victim of circumstances or the author of our own fate.

I live in a world that takes into account neuroplasticity but also psycho-spiritual-plasticity. I think that we all, at any age and at any time, have the ability and the capacity to change, grow and develop. I do not believe that life is predetermined. I know that we have choice. These choices effect us all. We may be on a path of learning that can make it feel that it is predetermined but unless we are aware and awake we will miss the opportunities and the lessons that are presented to us. In a very real sense it is never what happens it us that is important it is how we respond to what happens to us that counts.

Right now planet Earth is in crisis, that is a crisis of our own making. It may be that our ecological mismanagement catches up with us, it maybe that we plunge into another world war or die from pollution and lack of oxygen. If we wake a little and use the other option of choice we might just choose piece and act in ways that reverse the adverse pollution that we have inflicted on the planet. This would suggest that I do not see life as predetermined but I do us as the authors that do have choices.

If life is not predetermined it would also suggest that to have an aim or a direction might be a good thing that can take us nearer to where we want to be because we are enacting our choice. So from my point of view a plan of action is a good thing. The problem is that most people do not know what it is that they want or need to do. So I have suggestions as to how we might discover what that is.

The first is the classic of projecting forward to your hundredth birthday, there is a reception and someone is calling assembled throng to silence because they want to say a few words about you and your life. What would you like them to be saying? If you were to write that speech right now it might give you some pointers as to what you need to do with your life to fill in the space between now and then. This is your plan.

The second is to honestly look ate your life and the lives of those around you, maybe check the media and do some googling. What things that observe catch your attention? What things do or would make you feel good if you did them? There is a seed of a plan here. If you do things that make you feel good you will live a happy life that will take you towards your own fulfilment.

The third is to meditate. We can spend so much time asking the question of what should we do that we never shut up long enough to hear the answer to the question. When we are quiet in meditation we may begin within a question. If we are then quiet and listen the answer can come to us ‘out of the Blue’ so to speak. This can be the beginning of the plan.

Over all planning things that make you feel happy leads to a happy life. This is the enactment of choice. Being a victim of circumstances does lead to happiness.

Take care and plan well

Sean x