Decade in Review Part 3: Create Your 10 Year Plan

Keep going! Part 3 of your decade in review is here.

How have you been enjoying the first two installments of Marie Forleo’s three-part exercise that focuses on reviewing the past decade? How did it go? Ready for more?

This week we turn toward the future with Decade in Review Part 3: Create Your 10 Year Plan. Be sure to schedule plenty of time to allow for free thinking and daydreaming to get the most from this exercise.

Don’t worry if you missed the previous emails and exercises, you can re-read part 1 here and part 2 here.

I would love to hear your feedback and any ah-ha moments.

Let’s get to Exercise 3!

Lorraine

PS. Many thanks to Marie Forleo who created this three-part exercise that I am sharing with you.

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time for the fun part: figuring out what’s next. Get ready to fire up that imagination and tap into your heart, because Part 3 is where you’ll create your 10-year plan. You know what to do — open your journal and follow the prompts below.

Section 4: What’s Next? What’s My Future?
What do you want to create, experience, or achieve over the next 10 years? What do you want to feel or accomplish in terms of your…

Think about how you want to feel on a more consistent basis? Do you want to experience more freedom and flexibility — if so, to do what exactly?

The goal here is to be as specific and concrete as possible. Envision the best possible decade of your life and let yourself really dream. Don’t underestimate what you can achieve.

My Top 3 Most Important Goals For Next Year
Once you’re done, go back over your list and answer these questions:

What are the three most important goals you want to focus on over the next 12 months? Circle them now.
Why are each of these goals important to you?
Who do you need to become in order to bring each of these goals to life?
What character traits, habits, or skills do you need to develop to accomplish these goals?

Doing this exercise every year will help you break down all your goals, dreams, and expectations from your 10-year plan, one year at a time. And remember — if you’re feeling any kind of overwhelm over a particular goal, I wrote an entire book that will help you figure it out.

Section 5: What Future You Wants You To Know
Now that you’ve got the tactical goals and dreams written down, you’re going to do one final, highly imaginative exercise to tap into your heart’s wisdom. Imagine yourself ten years in the future, and start writing a letter to current-day you. It can start something like this:

Dear ______, I’d love you to know that…

Let your hand move and write whatever comes to mind. Don’t judge, edit, or pay any attention to grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Trust me, you’ve got so much natural knowing and wisdom inside of you.

If you get stuck, here are some prompts you can experiment with:

I’d love you to start…
I’d love you to remember…
I’d love you to focus on…

I know this might sound a little weird, but it’s powerful stuff. It helps you access deep truths that you know intuitively, and that you’ll be really glad you articulated right now — before the next ten years pass.

Great job. If you’ve completed all three parts of this series, you now have an invaluable treasure map of personal wisdom that’s going to help you make the next ten years more productive, joyful, and meaningful.

If you are interested in watching the video that goes with this exercise, watch it here.