Your dream life—where you’re happy, successful, and living in alignment with your values—isn’t something that’s just going to fall into your lap. It takes careful planning and serious work, and your early twenties is when the foundations are laid. But where do you start?
We’ve shared many resources that can help answer that question — we recommend checking out our blog post outlining 10 things twenty-somethings should know for more. But one of our favorite ways to envision our dream life, and create the beginnings of an action plan to get there, is to complete the Me Tool.
This tool is adapted from the One Page Personal Plan developed by entrepreneur and life coach Verne Harnish. This simple worksheet will guide you through making big decisions in four areas of your life: relationships, achievements, rituals, and wealth.
The tool will ask you to envision what you’d like each of these areas to look like in 10-25 years (your legacy). Then, you’ll work backwards to identify what you’d like your life to look like in one year from now, and then you’ll outline the specific things you need to start and stop doing in the next 90 days to make that vision a reality.
This exercise works best when you go into it with a clear picture of your values—and we recommend taking a moment to reflect on what is important to you before you get started filling out the worksheet below. A helpful framework is James Hansberger’s 5Fs—Family, Friends, Fitness, Finance, and Faith. Once you’re clear on these values, keep them in mind as you complete the Me Tool.
Your completed Me Tool, Wheel of Life, and three-year goal statement should provide you with all of the self-reflection you need to begin shifting how you live out of autopilot, and instead, using each day to move yourself closer to your dream life.