planning for life?

Step 1: Determine your core values.
Step 2: Determine your vision.
Step 3: Develop a 3 year plan
Step 4: Set three month targets

Step 5: Set next week goals
Step 6: Hit those goals;
Step 7: Repeat step 5 until it is time to assess step 4 again, i.e. the quarter is over.

Step 8: Quarterly review. Revisit steps 1 through 4. Adjust as needed.

Following Richards advice above is an excellent process.
Only thing I would add is to brainstorm with yourself over a period of a few days/weeks what you want your life to look like.

Be honest with yourself.
Do you want a simple life
A big house.
Do you want to manage people
Run a business or work for someone else.

There is no right or wrong answers it is all about being HONEST with yourself.
It is so easy to get trapped into thinking you have to be the General Manager or have the biggest house but reality is many people simply don't want that.
It is also easy to think too small, if your dreams are big then accept that and get started on the path.

This information will guide you when you are going through Richards process.

BuildALife wrote:Only thing I would add is to brainstorm with yourself over a period of a few days/weeks what you want your life to look like.

One method to brainstorm is to write a narrative, to write a story, "A week in the life of John Mason". The opening sentence starts with, "Within 3 years, I wake up..." and then you go on to describe in detail the things you are doing, your routine, what you eat, where you live, what you are wearing, who you are talking to, etc. etc."

The very first time you write this story could take a few days/weeks. Then, every 3 months when conducting your quarterly review you update the story. It takes a lot less time to update than initially create.

From the story you develop quarterly objectives. For instance in my story I speak fluent Spanish. Three years ago I spoke no Spanish. Ahora mi puedo hablar español. No soy fluido, pero está bien.