People do not appear to agree about having a "Plan." While some people have their life goals carefully mapped out and follow the general instructions to accomplish these goals strictly, the vast majority of us live from day to day or minute to minute. Neither way achieves optimum results.
Other than the elderly, who in many senses are forced to live day to day, it is a very good idea for the rest of us to have a "Plan." This can easily be achieved by relaxing and trying to envision where you want to be five years from the present. Letting your imagination take you to the optimum situation five years out provides an excellent starting point in relieving the stress that indecision can bring. Once you can formulate your goals, you can then map a path to achieving them.
The map should, however, be flexible and allow for many detours because what happens randomly in life is often interesting and worth pursuing. There may even come a time when the goal and the map to to the goal change rather dramatically. The point is that most of us should have tangible goals and develop life strategies for accomplishing them. Even if the goals change radically in the course of pursuing a desired objective, you will be in a more interesting space/place and probably have acquired useful insights into yourself and your desires in the process. More about the "Plan" later.
We try to review our "plan" every January. It's really inspiring and/or sobering to go over the year's accomplishments and talk about the future. I like that you said you need to remain flexible though, as I think being too focused on specific goals can sometimes be detrimental and not allow you to see and seize opportunities as they arise. If you establish a core set of values that you want to live by then you can more easily evaluate new opportunities to see if they fit into your plan. See--you have taught me well nosy aunt josie!
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