Third in a series of blog posts urging, begging, pleading with you to turbo-charge your existence with a WRITTEN life plan for the coming year!

I think you are pretty special. I think you have greatness within you and tremendous potential. A sleeping giant slumbers inside you, waiting for you to awaken him. An awesome genie lies trapped within you, just waiting for your summons.

“Huh?” you reply. I can hear it now: “You don’t even know me. How can you say such things? How can you know these things about me?”

Well, I do know you and I do know some things about you. I know that in many respects we are alike. I know we all are members of the human race, and I know the joy and the triumph of us humans is the potential that lies within us as individuals and as teams and as communities. I also know the tragedy of how often we turn our backs on our inchoate greatness.

I also know something very specific about you: You want to grow, you want to tap your potential. I know this because you are reading a blog on personal leadership, on personal and professional growth. And I know to have read this far your interest and commitment is real.

I also know that our greatness as individuals is tightly bound with our greatness as a group, with our links to others. And I know that for those who I can assist along the way, my life is inexorably enriched and enlarged.

So join with me. Write out your life plan. Write large, with bold strokes and great dreams. Tap into your passions, notice what energizes you, what makes you bound out of bed in the morning full of vim and vigor, bursting with anticipation and enthusiasm. Try to get more of that into your life.

Notice the little things you remember, the small things that brighten your day. Write them down. Think about how to attract more of those moments into your life.

What do you look forward to? Why? Tease out the elements that truly move you, resonate within you. Become an expert on what moves you, what motivates you.

Increase your awareness of your underlying motivations. Go deeper into yourself. Understand the levels within the levels of that complexity that is you. Learn how to play the instrument that is you, how to create a symphony of your life and the emotions that move you most.

Become the playwright of your life. Write out your own script as if you were a producer, a director, a scriptwriter for your own life. How would the plot develop? What would the subplots be? Who or what would you write into upcoming episodes? Or write out? What would the season finale include? What would the cliffhangers be (issues to be resolved)? How would the new season open? How would it evolve (what is your life plan for next year)?

This can be an incredibly powerful exercise, so helpful in tapping into your true dreams, desires, and goals. Stepping aside, viewing your life from the outside (such as from the role of a scriptwriter or director) can spark some wondrous insights. This can be an ongoing exercise in planning and visualization; feel free to write up new episodes, acts, or chapters as the muse moves you.

But whatever you do, please, please create a written life plan that is aligned with your values AND that you visit often. NOW! Your life is waiting.

This is a classic from the NSC Blog archive. Originally posted December 22, 2008.