The war: Return to flight

About two weeks ago I told you that I had to start thinking about my 50000ft level visions and goals. I will here try to explain what that is. I was recently introduced to something called "the 6 level life planning model." The basic idea is that everything we do is based on the longterm plans and the image of ourself that we have. It's about the broader perspective. So in order to really come to terms with it one can divide it up in different "levels." The analogy that explains it the best is the one that was used to explain it to me: The airplane analogy.

Here are the six levels and what they represent:

• 50000ft: Life
• 40000ft: 3- to 5- year visions
• 30000ft: 1- to 2- year goals
• 20000ft: Areas of responsibility
• 10000ft: Current projects
• Runway: Current actions

Life
Who am I? Why am I here? What do I have to accomplish? Where am I going? These are all questions that need to be answered on this level. They determine more than we think about whether we are happy or not. If my current job does not match my idea of who I am then I should probably start looking for alternatives. If a project I'm working on goes against the basic values I live by then I should consider leaving it. What education is best in line with what I believe to be true about my purpose on this planet?

There situations will be more or less impossible to decide on if we haven't clearly defined these things. And don't think that just because you are a member of the church and have been spoon fed the answers to these questions since birth, that you are safe. General answers are good but they don't answer the question of what YOU, insert-own-name-here, are doing on this planet. They give pointers but the rest is for you to find out/decide.

3- to 5- year visions
What will my life be like in 5 years? Will I be in school? working? Married? Have children? Live in a foreign country? Be in the army? Decide what your vision of the future is. What will you have accomplished? Where will you have lived, what jobs will you have had? You get the idea.

1- to 2- year goals
This level blends together with the one above it in many cases and is very similar. The exception is that the goals and visions laid out here tend to be a little clearer and more defined since the outcomes are closer in time.

Areas of responsibility
What "hats" do you wear? What roles do you have in your society? What responsibilities do you have in your job? Are you a student? A parent? Do you have responsibilities in your Church? Club? Your kids sports team? etc. The list can be made long. By defining all you roles you get a clearer picture of what your life actually consists of and it gives you a chance to decide what roles are consistent with the higher levels of you life planning.

Current projects
This is where it gets easy. What projects are you working on right now? Planning trips, looking for a new couch, writing a thesis and planning a major project at work, all go into this category. This is where it starts getting "hands on" and you feel like you can work with things in a more frequent level then the higher levels of planning.

Current actions
This is where we spend most of our time. This is where we actually do stuff. Everything from taking the trash out to sending in your tax-declaration to proposing to that special someone takes place here.


The airplane analogy is an incredibly apt one for this. If the runway is all cluttered up with trash (Stuff in our lives that hasn't been properly taken care of) its impossible to take of with our plane and go to the higher levels. And at the same time we might, once we make it to the higher levels, realize that a lot of the actions we are doing on the runway level are actually part of projects that don't fit into our life plans. So while we need to spend most of our time taking care of everything on the runway level we definitely need to make frequent trips to the higher altitudes to assess where we are in the bigger picture. Here we can add and remove projects and areas of responsibility based on our life- and 1-5 year- goals as well as adjusting our goals according to our perception of our direction in life.


I myself haven't been terribly good at this but I have started looking at the higher levels. The last week however my runway had a bad case of being cluttered so the last few days have been spent on clearing the way. Now I once again feel I can have a look at those higher levels again.

I'm signing of for tonight but will be back soon with more. Dont forget to check out my new miniseries "the Good life".