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Life Mapping: A Vision of Success

by Rey Misoles

Success is more than pecuniary gains, titles, and degrees.
Successful people are looked upon by the vast majority as
"lucky." Such a wrong impression, however, because success
is something one has to work for - real hard. It involves a lot of
work, of which planning is a paramount pre-requisite.

Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of
your life. Akin to a map, you need to analyze the following
details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, milestones,
and route.

Origin: Who You Are

A map has a starting point, and your success-map's starting
point is your origin - who you are right now. Most people when

asked to introduce themselves would say, "Hi, I'm John and I
am a 23-year old, Senior Accountant." It does not really tell
you about who John is; it only tells you his present
preoccupation.

To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at
your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic,
professional, cultural, and civil status. You can also reflect on
your life circumstances to be aware of your good and not-so-
good attributes - traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and
areas for improvement.

Upon deep self-examination, John realized that he was highly
motivated, magnanimous, service-oriented, but impatient. His
propensity was in the biological-medical field. He believed that
life must serve a purpose, and that wars were devastating to
human dignity.

Destination: A Vision of Who You Want To Be

"Who do you want to be?" - this is your vision. The Greek
philosopher, Socrates, admonished to "Know Thyself" if one
is to be successful. It is important to know yourself so that
you would have a clear idea of who you want to be, and the
things you want to change - they be attitudes, habits, or
points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision
and goals for the future would also be unclear.

Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being:
the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing
John's story, after he defined his beliefs, values, and principles
in life, decided that he wanted to have a life committed in
serving his fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your
destination. It can be correlated to your mission or vocation in
life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what
you know about yourself.

Based on John's self-assessment, he decided that he was
suited to become a doctor, and he chose to become one.
Describing his vision-mission fully: To live a life committed to
serving his fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-torn areas.

Travel Bag - and Be Sure To Bring KASH

Food, drinks, medicine, and other traveling necessities are
contained in a bag when you travel, and of course, some
amount of cash. Applying this concept to your life map, you
also bring with you some contingents, and a certain amount
of KASH - knowledge, attitude, skills and habits. These
determine your competence and help you in attaining your
vision.

Given such, there is a need for you to assess what KASH you
have at present, and what you need to gain along the way.
This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your
milestones or measures of success. John realized that he
needed to gain professional knowledge and skills in medicine
so that he could become a doctor. He knew that he was a bit
impatient with people, and realized that this is something
he wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. Objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track, while the
route determines the travel time. In planning out your life, you
also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks,
or milestones, are your measures of success. As such these
measures must be:

Specific - Only one objective at a time.

Measurable - Clearly stated in terms of quantity, quality,
and the like.

Attainable - High enough to be challenging, and low enough
to be interesting.

Relevant - Focus on what matters most. As the saying goes,
"Don't major in minor things."

Timebound - Without timeframe, it's just wishful thinking.

Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a
master's degree and a doctorate degree within a period of
three years. Upon careful planning, you will realize that the
minimum number of years to complete a master's degree is
two years. Setting two objectives at the same time is not just
frustrating, it's simply a waste of time.

Going back to John as an example, he identified the following
landmarks in his life map: Completing a bachelor's degree in
Biology by the age of 27; completing medicine by the age of
32; earning his specialization in infectious diseases by the
age of 35; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their
town by the age of 37; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas
by the age of 40.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of
-the-moment decisions that can make, or break, your goals in
life. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due
to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond
our control. Like any road, there are turns, detours, and
potholes, which we must anticipate - and adjust accordingly.

Every cloud has a silver lining; so consider this article on Life
Mapping to be the silver lining to the clouds of articles on
success. It is this article that will add more spice to the
meaning of self improvement and success.