In order to have a successful career, you have to implement some good planning. You may remember hearing about Joseph Stalin's Five-Year Plan in the late 1920s. His purpose was to improve the economic growth of his country. While it may sound very complicated, involving industry and the military, it became precedence for many individuals and companies wishing to plan their economic growth. Today the term "five year plan" may be heard in many situations involving economic growth and, particularly life and career goals with individuals.

Setting up a Five Year Plan for your Career

Setting up a five year plan will help to bring you personal and professional satisfaction and achievement. Five year plans are considered a great time span for tracking your progress, while not being too long to plan ahead. For instance, a person can't accurately plan the next 20 years because it's too far ahead whereas one year is not near long enough to complete some of the personal or professional goals you may have set for yourself. Five years, however, allows you time to set goals, track your progress and if you need to make any changes in the plan, you have time.

The first thing you need to do when setting up your five year plan is assess your life as it is today and how you would like it to be in the future. Make sure you consider factors that may allow for changes. Your five year plan should be in writing so you can always have it to access when you want to do a self-assessment to see how successful you are as you're making your yearly updates to the plan. There are specific factors that will go into the creation of your five year plan. These factors consist of:

• Personal and Career Information
• Social and Professional Information
• Present & Future Priorities
• Major Accomplishments
• Strengths and Weaknesses
• Future major challenges
• Objectives, goals and strategies
• Yearly Plan Update

Once you have the factors listed for your five year plan, begin looking at it and filling out the missing data while you determine what your goals will be. Use the "what, where, why" scenario to set up your goals for the plan. For instance, what do you want to do? Where would you like to do this? Why is it a goal for your future? You may want to go back to school in the city where you live so you can get a job in the career of your choice. If there are any obstacles you're aware of, these should be acknowledged at this time.

Setting up a five year plan for your personal and professional career is not much different than planning a major event except it's for a longer period of time. The important thing about a five year plan is that it's imperative that you make yearly updates so you know how close you are to completing on time or if alterations need to be made in the plan.