Should You Create a Four-Year Plan?

A review of long-term plans for our irrational minds

When I first entered college as a Biology and Plan II double major, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Correction: I still have no idea what I want to do with my life. I had so many different interests — so many different versions of myself — that I didn’t know how to narrow it down to define my path for the next four years.

Already straddling natural sciences and liberal arts degrees while possibly pursuing a premedical tract meant that I had to organize my required courses right from when I first entered college, to make sure I graduated on time. So I sat down in front of my computer, pulled up a Google Sheets, filled in the courses I knew I would be taking in my first semester of university, and then stared at the *almost* blank columns for the rest of my college experience.

There’s comfort in the certainty of knowing what the future holds for us. That there’s a direct path to get from where we are now to where we want to be. But humans are irrational, impulsive, and emotion-driven which isn’t exactly a great combination of long-term planning.

At the end of the day, life never goes according to plan. So, is it even worth it to create such long-term plans? There are four-year plans for college, three-year plans for postgraduates, five-year plans for when we’re a bit more settled down in life — the list seems never-ending. There’s a pressure society places on us to “figure our life out” when the truth is, I’ve never met someone who admits that they have it all together.

The whole notion behind long-term planning exposes our craving for certainty and control, fear of the unknown, and pressure to hit lifetime milestones like getting married and having kids. With that said, there are benefits to creating these plans if you consider the right facets and have a flexible paradigm when approaching these goals.

Here’s what you should consider:

Having a plan decreases your anxiety.

There’s a certain reassurance we get in seeing our life laid out for us. It prevents decision fatigue by decreasing the number of decisions we will have to make in the future. We get comfort in knowing that there is a path for us, even if it’s not the one we end up choosing when the time comes. A strong correlation between uncertainty and anxiety means that we chase control for the power that we feel we have over our lives.

Professor of psychology at North Carolina University Shevaun Neupert found that planning can decrease stress because of what is known as ‘proactive coping.’ We feel like we’re in control of our life, and that calms us down and decreases our cortisol levels. Even if these plans eventually fall through in the future, our stress levels continue to stay low.

Take into account all aspects of your life.

Often times when we think of four or five-year plans, we tend to fixate on professional goals such as the position we want to work our way up to or the higher education we want to attain. Sometimes these aspirations conflict with our personal milestones such as getting married or prioritizing our mental health.

That’s why it’s important to consider everything that’s important to you from your values to your relationships when creating long term goals. This will help you prioritize what matters to you both in the moment and long term, and this clarity will provide you with focus as you chug through the monotony that day-to-day life can have.

Some things to consider are:

• Self: What things would you like to learn i.e., a new language, creating new habits, trying a new fitness class, or focusing on your mental health? What do you want the future to look like? How are you going to get there?
• Relationships: What stage of your relationships would you like to be in? Would you like to have space and time to nourish your present relationships or invite new people in? How will you show love to your loved ones?
• Passion Projects: Are there any side hustles or bucket list items that you’ve always wanted to do and think now is the time? Will these fit with your current personal and professional goals, or will you have to space out other goals to make room for your interests?

This is a pivotal period in your life.

If you clicked on this article, you’re likely a current college student because our sense of time works in semesters or four years. Nevertheless, no matter what period of your life you are in, you are constantly evolving and growing into a new and better version of yourself.

Give yourself grace for when things don’t go to plan, and accept when dreams you once had are no longer what you want in the present. This was one that I struggled with because I felt guilty when I no longer wanted to accomplish what I thought I once did. I saw my future self publishing a fictional novel and regularly taking dance classes, but I soon realized that I was no longer interested in fiction and didn’t prioritize dance enough to commit to classes.

It felt like a failure to let go of what I thought I had always wanted. But it’s not a failure to know what you don’t want in life anymore. If anything, it’s guiding you towards what you do want because you now know what doesn’t work for you. It’s an example of vision outlining because when you outline different visions for yourself or your year, you are simultaneously learning about what you do AND don’t want.

Create those long-term plans and versions of yourself, but accept that things will likely change.

It is a lot of front end work, but you will get clarity.

It’s scary to think long-term. I was always afraid that I wanted the wrong things in life, and my aspirations wouldn’t work out for me. But taking the time to create even just three things you know you want in the next couple of years will give you direction in the present.

It can be a lot of work, perhaps not physically, but mentally and emotionally. You have to figure out your values, which ideas you choose to go big on, and which ideas might be left behind in the process. This might take the form of creating a massive life map, reviewing your google calendar, or taking a simply pencil and paper to journal.

The thing with creating long-term plans is that it forces you to get real clear about you want in life. You have to sit down and take the time to fully process who you are and reflect on what has or hasn’t worked for you in order to move forward. Towards a version of you that future you will thank you for.

Most of us have heard about SMART goals: goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. We are more likely to reach our goals when we plan towards them and have a specific route as to how we get there. This removes you out of the mindless autopilot that we succumb to on a daily basis. Sure, it might occasionally fall off our path, or we end up forging ahead with a new dream in mind. But it’s this preparation that long-term planning provides that will even give us a chance of reaching for that success.

We are irrational human beings. We make decisions impulsive and can change our life based on a spur of the moment judgment. Creating long-term plans doesn’t remove that emotion that makes us human, but it reminds us that there is a future that we can look forward to. Because to work towards the future, we have to be intentional about how we spend the present.