If you are evaluating your career path and where you want to be professionally in the future, you may want to consider putting together a five-year plan. By creating a set of goals you want to achieve in the next five years, you can identify the steps you need to take within that time to make achieving those goals possible.
In this article, we discuss what a five-year plan is, how you can create one and a template and example to help you create one for yourself.
What is a 5-year plan?
A five-year plan is a list of goals, either personal or professional, that you want to achieve within the next five years. It often includes ambitions with specific timelines and measurements. This short-term plan provides concrete goals to work towards and makes it possible to develop smaller goals to help you achieve the larger goals on your five-year plan.
A five-year plan can significantly increase the likelihood that you will reach your goals and ultimately achieve the life you want to live. Creating a five-year plan helps you to clarify your goals, ensure that they are specific and measurable and confirm that they are what you really want.
How to create a 5-year plan
Here are the basic steps you should take to create your five-year plan:
1. Consider what you want for your life
Start by simply evaluating what you want for your life within the next five years. Thoughtfully, and privately, consider what will make you happy in the future and provide you with a feeling of accomplishment.
One way to brainstorm what you want is to write down all of the career-related goals that you think you may want to accomplish within the next five years, regardless of what they are. Think of as many ideas as you can at this stage, as you can narrow them down in a later step.
Another way to brainstorm what you want for your life is to write down all of the things that inspire and motivate you. This should be a relatively simple exercise since these dreams often dominate your subconscious and possibly even conscious thoughts.
2. List your skills and experience
The next step is to consider what you actually know and have done. Keep in mind that there is a difference between what you know and have experienced, what you currently do and what you want to do. You may be in transition, changing career paths. If this is the case, then what you’re currently doing may be vastly different from what you want to do.
However, you may have knowledge, skills and experience that position you to move in that new direction. If you don’t yet, then your five-year plan can help you define what steps you need to take to make that ultimate goal achievable.
3. Identify your transferable skills
This step is particularly important if you are planning to make a career transition. Look at your current list of experience, knowledge and skills. From that list, consider which of those skills are transferrable to the career that you really want to have. You may want to talk to a trusted friend or family member to get additional insight into which skills on your list are transferrable.
4. Learn about your goal
The next step is to learn about your goal. Do research online to learn about the position you ultimately want to have and the educational and skill requirements for the role. You may also want to look at career-related social media sites, where you can look through the profiles of people in positions that are similar to the one you want in five years. Look for patterns within those profiles and take note of where those individuals were in their careers five years ago.
You may even want to consider reaching out to those individuals personally and asking them if you can send them an email with questions or, even better, sit down for an informational interview and talk about their career path. Most people are very willing to offer you insight into what they do and how they got to be where they are today. They also may be able to offer guidance about what specific path you should take, even if it’s different from their own. Speaking to them personally gives you a unique opportunity to learn what they would do differently to get to where they are today.
5. Refine your goals
After learning about the career path and researching the goals you hope to achieve, the next step is to refine your goals based on what you learned. It’s a good idea in this step to use the SMART goal-setting method, as it ensures your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.
6. Write down the steps
Within this step, you must decide what is most important to you so that you can focus the majority of your energy on those goals. Identify the specific goals that are most essential within the five-year timeframe so you can focus your energy on achieving those. If you have a lot of goals on your list, trying to accomplish too much within that window of time can make it more challenging to achieve them.
Once you’ve identified the most important goal or goals, then start making a list of steps you need to achieve to reach those goals. Identify the actions that you need to take on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis to reach your goals within five years. By identifying the steps you need to take and writing down what you need to do each month to reach those goals, you can more easily track your progress.
7. Be prepared for changes
Keep in mind that you are still growing and developing into the person you will be five years from now. You could discover a new passion and make the decision to switch career paths within five years. There’s a strong possibility that you will make changes to your five-year plan at some point. Remember that it’s ultimately up to you to decide what makes you successful.
5-year plan template
Here’s a template you can use to create your own five-year plan.
Goals | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Professional development | |||||
Career | |||||
Financial | |||||
Health | |||||
Other |
Examples of 5-year plans
Here are a few examples of a five-year plan:
Example 1
Goals | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Professional development | Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) | Project Management Professional Certification | Online MBA | ||
Career | Junior PM | Project Manager | Senior Project Manager | Regional Project Manager | |
Financial | Saving for home | Saving for home | Saving for home | Buy a home | |
Health | Healthy diet and exercise | Run a 5K | Run a half-marathon | Run a marathon | |
Travel | Asia | Australia |
Example 2
Goals | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Financial | Pay off the personal loan | Pay off one car | Increase monthly savings | ||
Career | Seek profession as a level 3 financial analyst | Pursue a business manager position | |||
Education | Graduate with MBA | Add certification | Add certification |