5 year plans don't work. Here's how to build a routine that actually helps you achieve your goals with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Working Hard with Grace Beverley

In this episode of Working Hard, Grace Beverley sits down with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee to discuss the transition from long-term vision to acti

Key takeaways

Avoid the 'all or nothing' trap by allowing for flexibility when life interrupts your schedule.
Use 'habit stacking' to attach new desired behaviors to existing automatic routines, such as exercising while coffee brews.

Main topics

The pitfalls of long-term planning
Behavior change mechanics

Notable quotes

The goal is there to be a computing compass.

Conclusion

True progress is achieved by shifting focus from distant outcomes to m

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:11) What is up? I'm Grace Beverly and welcome back to Working Hard, the podcast-shaped guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing. Because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice. Speaker 2 (0:24) What is up guys and welcome back to Working Hard. If you have been following this series so far you will know that we are coming to the end of part one where we've been getting really really clear on what your ideal life, like the one you are working towards, actually looks like and what your plan looks like in order to be able to get there. So today we're going to be moving into the mechanics of how to build routine and a plan that actually works or in fact how to build any plan with a specific long-term horizon. Long-term plans can actually be quite controversial and when we were planning this episode, I was a little hesitant to give a number on how long I think you should plan ahead when you're reverse engineering your life, because I think it's so personal to everyone. For some people, a five-year plan is the perfect timeline to look ahead, and for others, it is far too long and there are far too many variables for it to actually make sense. So essentially, that dichotomy is exactly what today's episode is about, and the person I wanted to bring in to talk about this is someone who can hold the nuance of it and still give you a great, actionable answer. Like, we can all poo-poo the five-year plan as much as we want, but watch your we actually be doing? How do we build a plan to build our ideal life? Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is one of the most influential doctors in the UK and he's dedicated his career to working out how we actually live well. So what he's going to do in this episode is he's going to walk us through why most five-year plans don't work. So the specific traps people fall into and then also the practical mechanics of reverse engineering a vision, that vision that we've kind of developed, all the way back to what you actually do this week because I think that is so important. And as always with these episodes... Rangan has given me his top planning frameworks for your homework for the Working Hard newsletter this week. So that means you can actually action what we talked about in this episode in a very practical way so that you know you're actually learning things. You're not just listening to them on your commute and never coming back to it again and again because we like to create actual change over on this side of the internet. So I'll put the link for the newsletter in the description box. I hope you enjoy making the plan for that ideal life that you will be very much achieving once you put this all into action. And I'll leave you with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. Speaker 1 (2:22) So there are some really common mistakes that people make when it comes to planning out their lives. And this episode is for anyone looking to reverse engineer their future, but in a healthy, balanced way without the overlap and burnout. So why might you want to listen to me? Well, of course, Grace gave me a really lovely intro. But the thing I want to sort of focus on is the fact that I have been a medical doctor for over 25 years now. I have seen tens of thousands of patients over the course of my career. My podcast has been going for over nine years. I've spoken to some of the most influential voices around the world when it comes to health, happiness, mindset, longevity, productivity, whatever you might want. And I've helped many people change their lives, not just in the short term, but for good. So I feel I have a lot of experience trying to do this with people and That experience is what I'm hoping to offer you today. If you have ever made a plan that you were genuinely excited about, but then found that you were unable to stick to it, this is the episode for you. Okay, so as Grace mentioned at the start, should we even be making five-year plans? Well, I think that's something for us all to... reflect on. I mean for me, I would say possibly not. I think it's perhaps a little bit too far away in the future. But I also have to acknowledge that for some people it seems to work, okay? And that's the kind of nuance I hope you get from me throughout this episode. I don't believe in one-size-fits-all approaches because having seen so many patients over the years, I've realized that there's no one right approach that works for everyone. So let's assume that you do wanna make a plan for your future, whether it be a one-year plan or a five-year plan or even a 10-year plan, I would say that the same principles apply. Okay, so first of all, have a think about what you want your plan to relate to. Is it your health? your wellbeing? Is it your mindset, your relationships, your career? Is it to get your hobbies into your life in a much more sustainable way? You know, whatever it is, that's up to you. But these core principles I'm going to go through work no matter what the topic is, okay? So let me start off with these traps that I have seen many people fall into. And truth be told, I've fallen into myself in the past. Okay, number one. They plan too far ahead. Let's say you made a five-year plan. Here's the potential issue. You don't know who you're going to be in five years. I know that sounds quite obvious, but through life, with each day, week, month, and year, we start to change. As you try and put a plan into action, in doing the actions that you said you were going to do, you start to change as a person. So one of the traps is they plan too far ahead and they get very, very rigid as to sticking to a plan that they made. But one year into your five-year plan, you might realize that, oh, maybe what I want is different now. And that goes into my second trap, which is we're too rigid, right? As I just mentioned, we make the plan based on what we think we want at this current moment in time. And then we just, we know we have to stick to it because I said that's what I was going to do. Any plan for any goal in your life needs constant reassessment and tweaking, okay? So these first two traps kind of