How Life is Like a Sleeping Bear Sand Dune
We recently took our family vacation in northern Michigan. One of our favorite spots is the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. The dunes, which are now apart of the National Park Service is one of our great national treasures which everyone should check out if you are in the State of Michigan.This was the second time that I had been to the dunes with my family and had previously gone once as a kid myself growing up in Michigan. What made this last venture to the dunes so interesting was discovering a placard with a picture of what the dunes look like today and what they looked like a hundred years ago.
New Challenges & Opportunites
Over time, the dunes which were covered with lush vegetation growing on it all along the Lake Michigan shoreline are now becoming a vast line of some of the finest sand that you will ever touch. Mother Nature and the wind continues to transform this incredible shoreline.Our own lives are no different. Every year brings new challenges and opportunities to build and develop our lives both personally, professionally, and financially. Just like mother nature and the dunes, there are forces that we can control and those that are beyond our control that helps to bring about these new challenges and opportunities.One of the transformations of working with clients over the years has been the joining of wealth planning with life planning. I have realized that you cannot have one without the other.Having a goal without a plan is merely a dream. However, you cannot have a goal or a plan without first having a dream. Turning your dream or vision into reality requires laying out a plan with achievable goals along the way. Whether it is changing or developing your career, starting a business, or hitting the restart button on anything, this is where the intersection of wealth and life planning happens.
Life Transitions
Just as the dunes have been transformed over a hundred years and will continue to evolve over the next hundred, wealth and life plans, even though it has certain foundational elements to it, will continue to transform as well. A plan should never be designed to be completed and then set aside.Consider this, are the goals that you had 3, 5, or 10 years ago the same dreams that you have today? A plan should grow and evolve with your life and changing needs especially when your goals and dreams evolve as well.Each year that I go back to the dunes, I will reflect on another year of change and transformation. I will see this change first and foremost in my children and the children of my clients as they begin their various life transitions from school, through college, and then into their adult lives. Do you see how many life transitions can occur within one family alone?As time continues to march on, I hope that you can see the interconnectedness of the dunes, your family, your dreams, and ultimately the wealth and life plans that you make as you change and evolve.