Making money online from the convenience of home (or the deck of your sailboat) is a powerful lure. If you have the slightest hint of  competitiveness, as many  entrepreneurs do, then you will get hooked on the high of the game.

Let’s face it, success is energizing. What does your family think about your online success? Sure, they are thrilled to see you at home, but what do they see? They see the back of your head as you face the monitor.

Are you at home but not with them? Does your family really have more time, or less, with you since you became an entrepreneur? Is this what you wanted? If your answers are at all vague, it is time to reassess your goals and get your life on the track you envision.

Leaving the 9-5 office job for working at home was supposed to give you more time with your family, more time for sports, more time for hobbies … just more time. Is that happening?

Think back to the reasons you wanted to work independently and answer these key questions with brutal honesty:

1.) What were the top three priorities that you would focus on if you had more time?

2.) How many of them do you have time for in your life right now?

3.) Are those still your life priorities? If not, revise your top three priorities list. Don’t just think about it – type it and print it out for a constant dose of reality.

Making your personal development plan work for you, while you work to support your family, takes as much planning and analysis as you put into creating a successful online business.

Now look at the seven elements of your life. Think of these as building block of various sizes that join to reflect who you are and what motivates you.

These elements are:

1. Mind: mental and emotional
2. Body: health and wellness
3. Spirit: connection outside my self
4. Financial: supporting self and family
5. Relationships: significant other, family, friends
6. Recreation: enjoyable activities, sports, hobbies
7. Community: involvement in helping others

If you want to go all the way with your personal development plan, then it is time to create a journal page (typed or handwritten) for each of these elements. State at least three goals for each element. They can be a mix of short-term and long-term achievements.

Short-term goals can be completed in less than six months. Long-term goals take from six months to ten years. Once you write these things down, you will have some direction.

Those random thoughts of, “Gee, I wish I could help with the beach cleanup project” or, “I need to start a walking program to improve my health” become goals that are turned into actions.

You can use this personal development plan in two different ways. You can focus on a different element for each day of the week. Or you can devote a week to each element.

Add notes in your journal about what you did toward that goal and how you felt afterward. Once something becomes a consistent part of your life schedule, like getting up and walking two miles before turning on the computer, then mark it off and add a new goal. Keep at least three goals for each life element.

The biggest obstacle to personal development planning is getting started. The next obstacle is committing to stay with your plan. Yet busy marketers do exactly this process for their work schedule, so why not for their  personal lives?

Could it be because you are so driven to succeed that you don’t see how you could make money by taking a ceramic class or playing touch football in the park with the kids? Well, here’s the surprise: you will make even more money by doing those things.

Toss away any notion that a personal development plan is selfish, because it is far from that. The more you grow as a person, the more you have of yourself to give to your family, friends and community. Sending a check to charity is easy. Giving your time and your attention is a prize of great worth, particularly to your family.

When your life has direction on several levels, not just in business, you are a more relaxed, creative, and energized person. Unless you use the freedom that being an independent businessperson brings, then you might as well get in the car and fight the traffic back to your old job.

Before, you had little time for personal development and you wanted it so much. Now you have the potential to take time for personal development, but it might be left to the wayside while you pave a path to online riches.

Here is your official permission to go for it! Even if you lose a sale from an impatient buyer who can’t wait a few hours for an answer, let it go. What was more valuable in the grand scheme of living: the two hours you went to your son’s soccer game or a few dollars from the sale of an ebook?

Some choices in life are just that basic. You have to take time to keep all of life’s elements in balance. Are you ready to get serious about a personal development plan?

Start with the process suggested here. If you need more structure or  monitoring, consider hiring a qualified life coach to keep you moving forward toward the life you want.

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