Life Plan Template: Free Template and Guide for 2026

A life plan template is a short worksheet that turns "I want my life to look different" into something a person can act on this week. The one below has nine parts: a score for eight life areas, five values in your own words, a five-year and a one-year vision, two or three goals for the areas that matter most, what you will stop doing, a first 90 days, a review rhythm and a commitment line. Copy it into any document, fill in the [brackets], and you have a working plan in about 90 minutes.

It is written for life coaches who give it to clients, and it works just as well if you are filling it in for yourself. Coaches who run it inside Coachful send it as a worksheet, the client completes it in their branded app, and the answers are stored with the client record next to their goals, habits and check-ins. We make Coachful, so we will show that setup later, after the template, the filled example and an honest look at the other ways to send it.

What is in the life plan template?

The template moves from where the person is today, to what they care about, to where they want to be, and only then to goals and actions. That order matters: goals written before values tend to be borrowed from other people.

The copyable life plan template

Life plan for [client name]
Date started: [date] · Coach: [your name] · Next full review: [date, 90 days from today]

Before you start. Set aside [60 to 90 minutes] somewhere you will not be interrupted. Answer honestly rather than impressively. Nobody grades this plan. If a question does not fit your life, cross it out and write the question you wish it asked.

Part 1. Where am I now? (life areas)

Score each area from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 10 (could not be better) for how it feels today, not how it looks from outside. Then write one sentence about why it is that number and not one point higher.

1. Health and energy: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
2. Work and career: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
3. Money and security: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
4. Partner, family and close relationships: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
5. Friends and community: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
6. Growth and learning: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
7. Fun, rest and play: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]
8. Home and surroundings: [score] / 10. Why not one point higher: [sentence]

Optional swap: if faith, spirituality or meaning is central for you, replace any area above with [Meaning and spirit].

Which area, if it moved up two points, would lift two or three others with it? [area and why]

Part 2. What do I care about? (values)

1. Choose five values that already guide your best decisions: [value 1], [value 2], [value 3], [value 4], [value 5].
2. Define each one in your own words, in one line. Example format: "Freedom, for me, means [what it means in practice]."
3. Describe a moment in the last year when you lived value 1 fully: [moment].
4. Describe a moment when you went against one of these values, and what it cost: [moment and cost].
5. If you could only keep three of the five, which three? [three values]

Part 3. Where do I want to be in five years? (vision)

Write in the present tense, as if it is already [month and year, five years from now].

1. Describe an ordinary Tuesday: where you wake up, who is around, what your work looks like, what you do in the evening. [half a page]
2. For each life area you scored 6 or lower, write one sentence about what is true in five years: [area]: [sentence].
3. What will people who know you well say has changed about you? [two or three sentences]
4. What are you proud you did not do in those five years? [answer]

Part 4. What is true one year from now? (one-year vision)

1. By [date, 12 months from today], three things that are true and that I could prove to a friend: [1], [2], [3].
2. One thing that feels slightly too big to say out loud: [answer].
3. How this year moves me toward the five-year Tuesday: [two sentences].

Part 5. Which areas get my attention first? (goals per area)

Pick two areas, three at most. The others are on maintenance this year, and that is a decision, not a failure. For each focus area, fill in:

• Area: [area] · Score today: [x] · Score I want in 12 months: [y]
• Goal: [what will be different, in one sentence]
• Value it serves: [one of your five values]
• How I will know: [something I can count or see]
• By when: [date]
• The first step, small enough to do this week: [step]
• The most likely obstacle: [obstacle]
• If [obstacle happens], then I will [specific response].
• What this goal costs me (time, money, other things I will do less of): [answer]

Part 6. What am I stopping? (the not-doing list)

1. Three commitments, habits or roles I will stop, pause or hand off to make room for this plan: [1], [2], [3].
2. Who needs to hear about this, and when I will tell them: [person, date].

Part 7. My first 90 days

• Days 1 to 30 (start): [two actions, one per focus area]
• Days 31 to 60 (build): [two actions]
• Days 61 to 90 (prove): [two actions and the result I expect to see]
• One daily or weekly habit that carries the whole plan: [habit, how often, where it fits in my day]
• Support I will ask for: [person or resource, and what exactly I will ask]
• What I will do in my sessions with my coach: [for example, review the 90-day actions every second session]

Part 8. How will I keep it alive? (review rhythm)

• Weekly, 10 minutes, [day and time]: What did I do on the plan? What got in the way? What is the one action for next week?
• Monthly, 30 minutes, [date]: Re-score my focus areas. Is the habit still the right one?
• Every 90 days, with my coach: Re-score all eight areas, review the 90-day actions, write the next 90 days.
• Yearly, [month]: Reread Parts 2 and 3. Do my values and five-year Tuesday still feel like mine? Rewrite what has changed.

Part 9. My commitment

I wrote this plan for myself, not to please anyone else. I will review it [weekly] and change it when my life changes.
Signed: [name] · Date: [date] · Witnessed by my coach: [coach name]

If you want the life-area scores in Part 1 drawn as a chart before you start writing, Coachful has a small interactive tool for exactly that.

Why does each section of the template matter?

Each part does one job and has one common way of going wrong. Use the table below when you review a client's completed plan, so you know where to slow down.

The structure borrows two well-documented ideas. The measure, date and first step in Part 5 follow the familiar SMART criteria, and the "if, then" line is a form of implementation intention, a planning technique studied in goal research. Neither guarantees results; both make a plan easier to act on.

How should a life coach use the template with a client?

Send it after the agreement is signed and before the second or third session, not on day one. Clients need one or two conversations with you before they write honestly about money, relationships or their five-year Tuesday.

A rhythm that works for most one-to-one life coaching engagements. Start from your life coach intake form answers.

If your engagement is structured as a fixed program, the life plan becomes the first module and the 90 days line up with your weeks. The 12 week coaching program template shows how to lay out those weeks, and the coaching action plan template is a good companion for turning Part 7 into week-by-week tasks.

How is this different from the plans you may already use? A personal development plan focuses on skills and growth; an individual development plan is usually tied to a job and a manager; a coaching plan is the coach's plan for the engagement. The life plan is the client's own, across their whole life, and it outlasts the coaching.

What must life coaches add before sending it?

A life plan asks about health, money, relationships and sometimes faith, so it collects some of the most sensitive information a client will share. Before you send it, add four things.

A scope line

Add a sentence at the top: "Coaching is not therapy, counselling, medical, legal or financial advice. If anything in this plan brings up distress you cannot manage, tell your coach so we can talk about other support." Coaching ethics codes such as the ICF Code of Ethics expect coaches to be clear about what coaching is and to refer clients when another professional would serve them better.

Referral signals

Know in advance what you will do if a completed plan shows:

• most life areas scored 1 to 3, or language of hopelessness, worthlessness or "what is the point";
• any mention of self-harm or thoughts of not wanting to be alive;
• signs of abuse or an unsafe relationship in the relationships section;
• heavy drinking, drug use or disordered eating described in the health section;
• debts or financial decisions that need a regulated adviser rather than a coach.

For any risk to safety, pause the plan and help the client reach crisis support. In the United States that is the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988); elsewhere, list your country's equivalent in your welcome material. Keep a short referral list of therapists, doctors and financial counsellors you trust.

Sensitive data and consent

Tell the client where their answers are stored, who can see them and how long you keep them. If you coach anyone in the EU or UK, health and relationship details fall under data-protection law; the European Commission's data protection pages explain the basics. Offer to let clients skip or keep private any question they are not ready to answer. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified, so if you also work as a licensed clinician, keep clinical records in a clinical system and use coaching software for coaching only.

Local law and special cases

• Teen clients: get parent or guardian consent and agree upfront what you will and will not share with them. Simplify Part 3 to a two-year horizon.
• Money section: keep it to feelings, habits and goals. Do not recommend products, investments or debt strategies unless you hold the right licence.
• Faith-based coaching: swap in the "Meaning and spirit" area and ask the client how they want faith reflected; do not assume.
• Contracts: refer to the plan in your coaching agreement as a client-owned document. The life coach contract template has a confidentiality clause you can adapt; have a local lawyer review it.

What does a completed life plan look like?

Example only. Sam is a fictional client: 41, an operations manager, two children, recently moved to a new city. This is what Sam's plan looked like after four sessions. Scores and dates are illustrative.

Part 1, life areas. Health and energy 4 ("I sleep six hours and skip the gym every week it gets busy"). Work and career 6. Money and security 7. Partner, family and close relationships 6. Friends and community 3 ("I know nobody here outside work"). Growth and learning 5. Fun, rest and play 3. Home and surroundings 7. Area that lifts others: friends and community, because Sam's rest and energy both drop when weekends are spent alone.

Part 2, values. Connection ("people I can call without a reason"), steadiness, curiosity, fairness, being outdoors. Lived fully: a weekend hiking with an old friend before the move. Went against: missing a school event for a work deadline that moved anyway. Top three: connection, steadiness, being outdoors.

Part 3, five-year Tuesday. "I wake at 6:30 after seven hours of sleep. I walk the dog with a neighbour twice a week. Work ends at 5:30 most days. On Tuesdays I play in a casual football league, and two of the people there are close friends now." Proud of not doing: taking a promotion that meant weekly travel.

Part 4, one year. By next October: (1) Sam has two local friends they see at least monthly without planning by text for a week; (2) Sam sleeps seven hours on at least five nights a week; (3) Sam has spent one weekend a month outdoors. Slightly too big to say: starting a parents' walking group.

Part 5, goals.

• Friends and community, 3 to 6: join one recurring group activity by [date, six weeks out]; serves connection; measure: number of evenings with local people per month; first step: shortlist three groups this week; obstacle: cancelling when tired; if I feel too tired to go, then I go for the first 30 minutes and decide after.
• Health and energy, 4 to 7: a 10:45 pm lights-out on weeknights; serves steadiness; measure: nights with seven hours, logged each morning; first step: phone charger moved to the kitchen; obstacle: late work emails; if work email arrives after 9 pm, then it waits until 8 am.

Part 6, stopping. Checking work email after 9 pm; volunteering for the office social committee; the Sunday afternoon "catch-up" work session. Telling the manager in the next one-to-one.

Part 7, first 90 days. Days 1 to 30: try two groups; charger in the kitchen. Days 31 to 60: commit to one group; invite one person from it for coffee. Days 61 to 90: host a walk; expect five nights a week of seven hours' sleep. Carrying habit: a daily sleep check-in each morning. Support: ask the partner to take two school runs a week.

Part 8 and Part 9. Weekly review Sundays at 7 pm; monthly re-score on the first Sunday; 90-day review booked with the coach. Signed and dated.

Notice what the example does not include: no goals for money or home, both scored 7 and left on maintenance. That is the plan working as intended.

Which is the best way to send and store a life plan?

Any of these will carry the template. The difference is what happens after the client fills it in: whether the answers sit next to the client's goals, sessions and check-ins, or in a file you have to go looking for. Vendor prices below are as listed in October 2026.

For a one-off plan with a client you see twice, a shared document is enough. For a plan that drives months of coaching, it helps when the goals in Part 5 become live goals the client tracks, and the weekly review in Part 8 becomes a check-in that arrives on its own.

How do you run the life plan template in Coachful?

In Coachful the plan is one step in a client journey that starts at booking and continues through programs, check-ins and invoices, all under one login for you and one branded app for the client. Here is the order we suggest.

Step 1: collect the basics with intake questions on booking

Add intake questions to your discovery or first-session booking page: what brought them to coaching, what they want to be different in a year, anything you should know before the call. The answers sit on the client record, so you read them before session one instead of asking twice.

Step 2: have the agreement signed before the first call

Coachful sends your coaching agreement for e-signature before the first session and stores it on the client record. Mention the life plan in the agreement as a document the client owns. Our coaching contracts page covers how agreements work.

Step 3: build the life plan as a worksheet

Create the template under Forms & Worksheets, one section per part, with the [brackets] as questions. Send it after session one or two. The client completes it in their app, and the completed answers are stored with their client record. More question sets you can reuse are on the coaching forms and questionnaires page.

Step 4: turn Part 5 and Part 7 into goals and habits

Each focus-area goal becomes a goal with a progress bar, and the carrying habit from Part 7 becomes a tracked habit with a streak. The client sees their goal with the tasks and habits that feed it, so the plan is visible every day, not just in sessions.

Step 5: run the review rhythm with check-ins

Turn the weekly review from Part 8 into a weekly check-in, and use morning or evening check-ins for daily habits such as Sam's sleep log. You can watch how check-ins are built in this short walkthrough.

Some coaches pair the five-year vision with a visual board the client can open between sessions. The demo below shows boards like that.

Step 6: put the 90 days into a program or journey

If every client goes through the same opening months, build a multi-week program where week one is the life plan and the weekly goals follow Part 7. Coaching flows and journeys let you set the welcome flow and the order things arrive. Michelle, the built-in AI assistant, can help draft the program from your outline; asking questions and planning are included in your Coachful membership, while confirmed builds use AI credits. This walkthrough shows a client journey being set up.

What the client sees

The client opens one app with your branding: their next session, their programs, their progress and their documents, including the life plan. They do not juggle a PDF, a booking link and a separate habit app.

What you see

On your side, each client record holds the intake answers, the plan, goals, check-ins, notes and sessions, and shows a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk. A client who stops checking in moves toward quiet, which is often the first sign the plan needs a 90-day review early. Before each session, Michelle can brief you from that client's live data.

Step 7: get paid in the same place

Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with an invoice for each transaction and manual invoices when you need them. Coachful charges no platform fee on those payments; only Stripe or Razorpay processing applies.

What is Coachful, and who is it for?

Coachful is a coaching platform: booking, payments, coaching agreements, programs with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, under one subscription. It suits life coaches who deliver programs rather than single sessions, solo coaches growing into a small team, and coaches replacing four to six separate tools. See the Coachful page for life coaches for the full picture.

What it does not do: it is not HIPAA-certified and is not for clinical records or insurance billing; it has no PayPal; there is no permanent free plan; and the client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding rather than under your own App Store account. To start, take a free trial and ask the team to build your setup for you. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create, choose "We'll build it for you" and describe what you need: this life plan as a worksheet, a 90-day program around it, a coaching flow, a website or a funnel. Attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files, such as your current PDF of the plan. The Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing is invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not include recording videos, logo design or ongoing marketing. Read more about the free white-glove build service.

What are the most common life plan mistakes?

• Goals in every life area. Eight goals means none get done. Two focus areas, three at most.
• Skipping values. Without Part 2, clients write the goals they think they should have. The plan feels heavy by week three.
• Vision as a list of achievements. "Director by 45, house paid off" says nothing about how a day feels. Ask for the ordinary Tuesday.
• No not-doing list. New actions need time from somewhere. If Part 6 is blank, the plan quietly loses.
• First steps that are projects. "Get fit" is not a first step. "Put trainers by the door tonight" is.
• A review rhythm that is never booked. Put the weekly review in the client's calendar during the session.
• Coach-owned plans. If the client is writing to please you, the plan stops when coaching stops. Keep Part 9's first line.
• Ignoring low scores. A wall of 2s and 3s may point to something coaching should not handle alone. Follow your referral plan.
• Never changing it. A move, a breakup or a new job should trigger an early review, not a guilty feeling about the old plan.

When the coaching ends, give the client a clean copy of the plan and their last re-score so they can keep reviewing alone. The coaching offboarding process template shows how to build that hand-over into your final sessions.

Is this life plan template legal, medical or financial advice?

No. This template is a coaching worksheet. It is not legal, medical, psychological or financial advice, and filling it in does not replace a therapist, doctor, lawyer or financial adviser. Ask a clinician to look at your referral process if you coach clients with health or mental-health concerns, and ask a local lawyer to review your coaching agreement and data-handling notice, since consent and privacy rules differ by country and state.

Frequently asked questions

What should a life plan template include?

At minimum: a current score for your main life areas, your values, a long-term and a one-year vision, a few goals with measures and dates, first actions and a review schedule. The template above adds a not-doing list and a short commitment line, because those two parts keep plans in use.

How long does it take to fill in a life plan?

Most people need 60 to 90 minutes for a first draft, often split across two or three sittings. With a coach it usually spreads over three or four sessions, with Parts 1 to 4 done as homework and Part 5 written together.

How often should I review my life plan?

Ten minutes weekly to choose next week's action, 30 minutes monthly to re-score your focus areas, a full review every 90 days and a values and vision check once a year. Review early after any big life change.

Is a life plan the same as a wheel of life?

No. A wheel of life scores your satisfaction in each area at one moment. A life plan uses those scores as Part 1 and then adds values, vision, goals and actions. You can score your areas first with the wheel of life tool and copy the numbers into the plan.

Can I use this life plan template for myself without a coach?

Yes. Fill it in alone, then share Parts 5 and 7 with someone you trust and ask them to check in at your 90-day review. Coaches add accountability and better questions, but the template works without one.

How many goals should a life plan have?

Two or three focus areas, with one goal each, is a good limit for a year. The other areas stay on maintenance. You can always add a new focus area at a 90-day review once one goal is on track.

Should a life coach charge for building a client's life plan?

Usually the plan is part of a paid coaching package rather than sold on its own, because its value comes from the sessions that follow. If you sell a single planning session, price it from your hourly rate and the time it takes, including your review of the written plan.

Where should I store clients' completed life plans?

Somewhere private, with access limited to you and the client, and where you can export or delete it on request. In Coachful the completed worksheet is stored with the client record, and the full client data export includes form responses.

Will Coachful build this life plan worksheet for me?

Yes. The white-glove build service is free on every plan. Send the template or your own version through Create, "We'll build it for you", and the team builds it as a worksheet in your account, usually within about 24 hours, leaving any gaps for you to fill.

Is this life plan template free to use with clients?

Yes. Copy it, rename it and adapt the life areas and questions for your niche. Add your scope line and data notice before you send it.