Do any of these statements apply to you?

• “I’m so sick of my job.  I really need to do something else.” 

• “I was laid off 10 months ago and I still can’t find work. What else can I do?” 

• “I am so tired of running all the time to keep up – and I feel like I’m exceptionally challenged both at work and at home.”

• “I have a successful career and yet I feel somehow there must be more for me.”

• “How do I know what career options I might have in order to live the life that I want?”

• “Retirement is not that far off and I haven’t even thought about it” 

Our message to you is clear. You can be more in control than you believe and can achieve success and happiness. Our Life and Career Planning Model© is a market and time-tested guide to leading an intentional life. Following this model helps you take control, directing you through a strategic planning process leading to actions that result in personal and professional success. In addition to our model, Life and Career Planning offers high-quality resources among which are: our highly rated book Time To Get Real!, personal coaching, an online course, informative blogs, and direct contact for immediate need situations.

Create an Action Plan for
Personal and Professional Success

How the Life and Career Planning Model© works

Below is a graphic depiction of the model along with a very brief narrative on how it is used.

SELF - The process starts with an examination of self; a thorough review of six aspects of your life that make you who you are. This is a highly introspective section of the model.

CAREER - You then move to work and career; a comprehensive review of five aspects of your work and career that helps you to better perform and progress.

PERSONAL VISION - Next it’s time to think about what your life and career will look like at some future date, thereby creating a destination in which self-satisfaction and happiness are attained.

ANALYSIS AND LEARNING - During this phase of the model, you analyze the work and the results that you have obtained so far during this process and determine the insights that you have derived from your process of self-discovery. The results of this analysis and your learning become the input for your life and career plan. This is pay off number one: your self-knowledge and learning are now well documented.

THE PLAN - The final stage is to develop your life and career plan. You assimilate all of your good work and thoughtful preparation into an action plan that will propel you onto a path to your best life. The final payoff: the development of your life and career plan. You assimilate all your good work, self-knowledge, learning, and thoughtful preparation into a strategic action plan that will propel you onto a path to your best life and career.

The Life and Career Planning Model© can be used by you alone, in conjunction with full or intermittent coaching, or accompanied by our course, Leading an Intentional Life. The choice is yours.

Get Started on Your Own Life and Career Plan

Read the book Time To Get Real! -

This book will lead you step-by-step through the Life and Career Planning Model©. It is filled with instructive case studies, illuminating stories, interactive exercises, and inspirational quotes enabling you to unlock those things leading to personal and professional success. For more information or to purchase the book click here.

Documentation of your answers to the exercises found in the book is an important part of the process. We offer a free recording document that contains all of the exercises in the book. Complete the document electronically or print the document to handwrite your answers. For more information and to access this free document click here.

Engage a Personal coach -

Sometimes you just need a qualified coach to talk to instead of only hearing all those well-intentioned opinions of your family and friends. We provide a safe space for you to explore who you are, what you truly want in your life, and we offer encouragement as you go. All Life and Career Planning LLC coaches are experienced and certified in the Life and Career Planning Model© as shown in the book Time To Get Real! Our coaching service is personal and we serve as your accountability partner as you read each chapter of the book and capture your thoughts in the interactive exercises.

Introduction Form

We offer coaching fees and timing that fit your finances and schedule. Due to Covid, all coaching is “in person” via the technology of your choice - Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, or telephone. Later, when it is safe to do so, we will again offer face-to-face, in-person coaching.

To schedule a FREE introductory conversation with a certified Life and Career Planning coach, please fill out and submit the introduction form. You will be contacted within 24 hours.

Life and Career Planning LLC coaches have a broad array of experience in business, nonprofit, government, and education. In addition to their substantial backgrounds, among the coaching group are individuals with various terminal degrees including PhDs, JDs, and master’s degrees. As certified coaches, they adhere to and consistently follow Life and Career Planning’s values, which always put the client first. To see our values click here.

Read our blog -

Read more about the Life and Career Planning Model© and hear from others as they navigate their journey to the best life, the best career, the best self ! To read the blog posts, click here.

Join our email list -

Be the first to know about new blog posts, program offerings, webinars, and special events. To sign up, click here.

Don’t let the current environment stop you from being intentional about what you want to do with your life and career. Doing nothing is a response that you don’t want to have. Now is the time to think through options and your future. Don’t wait - get ahead of the curve and move down the road. Let us help you.

More about Life and Career Planning LLC

What makes Life and Career Planning different from other
personal and professional planning programs?

Our firm, Life and Career Planning LLC was started by two professionals, Alex Plinio and Melissa Smith, having experience in the business, nonprofit, government, and educational sectors. Although they served in academia, they are not academics. They are practitioners. Their experience helped them to recognize the acute need on the part of individuals, regardless of sector, for intentional life and career planning, and professional coaching. They understand it because they lived it. Their values and purpose in life are directed toward helping as many individuals as possible to gain what they have already gained: a life lived intentionally, with purpose, and based upon values that are enduring and fulfilling.

To help Life and Career Planning LLC to reach as many individuals as possible, various resources were developed including the Life and Career Planning Model©, the book Time To Get Real!, online courses, blogs, and a high-quality cadre of professional, certified coaches.

The Life and Career Planning Model© featured in the book Time To Get Real! offers a uniquely integrated approach that makes the life and career planning process so enduring and powerful. The book is not a feel-good tome that leaves the reader without much substance. Other methods for self-development or improvement may not require the effort contained in Time To Get Real! While there is an enormous need for coaching and counsel on life and career planning, achieving balance, and working toward personal success, no other book or process brings this experiential, comprehensive, and common sense approach. We know this because the Life and Career Planning Model© is market-proven and changes lives. Time To Get Real! provides essential life planning tools, including the very real need for financial planning to make dreams possible.

The Life and Career Planning Model© is an elegantly simple tool, easy to follow, and compellingly engages the client. You are in control and fully responsible for model inputs and outputs while being guided by proven expertise. You can go fast or slow but when you fully engage, invest time, effort, and thought, you will get the payoff you desire.

In addition to their book, Alex Plinio and Melissa Smith wanted to meet the needs of a diverse group of clients. They decided that the book should be augmented, supplemented by, and combined with other important resources that could reach individuals in different ways. This thinking led to the development of the online course, Leading an Intentional Life, launching and certifying a team of high-quality coaches, thoughtful blog posts, and offerings of workshops, seminars, and presentations. This means that a prospective client can choose from a comfortable menu of approaches taking into consideration methodology, time, and cost so that a more exact solution for individual needs is made.

Features:

The book Time To Get Real! provides step-by-step movement through the Life and Career Planning Model© as well as charts, graphs, tools, and resources. You begin the journey with self-examination and review among other things, your life balance, relationships, and personal values. Next, you move to a focus on work and career where current and future job, and financial plans are the focus in addition to other important subject areas. All of this then leads to an analysis of your insights, which allows for the development of a personal vision and an action plan to put you on the road to that vision. An essential feature of the book and the model is that it becomes a life long tool not only for life and career planning but also for decision making as life’s challenges and opportunities become apparent. 

The various resource offerings by Life and Career Planning LLC are additional features specifically chosen by the client. The client may select intermittent, group, or a full coaching program. He or she might also take the online course, read the blogs on this website, or attend a workshop or seminar. All of these features are tied together by the Life and Career Planning Model©.

 Advantages:

Most people don’t think about a number of the significant areas included in the model and discussed in the book. There is an advantage for you to think about your personal vision and values, consider what gives you joy in your life, and evaluate your key relationships.  Most people think first about the next job and compensation they want before they think about the important things that will set the table for their actions and lead to happiness. An advantage provided by this book is to help you set the stage for your life and career decisions by having you examine the central issues of your life. Once the larger issues have been addressed, you then can move on to contemplate other areas of your life, such as how to establish a financial plan and what kind of organization you want to work in. The content of your plan can also be effectively used in discussions within your current employer or when interviewing for a new position. 

Research has shown that most people want coaching and a more intentional approach to control their lives. Our coaching team provides the key advantage to the client having a partner as they move through the planning process. Our firm can tailor the coach to the client since our coaching team is comprised of a diverse group of professionals. The team is diverse in age, ethnicity, education and work experience, and background while all sharing our firm’s values. The advantage of coaching, whether full-time or part-time, can not be overemphasized.

Some individuals may prefer the advantage of taking our online course, with or without coaching. The key advantage of the course is that it is not time-based so that a client can work at their own pace. In addition, the course contains a substantial number of videos that could be helpful in the planning process. Clients may also take advantage of Zoom workshops and seminars during this time of Covid. This is advantageous in that it does not require in-person, face-to-face contact while allowing the client to interact with presenters and attendees. The book, the model, coaching, the course, and other resources provide a distinct advantage. You will find that a large percentage of your peers have not gone through a process like the one found in Time To Get Real! therefore you will be ahead of the game and ahead of your peer group.

Benefits:

Closely following the benefits received from personal introspection is the life and career plan that you will have and deploy toward a well-thought-out personal vision. The book, when fully utilized, provides you with clarity of thought and action. Finally, challenges impacting you, once identified, can be overcome bringing you greater balance, calm, and happiness.

The book helps you identify current opportunities and take action to take advantage of them. Since the focus of Time To Get Real! is to help you to have a lifelong tool for positively impacting your life, it also means that the learning gained can be used to help others should you decide to assist family members, coworkers, or peers.

The book provides insights to you that are not self-evident without introspection, focused work on your part, and leads to decisions in areas that are often ignored or avoided.  The result is that you are now on the path to personal and professional fulfillment.

Strategic consulting

Our firm provides consulting and coaching services to businesses, nonprofit organizations, government, and individuals. Services include: Organization development, strategic planning, succession planning, change management, reorganization, and consultation with executives, managers, and individuals in organizations seeking to enhance their current careers

Life and Career Planning Testimonials

“My experience with Life and Career Planning was excellent! I worked with a certified Life and Career Planning coach who kept me motivated and grounded as I navigated the Life and Career Planning Model©. This systematic and effective process required consistency, internal motivation, and a deep self-reflection and it made me question and assess my current habits and mindsets. I also wanted to be held accountable for doing the internal work this process requires and the coaching engagement did just that! I achieved my goal of creating a vision and a plan that is realistic and achievable. It's empowering to have a vision, a plan, and structure to my thoughts, ideas, and dreams for my future.”

Liz Abitanto, Managing Director, NJ LEEP, Inc.

"Life isn't always perfect but it's possible to create and live out your true mission and vision. With Alex Plinio's guidance and life and career planning seminar I was able to constructively think through big career decisions to ensure the best possible outcome. When I was considering a new career step I made sure to reflect on his planning model. I knew that a step back in my career wasn't going to be an easy decision but it was the right one which ultimately launched me forward and into a rewarding career path. I can truly say that because of his work I consider myself grounded and happier with my life, both personally and professionally."

Dana Bochna, Campus Recruiting Specialist, Prudential Financial

“I was seeking career advice when we first met.  Six months later, Alex Plinio and his Life and Career Planning Model had changed my life. Not only did he help me navigate the road to an amazing new position, the model ensured that the road led to a balanced and joyful life.  No magic here.  You have to stay focused, do the work, and trust the process.  If you do, the result will be transformative.  I know.  I’ve never been happier, more financially secure, or more satisfied by work that is grounded in mission and aligned with personal values. Thank you, Alex.

Dr. Ross Danis, President and CEO, MeckEd