Often times, the weekend approaches us and we are either asking ourselves or someone else, “What should I do this weekend?”
This demonstrates more than creative initiative at work. It shows a person who is thinking ahead, planning out a short-term goal that usually carries a purpose with it, even if it”s just to have fun.
Many of us seem to be fairly good at these kind of short-term plan-making abilities. But, what about the kind of planning that extends into the more distant future? Like, what would you want to be doing in ten years, fifteen years, and so forth?
The way things work on planet Earth is that are bodies get older and we reach a point where we begin to see things differently. We particularly start seeing ten years from now a lot more threatening than we had “when we were younger.”
I just had a birthday and my daughter offered no sympathy about it either. At my age, it isn”t like a New Year celebration anymore — it”s more like a mourning of our beloved youth.
Despite my various emotional attitudes on the subject, I”ve been able to remain relatively calm. Although I”m getting older, it doesn”t seem as frightful as it could. Probably because I”m looking forward to things I”ve put out there for my future.
So, the thing that keeps people focused and driven, no matter what their body”s age happens to be, is that they work towards a long-term goals.
One of the things this does is it keeps us from withering. People who retire from work and don”t make new goals go along in life without purpose. This usually leads to idle oldness and no fun.
If the mind ceases to generate the kind of creative stimulus that typically keeps us young and/or healthy, we wither in mind and body.
Additionally, if we haven”t been planning for the goal of retiring, we”ll often find ourselves in a boat without a paddle. In other words, we”ve arrived somewhere but we didn”t bring the tools with us to go anywhere from there.
People who didn”t plan or prepare for their long-range future by setting aside a retirement fund know what this is like. They reached retirement age and then struggle to survive.
Maybe you”ve heard many of the “regret” stories? I wish I had put money aside in a savings account. I wish I never bought on credit. I wish I spent more time with my family. I wish I had, wish I had, I wish I had.
Regret is the kind of thing that changes nothing. It only sits there making you wrong for something you have the power to make right. Regret dwells on the past, and what we should be doing is creating the future.
The future is a minute from now and a year from now. It is something ahead of us that we need to continually create and put goals on.
So, every year, I list all my goals for that year. And, every day I list my goals for the day.
It gives me a sense of accomplishment when goals are reached and, as soon as they are, new ones are made.
We don”t have to wait until we reach our goals to make new ones either. It”s perfectly okay to want to accomplish a lot of things in the future.
But a goal is only as good as it”s plan and actions on carrying it out. Just thinking about something you want to be, do or have in the future isn”t good enough. It requires action along those thoughts.
It”s a simple drill: Look at where you are today and where you want to be in next month, or next year, or in the next several years. Write it down, read it every day or every week. Take some action on it.
If that seems too complicated or hard to do, you can sit back and be a victim of your future, rather than the creator of it. But, only one of those choices has more fun.
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