I always thought a good way to stay motivated and look forward is to have goal you can accomplish in a short term, about 3 to 12 months maximum. It’s at least the way I dealt with my life after being graduated.
I’m not such a big planner and I’ve been asked couple times what was my plan for the next 5 years. My answer has always been the same, 5 years ago I had no clue I would be where I am today, doing what I do. It’s stay a difficult question to get a concrete answer.
Recently I read a blog about a different solution: doing plans for the next 5 years but make it happen in 3 years. I liked that idea, enough to do a list about things I want to accomplish in the next 5 years.
This month, I turned 27 years old, making my decision even easier: writing a list of things to accomplish by my 30th.
To make it a fair challenge, I mixed things on different levels. Some are related to my lifestyle, others to my career or to specific skills. I also wrote completely new one, related to people, like helping for a charity project.
It doesn’t need to be difficult, but it has to be enough personal to me to work on it for some times. One for instance is to learn freestyle swimming, it’s something I don’t know but I definitely want to learn.
Planning long term would also avoid me this empty feeling that followed the accomplishment one that I had too often after a small project ended, this “what next?” question.
I think having a goal still make it easier for me to focus. If you know what you want to do, why wasting time to do something else, that is at least what I’m gonna try to prove to myself for the next 3 years.
Photo credits Joshua Earle