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The dance between long-term and short-term goals
Too Short
Have you ever had the experience of being really busy all day and at the end of it, wondering what the heck you accomplished?
Or of getting the job done by being really focused for days/weeks/months or even years, then taking a step back at the end of it all and realizing that you would have been better off devoting your time to something else?
That last one is particularly poignant when decades have gone down the tubes working hard in a career or environment that doesn’t really suit you. I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen retirees’ eyes reflect deep regret.
All of these are examples of what can happen when you’re too short-term oriented in your goals.
Sometimes being “too short-term oriented” can mean that you’re hopping from one urgency to another, or spend weeks on a project without giving sufficient thought to how it fits in with your ultimate goals.
But sometimes, it can be disguised as an apparently well-thought out career or business plan, as illustrated by retired executives who have deep regrets about their work life.
What was missing in that case was a larger picture of what they wanted their life to be about.
Too long
Do you know anyone who can’t figure out what he/she wants to do with his life and never gets started with anything?
Or someone who only wants to focus on the big picture and long term vision, never stopping to figure out the steps to get there and how to get them done?
Or someone who does the daily/weekly tasks but you can really feel how he/she resents doing them?
Those are symptoms of being too long-term oriented. These people are often accused of being “dreamers”, or in the last case, bitter dreamers.
On which side of the short-long continuum do you usually live?
Just right
Since just about everything in life is about getting the right balance, it comes as no surprise that the answer is to have a long-term vision for your life and your work, and keep it in mind when you decide on your shorter-term projects and tasks.
The trick is, how do you do that in real life?
The first step is to get a life vision and that’s not easy for many of us. To find it, you need to ask yourself what you value and get a sense of what you’re here to do (and in my experience, that’s always bigger than a specific career but often isn’t about saving the world).
There are many books and workshops on the subject. In my case, I found that, before my thoughts could become clear, I needed to process them with other people and my breakthrough happened when I found my life purpose with the help of a mentor (Baeth Davis).
Ironically, my purpose involves helping others to find theirs, which is now part of what I do. And another mentor, Connie Ragen Green, was the one to identify my business essence and website name.
Finding your purpose is just step one though. You then need to know how to reflect it in your work and in your life so that you make money doing something meaningful to you, taking action while keeping the stress low and the joy level high. That’s when the shorter-term goals come in.
So if you have a tendency to focus on the immediate priorities, you’re able to decide on which short-term project or task to do that will help fulfill your overall purpose.
And if you tend to be on the “dreamer” end, you can plant your vision into a conscious purpose-driven action plan. Then you won’t mind doing the short-term or mundane work so much since it becomes so much more meaningful, and you’ll have a much higher likelihood of success.
I’ll say it again, if you’re like most people, you can’t do this by yourself. You need some structure and someone who can bring out your vision and has the business sense to help you make concrete plans.
Then maybe you’re a better self-study than I was and reading books or internet material will work for you. Just make sure you don’t let too much of your life slip away trying it on your own before realizing it won’t do the trick. You won’t get that time back.
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Great blog Helene, lots of good things to think about. Another way of discovering your purpose is to identify what you are passionate about. Your passions give you hints to your purpose.
Thanks