Working for the future

 I often write about the ten-year view. It's a powerful perspective for the work you do. To get a good ten-year view, you imagine yourself ten years from now, and then work backwards with regard to how to get there. 

One conflict with the 10-year-view is the urgency we feel about issues that arise today--we want to immediately work to remedy the problem at hand, but as my dad always says, "A little for today and a little for tomorrow." We can act on the day's issues while working for the ten-year-view at the same time. Of course, as you get older, that view may become the five-year-view, one-year-view, or next-month-view. In all, it's about making some time to work ahead. 

Hopefully with Trump on his way out, we'll all have more time, attention, and energy to commit to the long-term-view, the work that will make us stronger and better down the road. 

What does that include:

  1. The vision
  2. The daily, monthly, yearly routine to get there including time for reflection, research, reading, and revision
  3. Celebrating the small wins along the way
  4. Measuring your efforts in some formal and informal ways
  5. Finding groups to work with you, cheer you on, and rightly challenge you too
This ten-year-perspective provides great hope. I'm on my way.