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Make a timeline for the next 10 years. Where are you trying to go? What are you doing to get there? Try to be specific about your plans and actions and how t

Make a timeline for the next 10 years. Where are you trying to go? What are you doing to get there? Try to be specific about your plans and actions and how they will realize your goals. This is not an easy exercise. Making a timeline of your past can be helpful for getting perspective. I'm relatively planful, but I have trouble planning more than about 3-5 years out, although a few times I've had pretty clear 8 year plans (some of which actually came to pass). A friend with ADHD got this exercise from his therapist. I think this is a great exercise for anyone.

ohquu 12y ago
That sounds terrifying. Can you give some examples of ten year goals? I don't even know where I want to be a year from now.
- cottonseed 12y ago
  Every time I bring this exercise up, someone says this. What's terrifying about thinking about a 10 year plan? Realizing that you don't have one? My wife decided she wanted to be a professor when she was in high school. She's three years into a tenure track job. She's been working towards this for nearly 15 years. Building non-trivial skills or things of value takes time and usually requires a plan. All my startups had multi-year plans, even if things didn't work out as we'd envisioned. At one point I decided I wanted to learn to speak other languages. I studied Japanese for a year, got a chance to move to China, and studied Chinese regularly until I got conversational. I wanted (and still want) to study others, but things went in another direction. Another time, I decided I wanted to get better at math. It took me about a year to formulate a clear plan: I decided to get a PhD. There were some barriers (I had dropped out of my undergrad, for example) and it took a while to get on track. That was 8 years ago. I graduated in July. I'm still working on my next plan.

ohquu 12y ago

That sounds terrifying. Can you give some examples of ten year goals? I don't even know where I want to be a year from now.

cottonseed 12y ago
Every time I bring this exercise up, someone says this. What's terrifying about thinking about a 10 year plan? Realizing that you don't have one? My wife decided she wanted to be a professor when she was in high school. She's three years into a tenure track job. She's been working towards this for nearly 15 years. Building non-trivial skills or things of value takes time and usually requires a plan. All my startups had multi-year plans, even if things didn't work out as we'd envisioned. At one point I decided I wanted to learn to speak other languages. I studied Japanese for a year, got a chance to move to China, and studied Chinese regularly until I got conversational. I wanted (and still want) to study others, but things went in another direction. Another time, I decided I wanted to get better at math. It took me about a year to formulate a clear plan: I decided to get a PhD. There were some barriers (I had dropped out of my undergrad, for example) and it took a while to get on track. That was 8 years ago. I graduated in July. I'm still working on my next plan.