"Well, when I get new information I change my position. What, sir, do you do with new information?"
************************ [John Maynard Keynes]
The over-achievers among us have a tendency to attempt to outline our lives through 5-year plans and 10-year plans, etc.
But upon retrospect….after we grow-up…live a lifetime or two…and reflect upon the choices and circumstances that brought us to where we are today….we find that our 5-year plans and 10-year plans had little to do with how we got “here” today.
They appear to be naïve and innocent intellectual exercises rather than blueprints that outlined our future selves.
Humans are not stagnant or finite beings.
Although we don’t like to admit it to ourselves - we all grow, change and evolve over time as life happens.
This also happens to the people around us….even the ones we are related to! (Inconvenient as that may be!) :-o
There are a variety of things that mess-up a perfectly good 10-year plan:
- Falling in love
- Getting married
- Getting a divorce
- Getting sick or injured
- Starting a family
- Someone dying
- Buying a house
- Getting laid-off
- Getting a promotion
- An economic crash
- A prosperous economy
- Generational shifts
- Shifts in industry or technology
- Rising taxes or increased regulations
- Tax cuts or reduced regulations
- Moving to find work
- Moving because of family / relationships
- Raising your grandchildren
- Taking care of aging parents
It is rare for a young person to outline their 5-year plan or 10-year plan and take any of the above into consideration.
More than messing up our plans – the above bullet points also impact who we are as people.
As we face (or ignore) life’s challenges and character building experiences – we grow and evolve as humans and our priorities, expectations, and interests shift.
What was important to us at 17 years old is (hopefully) not our top priority at 35 years old or 55 years old.
In life, it is important to start out with a compass heading – but it is equally important to make appropriate course corrections for changes in terrain and shifts in weather. ;-)
The over-achievers among us have a tendency to attempt to outline our lives through 5-year plans and 10-year plans, etc.
But upon retrospect….after we grow-up…live a lifetime or two…and reflect upon the choices and circumstances that brought us to where we are today….we find that our 5-year plans and 10-year plans had little to do with how we got “here” today.
They appear to be naïve and innocent intellectual exercises rather than blueprints that outlined our future selves.
Humans are not stagnant or finite beings.
Although we don’t like to admit it to ourselves - we all grow, change and evolve over time as life happens.
This also happens to the people around us….even the ones we are related to! (Inconvenient as that may be!) :-o
There are a variety of things that mess-up a perfectly good 10-year plan:
- Falling in love
- Getting married
- Getting a divorce
- Getting sick or injured
- Starting a family
- Someone dying
- Buying a house
- Getting laid-off
- Getting a promotion
- An economic crash
- A prosperous economy
- Generational shifts
- Shifts in industry or technology
- Rising taxes or increased regulations
- Tax cuts or reduced regulations
- Moving to find work
- Moving because of family / relationships
- Raising your grandchildren
- Taking care of aging parents
It is rare for a young person to outline their 5-year plan or 10-year plan and take any of the above into consideration.
More than messing up our plans – the above bullet points also impact who we are as people.
As we face (or ignore) life’s challenges and character building experiences – we grow and evolve as humans and our priorities, expectations, and interests shift.
What was important to us at 17 years old is (hopefully) not our top priority at 35 years old or 55 years old.
In life, it is important to start out with a compass heading – but it is equally important to make appropriate course corrections for changes in terrain and shifts in weather. ;-)
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