Every five years, at the years end, I write a five year plan for the future years.
I have been doing this, with flickering success, for the past sixty years.
Then I follow up each following year to make sure that I am on track. So, now it is 2020 and l did double duty. Meaning that I reviewed the past years and wrote a new five year plan including, like always, yearly mile stones to strive for, to adjust as I go along, and to achieve.
I have to admit, that as I get on with the years, I find it more and more difficult to reach my yearly goals in a timely manner. To be clear, I reach my goals eventually, (most of them,that is) but it takes me a lot more time than it used too. My wife, Jennifer, tells me that this might have something to do with the fact that I am not in my seventies or eighties anymore.
“This summer you will turn frigging ninety” She informed me when I tried to discuss with her the difference of my intentions with the actual results. Maybe she is right, I thought, causing me to review my next five year plan. And, I found an interesting tidbit which I like to share with my readers.
I noticed that during the last few years I very often wrote in my plans, the phrase: “I hope” that so and so, would happen. This is in a stark contrast to my previous plans in which I more or less decided what would happen by developing and following stringent strategies. If the results were different than I intended, I changed my strategies which produced the unwanted results. This simple adjustment allowed me to zero in on my original target.
Now, please, don’t get me wrong. I still think that hope is spiritually very important. (I did a lot of it when I was fourteen years old, searching for my parents) But, this was at a time when I was not in control.
So, I replaced the word “hope” with “I will develop a strategy” in my plans.
I hope to be able, next year, to let you know how it works out.
See, here is where hope is important, After all, I am not in control of my life.
However, I am in control of my intentions.
Horst
Well explained. I am glad to see you active in posting, again. Here’s to a happy and fruitful new year to you and yours. I need to adopt a way to set milestones, myself.
Go for it, Judy.
It’s productive and easy . . . . if you know what you really want and clearly define it.
The hard part is: “Knowing what you truly want”.
But, this is another subject.
The whole mindset about being productive and achieving what you want . . . . well, it is the subject of a book I started to write, in my spare time, when I need a breather from Karl and Harold.
It is an interesting subject, because if you “over-think it” you will find yourself constantly “planning” for it, instead of “achieving”.
Happy milestones to you.
Horst