What it means to focus on the long-term

It's easier to talk about doing something for the long-term than to actually do something that benefits thelong-term.

One of the main reasons it's easy to talk about is this is hard to conceptualize about doing something for a time in which you can't even imagine. When I say to you do something for next week we can imagine next week if I say even can you figure out a goal to achieve for the end of the year you can think of that, but what if I tell you to do something that will show benefit in 15  years, we can't even imagine what we're gonna be like where we're gonna be in 15 years and this is why it's hard to do and so there's another way to do it and it's to think about why you're doing it in the first place.

In other words what's the end destination very often when people set goals they're not really setting the destination they're setting the route they say we're going on holiday and we're gonna take that road well why are you taking that road because we're going on holiday it's the same in business. Why do you want to achieve that financial goal? Well, we're trying to achieve that financial goal because we want to grow our business, why do you want to grow your business? Well because we want to grow our business it's not specific enough.

So, what happens is when you say our goal is to drive a hundred miles today down this road it's an achievable goal. It's something you can see and we talked about this concept of holiday but, really why are you going on holiday? where are you trying to go what's the destination and so I vastly prefer saying we're going to California that's the destination now the goal is to get a hundred miles down the road today towards California, but by talking about the final destination the place you want to get to all of a sudden not only does that keep you focused for the next day and the next day and the next day but it also makes you open and aware to all the new possibilities.

Like if somebody says to you we can take you on an aeroplane in that general direction now we're going to go slightly south but you want to come with us now even though it appears to be in the wrong direction of course you're gonna go because you're going to cover hundreds of miles in the same period of time and so the goal is not just to know what you need to achieve in this short term but continuing down that road what's the final destination why are you here today? What's the destination you hope to reach far up in the future and fixate on that.

Now, go set your goals for the week the month the year the next two years the next five years but all of them should be towards that end goal. My personal long-term goal my personal destination I'd like to see world peace achieved in a hundred years now. I'm not even going to live to see that happen but that's okay because I know the decisions I make and the things I do and the people I meet will always keep me on that path and on that road and I'm totally open to how I'm going to get there as long as in a hundred years I know and I'm confident we're gonna get to world peace.