Short term success? Or long term?

It’s been said that we overestimate what we can achieve in one year and underestimate what we can achieve in one decade.

From my personal experience, I can verify that this is 100% true.

But why do you think that is?

There actually a couple of reasons for this. First, we tend to develop detailed short term strategies that we believe will make or break our success. For example, say a person has a goal to expand his/her business outreach by 50% in one year. He/she makes a detailed, month-by-month plan that tracks his/her metrics, and he/she works tirelessly to achieve his/her goal.

Unfortunately, his/her expectations were too big. Only expanding his/her outreach by 30% in his/her first year, the person grows disgruntled and fails to make any such detailed plans over the next decade.

“I just can’t do it,” he/she says to himself/herself.

A decade later, he/she is barely past his/her starting point.

Does this sound familiar?

The problem here is that it’s normal to underachieve when we don’t have a great reference. It’s hard to exactly predict where we will be in one year, and our natural optimism often puts us ahead mentally of where we will be in reality. This in turn deflates us when we don’t achieve our goals. We spend the time after this thinking that we aren’t good enough, and eventually this attitude causes us to fail.

This is a strikingly common pattern in life.

But let’s be real. Ten years is a long time. If you are able to keep the big picture in your mind as you work for a decade, you will undoubtedly achieve more than you ever imagined.

That’s why you shouldn’t waste any time getting to the work you need to do. Do you have a business you wish to grow? Now is the time to start making plans. Don’t worry if you fall short. Just remember that one year won’t make or break your success. Keep the long term in mind.

If you do this, you will find that your success is even better than your dreams.

So what are you waiting for?

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