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It can be quite hard to plan our future. Not everyone has a totally cemented idea of what they’d like to do, how they’d wish to go about it, and what route they’ll take to get there. But it’s also true that in order to go anywhere in life, we need to know where we’re going. Having a target to aim at is important, lest we shoot anywhere and everywhere without results.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to think of your future from time to time, and the future of those you’re responsible for. For instance, if you’re coming into late middle-age, it might be that focusing on retirement planning could be a fantastic use of your thinking time.
But thinking about the future is often quite scary from time to time. It’s not hard for many of us to feel somewhat out of sorts where that’s concerned because planning out decades in advance feels fruitless. Well, there’s no reason as to why we have to think in such lofty terms. Thinking in actionable terms, instead, can be so much better. Let’s see how we could go about that:
3-5 Years From Now
Setting yourself arbitrary deadlines may or may not work in your favor. Depending on the kind of person you are, a guide like this can feel helpful or oppressive. If you find that you’re the sort of person who leaves everything to the last minute, then uses panic as the ultimate fuel to get things done, then it could be that finding your way forward with a little more lenient consideration is helpful. Simply put – where do you hope to see yourself three to five years from now? That’s actionable change you can start planning for that doesn’t seem totally fixed, and it’s not so far away that results will feel overly distant. Try it – your goal setting will only benefit.
Financial Practices
Ultimately, the habits that we practice will define our future much more than our singular decisions. This is why it’s good to get into health financial practices, such as retirement planning, or making sure that you plan for a debt to be paid off by the end of the year. Hiring an accountant to go over your books if you’re self-employed can be a big help, as can developing a budgeting strategy you can use for the future (even rounding up pennies to dollars can help). Over time, this makes a huge difference.
Ultimate Goals
It’s good to have a few ultimate goals you can use to orient yourself without having to overdo it. For instance, perhaps you’d like to earn your driving license by the end of the year. That’s great. Perhaps, in six months, you’d like to write two short stories you can be proud of. When you have larger goals like this, you can implement the work you need to apply to achieve them into smaller chunks, and schedule as necessary. It’s good to have a few ultimate goals like this, they help give us purpose.
With this advice, you’re sure to think of the future in actionable terms.
