The main problem in a person’s life is the tendency to focus solely on short-term tasks and goals.
Many people try to change their entire life with quick, immediate solutions. Very few are able to grasp cause-and-effect relationships and think about what will happen in 5, 10, 20, or even 30 years.
On the Value of a Long-Term Perspective
Recently, we analyzed a particular situation and discussed how sometimes someone will explain how to build a business, and then you have to wonder:
- Where are they now? What’s going on in their life?
- What’s their family like, what state are they in, what’s their mood?
- Many people who once gave advice might end up not developing but rather regressing—because they were thinking in the short term.
It seemed that one could “solve some situation here and now” without thinking about how everything would unfold later, and without paying attention to the main tasks and goals.
What I’m talking about is primarily aimed at helping a person look at goals and tasks over a long period of time.
It might seem contradictory that on one hand, I try to understand what will be happening in 20–30 years, and on the other, I acknowledge that it’s all unpredictable out there.
But that’s exactly the point: I recognize that life 20–30 years from now could be unknown in many respects. I’m under no illusion that a single decision today will guarantee an entirely different picture in the future. I don’t think that if I find the “right job” now, I can stop working in 30 years, or that if I make a lot of money now, I’ll be able to start a business without effort later on.
You’ll often hear something like:
“Isn’t it important to live in the here and now? After all, the world is unpredictable, and anything can happen at any moment. So why think 20–30 years ahead?”
There’s another extreme as well: on one hand, a person says they’re doing something for the future, but on the other, they want to receive benefits right now.
A double mistake occurs: some “quick” solutions are supposed to help immediately and also work for the future. But in the end, the person becomes confused: they want something to “happen in the future,” and also to “change the situation right now.”
The approach I propose is to act in a way that affects today, the next 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 30 years—right up to the end of life. In other words, to take actions consciously, connected with your entire life path.
A Strategic Approach to Goals
Short-term goals and tasks are usually spontaneous decisions: “Should I quit my job or not?” A person thinks in very narrow terms: “If I quit, I’ll have to look for another job. If I don’t, I’ll keep enduring dissatisfaction from management or a lower salary.”
But it’s much broader to ask yourself:
- What would I like to do over the next 20 years?
- Which job or profession aligns with my values?
- Do I want stability, or am I willing to change?
- Can I afford to change professions, try new options?
- Do I want manual labor, sales, travel?
- Or maybe I’m ready for a dozen different professions?
- Perhaps I want to start a business with friends?
Sometimes people think: “I need to choose one profession and develop in it,” or conversely, “I want to try my hand at fifteen different professions at once.”
Which is correct?
The answer depends solely on you and your circumstances. If you have the opportunity to explore different fields, why not?
The world truly allows many people to make varied choices now. You can work in a flower shop, you can open your own flower business and hire employees, you can set up a wholesale operation, sell online, do it in different countries, work in partnership or alone, be an owner or a hired director, grow the business with your own funds or borrowed capital.
This applies to any other field as well. Each person can have completely different circumstances, different desires, and different values.
An Example with Family and Children
I have four children, and we live in the United States, in California. My oldest daughter is in high school (9th grade) on the Stanford campus, and it’s a rigorous program where the kids are already thinking about future professions.
Recently, they were given an assignment to map out the academic programs they’ll choose over the next four years, which will affect their college admission. There’s a year-long business course available, but my daughter was torn between that, psychology, a fashion-oriented direction, the possibility of a part-time job in a bakery, and other subjects.
I asked her what she felt drawn to and pointed out, “You can always take a business course later. It’s not a skill that you necessarily need right now.”
As a parent, I believe it’s more important that children make their own choices and pursue what interests them. Some people, on the other hand, feel a child should continue the family business or a lineage of doctors. But we all know it doesn’t always work out that way: sometimes such expectations cause conflict, and sometimes they really do lead to great results. There’s no single right model; the main thing is to allow yourself (and others) the freedom to see the bigger picture.
From Short-Term Decisions to a Broader Life
When I say that the main problem is living only by short-term goals, I mean failing to see anything beyond these short intervals—failing to notice how today’s choice affects our life in 10, 20, or 30 years, our profession, our family, our health, our inner state.
This leads to situations where people say one thing today and another tomorrow, constantly changing their stance because they lack a connecting thread.
It’s important to understand how we listen to ourselves. Are we acting only in the short term? Or are we focusing only on the long term, forgetting that life is happening right now? Or are we striving for balance?
Illusions and the Reality of Long-Term Thinking
Long-term thinking is familiar to many: “If you study hard, you’ll get a good job and be happy,” “You have to work hard now so you can live well later.” But this can also be an illusion if we overlook the present. Sometimes living only for tomorrow and sacrificing today is pointless.
Expansion occurs within a person, and they begin to truly understand what matters to them and in which direction they want to move.
And most importantly, you retain the freedom to choose what you value most—health, family, money, professional growth, or your internal emotional state. You decide what to do, rather than following someone else’s template.