They say the only difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is the scope of which they live their lives. Successful people live with a 10-year plan, this way they don’t think small, they don’t get lost in the minutia of the day, they chase big, meaningful goals because they’re playing big. They’re not just living for next month, they’re not getting sidetracked by setbacks, compromises or detours, they’re not bogged down living someone else’s dream.
Good things take time, and living with a ten-year plan takes this into account. In his best-selling novel The 10X Rule, Grant Cadone outlines the benefits of this long-range thinking.
“Extreme success is by definition outside the realm of normal action. Instead of behaving like everybody else and settling for average results, take Massive Action with The 10 X Rule, remove luck and chance from your business equation, and lock in massive success…”
Also in an article published in the Huffington Post by the same author, he advises “I spent the first 40 years of my life thinking too small, being too careful and too conservative in my actions—in both my personal and professional life. I don’t want you to take that same path.”
The truth is that it’s so easy to live day to day because, theoretically, we could die any day. Living 10X is great but do we even have ten years? Life is so uncertain, and that’s why people are innately wired to live on survival mode; to take life as it comes and not to plan at the expense of the future. In this way, our mortality is used against us.
The flip side is that some people think they’ve a million years to live. They live on a 1 million X scope. That’s why they can waste their days scrolling the internet, posting memes, not really waking up to a greater calling in life. Because why now? Why not tomorrow, or in the next hundred years? This million-year mentality is detrimental, wasteful and an easy trap to fall into, especially when contemplating mortality becomes too painful or daunting.
The underlying truth is that the creator of the 10X Rule is contemplating his mortality while assuming an average life expectancy. Thus, logically it makes sense to break one’s life into large ten-year sections, where greater and more meaningful goals can be accomplished.
So do we take this long-term path? Do we rise to the occasion? Or should we just enjoy life as it’s presented to us, given its fragility? The truth is: most very successful people never have a detailed 10-year plan. They just had a dream.
The greatest part of the 10X Rule isn’t that it’s realistic to a suited timeline. The 10X rule challenges us to pursue meaningful goals, period. Without the scope of time, our dreams are too small, or unmanageable. The human brain can’t comprehend eternity, but it can tackle a decade! Even if we don’t make it to the end, we’ll live better along the way.
To have a dream, in any capacity, takes courage. And it is this daring mentality that makes the 10X Rule so compelling.
“What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity” ~ Maximus Decimus Meridius
What’s your ten-year plan?
Let’s make things happen in this life, not the next!
“until you become completely obsessed with your mission, no one will take you seriously. Until the world understands that you’re not going away—that you are 100 percent committed and have complete and utter conviction and will persist in pursuing your project—you will not get the attention you need and the support you want.”
― Grant Cardone, The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure