If the beauty of a 10 year plan is its absurdity, its irony is its malleability.
This is the sixth and final article in a series about creating a personal 10 Year Plan. To start at the beginning, click here.
Milestones and schedules in my life make me twitchy. Personal deadlines kind of irritate me. The voice in my head has enough ammo to undo me without giving it the additional firepower of a deadline. It’s entirely unreasonable, and some would say (I’m not naming any names, Hal) I’m being childish. Ok. But still, I don’t like them.
So, instead, I give myself general shapes, moods of things I’d like to tackle, I spend time imagining the parts I really like. I’ve found that sprinkling the forward path with delicious bits that I’m looking forward to doing keeps me going way more than does strewing it with deadlines.
If the beauty of a 10 year container is that it’s so absurd, the irony of it is its malleability.
Many writers talk about finishing a manuscript and putting it away for a while. They come back to it to see what sounds true and what needs to be re-worked.
Same with your plan. Write it down. Set it aside. Note the things you want to check in on, in a few months, in a few years.
I put those things in my calendar. With a reminder. Honestly, I put them in with some juicy bits. A dazzling little detail that I figure I can block some time for. It’s kind of a thrill when one comes up, or sometimes a total pain in the ass. Either way, it’s a note to my future self, a reminder that I have dreams and there are awesome things about them.
It’s a reminder of a little step that will make a big difference, a vote of confidence that I’ll pay attention to my dreams.
Originally published at medium.com