Do You Have a 3-Year Plan?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a reminder to check your long-term goals, and to gauge whether they need changing, be it big or small. But one thing I failed to recognize at that moment was how people define long-term goals and long-term plans.

For me, I always think long-term in terms of a single year.

What do I want to accomplish within the span of a year?

It's a good thought process, however, a revelation hit me yesterday when I was writing out some goals as part of a service exchange with a client I landed this week.

As part of the services to help me, my client sent me a questionnaire asking a variety of questions I was familiar with.

But one that took me back a bit was a question revolving around what I had planned three years from now and five years from now.

This revelation came at a good time in my life for a variety of reasons, but above all it got me to think about where exactly I want to be. Where are my passions?

After all, while I definitely have a plan and things I want to do, a lot of it is set aside for later.

I know that's kind of the idea with things you intend to accomplish over three years, but I find when you set things aside, we often fail to see where those ideas fit in the big picture.

In the end, I did manage to answer the question, and put together some solid goals for what I want to achieve.

It's honestly the first time in a long time where I had a concrete plan for where I wanted to be three years from now.

But I want to ask you something:

Where do you see yourself in three years from now?

What sort of advancements do you want to make in the next three years?

I think these are key questions to ask too because of a few reasons:

1. If you already have an idea of what you want to achieve by the end of this year, then two years down the road would really boil down to an "upgrade" from those previous goals.

The reason I think it's so important is that if your eventual achievements in three years don't really excite you, then how can working on these goals right now be exciting for you now?

2. It also puts into perspective what your intentions are after you achieve your goals.

At the end of the day, achieving a big goal is still making you successful. And success—as I mentioned in another post today—isn't always as it seems. Success can make us soft and complacent. We don't bother to grow ourselves any longer. That is unless we have something else to pursue.

3. Longer-term goals still provide the same benefits as other goals.

It's true that our interests shift, and we may truly move past an idea or a goal we set years earlier, but there is still merit along the way. Goals are never useless unless we don't learn from them one way or another.

Early on, when I first set goals, I learned how to set goals properly and to find the motivation to achieve them. Even in the event where I failed, I learned what to do better for next time. These longer-term plans or goals function the same way. Even if you realize they're not important to you after a few years or months pursuing them, you can always change them. They still provide the same growth as before.

No matter the circumstances, do set some bigger goals for yourself. My suggestion is to base them off of the goals you do have right now and determine whether you're okay with resting on those achievements once they're achieved. If not, set the bar higher for your three year plan or even your five year plan.

And if they aren't what you want, that's okay. At least you are thinking ahead, and giving yourself something to work towards.

To your growth!

Eric S Burdon