Thank Goodness It's Monday #390

2013 AND BEYOND –

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?

Rest easy. This first-of-2013 TGIM is NOT about making New Year resolutions … setting monthly goals … compiling daily to-do lists … targeting quarterly objectives … committing to imminent deadlines… spelling out near-term action plans … blah, blah, blah.

Not that those things can’t be useful.

It’s just that I’ve seen an overabundance of that kind of commonly-prescribed-at-this-time-of-the-year “soft” advice in the waning days of 2012. And it’s made me think –

Doesn’t anyone do long-term planning anymore?

Granted, the pressures of just going from day to day can be wearing given the fragile state of – fill in your own blank here – the economy, the family, the business, the environment, the state, the nation, the world.

But maybe we are where we are these days because we have become so focused on the here and now that we neglected to anticipate the stretched-out future impacts of what we do in the here and now.

What’s got me thinking this way? 

Actuarial tables. I’m at that point in my life when, to my surprise, I’ve surpassed the “Estimated Life Expectancy” projected for me in the year in which I was born.

Yup.  According to the tables, odds suggest I ought not be here. 

But, given that I am: The most recent iteration of these tables also projects that I can make it exactly 19 years more. And, of course, for every year that clicks by with me in it, the out date stretches a wee bit further. 

So I’m now thinking: I better be thinking longer term (not that I hadn’t been to some degree). And I’m rounding up the actuarial guesstimate and making 20 years my operative number for defining “long-term.”

TGIM Takeaway: Join me in looking 20 years out.

TGIM CHALLENGE #1: Although I discouraged too much backward-looking in the New Year’s Eve TGIM #389, today I suggest you take a moment and reflect on 20 years ago – 1993.

I have a 1993 flashback experience almost daily.
As my nearby friends know,
I'm still driving my family's
new-in-'93 Buick Special.
However, I will not let this prevent me
from also looking forward.

Anything new and different in your life since then?

Damn right there is.

TGIM CHALLENGE #2: So what do you think 2033 will look like? 

As challenging and confounding as the days have been lately (or maybe the span of time should be stated “up to now”), there are many, many more ahead. The speed and enormity and all-encompassing nature of the changes we have faced and the changes we will face will overwhelm us if we let them.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Don’t let them. Whatever you’ve done to get to this point will not be enough to move you, your business, your loved ones, and your community forward. Neither you nor I can sit on our accomplishments and coast.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Learn as if you were going to live forever – because you just might.

 

• That means preparing your mind to accept ideas such as living “forever.”
• That means staying current and connected to what’s going on in the world, not just your narrow area of interests.
• That means accepting some truths that you now hold dear may be proven untrue and so must be unlearned.
• That means determining that technology may advance in ways that require you to relearn old, comfortable behaviors in order to survive and thrive.
• That means deciding that change is good, even when it comes as an upsetting surprise and challenges your every plan.

“Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.” The famous futurist Alvin Toffler said that in 1970.

Don’t wait for the “invasion” to overwhelm you. Begin today to go out and greet it.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Trite (since 1965) but true. Resolve … set as a goal … add to your to-do list … the assignment to routinely look at the long term and adjust accordingly.

 

We all must be forward looking; far more than another round of one-year-limited New Year Resolutions would take us. I think I’m fairly safely assuming that you’re not (much) older than I and I hope your health is not immediately imperiled. So don’t limit your resolving … goal-setting … to-doing … etc, etc to the instant 360+/- days remaining in 2013.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Management thought leader Peter Drucker (1909-2005) said that.

Let’s get creating. And I look forward to comparing notes with you in 2033. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.

Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.

The chances, the changes are all yours to make.

The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

-- J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) told us that in The Hobbit