Where Will You be in Five Years?

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Where will you be in five years? I hate that question so don't ask. If anyone has an answer to that question, please step aside.

You see there is no answer to that question. No one knows the answer as much as they say they do. We cannot plan life as much as we want to. We all try to, but it will never ever happen.

Life Can Be Confusing

Look at my life. If you've read my previous posts, the "What am I Doing" series, you'd realize that the past 3 years of my life have been a nightmare. I tried to plan out my life, I really did, but it's impossible.

Everyday something changes. Just when I think I have life figured out.....I really don't have it figured out. Sometimes it's the smallest of changes, both positive and negative. Other times they are magnificent changes or disastrous changes that make me love and hate life.

I can't expect those changes and neither can you.

I Won't Give Up The Plan

If you have lived out your "5-year" plan, then good for you. You're lucky. "5-year" plans are tough to complete. It could be in business, life, or a relationship. It could be as simple as a personal goal for yourself. The likelihood of you achieving this is slim-to-none.  

I'm not blogging this to discourage people from making a "5-year" plan. You should. If anything, you should do it to keep yourself on the right track. Nothing feels worse than living 5-years of your life without an end goal.

How to Make Successful Goals

One of my biggest issues in the past few years was the lack of measurable goals. What's a measurable goal you might ask?

It's simple, a measurable goal is something you can measure and determine your success and failures. When creating your goals, you should create expected outcomes with those goals.

This same thought process is needed in business and personal goals. When you create the goals always use this method:

1. What you want to do in 5-years
2. What you plan to do in 5-years
3. How do you blend the two?
4. In the first 6 months, what do you need to do to be on the right track?
1. What are the first steps to completing my goals
2. Why is this the most important to finding my success
3. What will stop me from completing this goal
4. And, if my benchmark is failed, how do I get back on the right track
5. Set Benchmarks in 6-month intervals and review it every 6-months the same as you did the first time. 

Just make sure those benchmarks are reasonable. If they aren't you won't be measuring anything of quality.

I know it all sounds hard. It really can be, which is why you should always make sure you only set 5-year plans that are measurable and realistic. Even though it's impossible to plan life, it's always a good idea to set a goal. You cannot plan for unexpected changes or events. You can plan how to respond if something occurs, but you won't ever fully be prepared.

No matter how tough it gets and how many times you plans fail, keep trucking. And when people ask you where you will be in 5-years, just tell them you don't know yet but you know what you plan to do.