Beginning with the long term end in mind just doesn’t work.
Not until you have momentum.
And “long term” is relative.
Some people have so little momentum that thinking or planning something more than a week away is just wasted effort.
I have some family members that make it hard to plan get togethers because organizing their lives enough to commit to something a few weeks away is too much effort for them. The inertia in their lives is too large.
A part of me understands that. When you don’t trust yourself to remember what you need to do today, and to get it done, how can you even think about something that is ten or twenty days away.
Trusting yourself is the key.
In work environments, you’ve probably had associates, or coworkers or direct reports that you knew you could give any task to, and they would nail it. You trusted them.
When we avoid giving ourselves a task in the future, it’s often because we don’t trust ourselves to do it. And we’re scared of what the failure will mean.
Daily planning is the first step in building trust in yourself.
By ordering your mind each day, you increase the probability that you’ll have a good day, get the important stuff done, and be able to relax at the end, feeling good about what you’ve accomplished.
Now, imagine how that affects your psyche if you do it for a week, a month, a year.
You start to trust yourself.
You trust yourself to do what needs to be done.
You also start to trust yourself to make the right calls in the moment, when chaos rears its head and you have to change your plans.
And as that trust grows, you can then tackle planning out longer time periods.
Now you have at least one good habit, planning each day. You probably have others. Those habits are momentum.
You can start doing weekly planning, then monthly planning, and yearly planning.
Because you’re confident that you can make things happen, and you’re confident that you can adapt to larger and larger potential disruptions.
Your vision grows and extends.
Your momentum carries you along.