I always thought successful people were visionary. That they already have their long-term goal sorted out. It makes sense right? It’s much easier to reach your destination if you know where it is. So if I didn’t work towards my long-term goal (or “purpose”), am I even doing goal-setting right?
But think of the other way for a second. Who would charter the unknown territories if everyone knew their long-term goals? Life has lots of unknowns. The industry/technology is changing so fast! Surely I can’t hold on to a vision I had as a kid? The founder of Y-combinator worked on lots of jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago. I bet he didn’t “plan” to work on such jobs.
Bill Gates created Microsoft, but what was he doing before he got the idea for an Operating System? Same for Mark Zuckerberg. What was he doing before he founded Facebook?
What comes before you find your long-term goal? 🤔
How do we plan if there are no long-term goals? What do we do when we haven’t found a big purpose in life?
What to do when a long term goal is missing?
I got this idea from the book: Range-Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. When you don’t have a long term vision, don’t just sit around waiting for it. Prepare!
You prepare by making short-term goals/plans. You identify what will lead to a “promising situation” soon and work towards it. Once you reach that point, you make another short-term plan to move to a new “promising situation”. You keep on doing this until you hit the Jackpot.
Instead of working backward from a goal, work forward from promising situations. 📈
There is no “magical purpose” that will just land on your lap. You need to take action to prepare and reach the most promising state you can achieve.
This approach provides you lots of flexibility. Instead of pursuing a faraway long-term goal that may or may not be ideal for you, you break it down into smaller goals and each stage allows you to pivot in any direction that provides you with an advantage.
Conclusion
If you have already found your long-term goal, then there is nothing wrong with pursuing that. This post is for people who haven’t found their purpose yet and worry they are wasting their lives pursuing short-term stints.
I like to think of the short-term goal stage as the preparation stage. One day a big opportunity will come that can become my long-term goal and I will be prepared!
Have you found your long-term goals/purpose or are you still searching?