{"id":15753,"date":"2024-01-11T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=15753"},"modified":"2024-01-26T06:41:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T14:41:46","slug":"your-next-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/11\/your-next-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Decide Your Next Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Next week, Cal Newport and I are opening a new session of our popular course, <a href=\"http:\/\/life-of-focus-course.com\">Life of Focus<\/a>. This three-month course has helped thousands of people struggling with distraction become more focused in their work, life and mind\u2014so they can pay attention to what matters most. This week, we\u2019re sharing lessons drawn from the course. If you missed the first two lessons, you can find them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/07\/focused-state-quickly\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/09\/put-down-your-phone\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What could you do in the next ten years if you knew you could focus on anything you chose?<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-podcast\">\n<small>Listen to this article<\/small><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"20\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1717934478&#038;color=%23219895&#038;inverse=false&#038;auto_play=false&#038;show_user=true\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Would you learn multiple languages? Get in incredible shape? Build a business? Become a star performer in your field, or invest wisely and retire early? What kind of life could you make for yourself?<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not used to thinking in terms of the next decade. For most of us, our horizon of concern is defined by our current problems: getting through the current project at work, graduating from our degree program, responding to daily stresses and frustrations.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of proactively envisioning the next decade can seem overwhelming. But there\u2019s a benefit to thinking longer. <strong>Ten years is long enough to accomplish many serious ambitions<\/strong>: truly mastering a skill, building a company from the ground up, reaching the apex of your career, or completely transforming your habits.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Life-of-Focus-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15754\" style=\"width:450px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Life-of-Focus-3.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Life-of-Focus-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Life-of-Focus-3-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Could You Do in a Decade?<\/h2>\n<p>I find it useful, as an exercise, to imagine what I might be able to do in the next ten years. The point of the exercise is not to meticulously or exhaustively plan out the years of your life\u2014even dogged pursuits of a singular ambition usually require more flexibility than that. Instead, the point is to try to remind yourself of what you\u2019re interested in and passionate about to <strong>find the \u201cwhy\u201d of focus in your life<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The next time you have fifteen minutes today, sit down with a blank piece of paper and write down what you would like to imagine your life could be like in ten years:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What kind of work do you do?<\/li>\n<li>What are your relationships like with friends and family?<\/li>\n<li>What skills have you mastered?<\/li>\n<li>What are you doing for fun?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the things you wrote down on your list that aren\u2019t part of your life now, write down what you would need to focus on over the next ten years to make that a reality. If your future self is fluent in a language, what kind of practice would you need to do to get there? If you have a successful business, what types of projects would you have to complete to launch one?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tomorrow and the Days After<\/h2>\n<p>Imagining how you\u2019d like the next ten years of your life to be, and then asking yourself what a reasonable investment of energy would look like to accomplish those things, leads to an obvious follow-up question: <strong>how does the daily life needed to reach those ambitions compare to what you\u2019re doing now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There will always be a gap between our highest pursuits and our everyday reality. But being mindful of that gap is one of the best motivators to make change. It may be hard to hit a distant target, but as the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar remarked, <strong>\u201cIf you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m curious to hear your goals for the next decade of your life, and what you think is the gap between your current actions and what you\u2019d need to do to reach them. Share your thoughts in a comment on the original essay!<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Next week, Cal Newport and I will reopen our course, <a href=\"http:\/\/life-of-focus-course.com\">Life of Focus<\/a>, for a new session. If you want to become more focused in your life and work\u2014paying more attention to what matters\u2014our three-month program may be the perfect first step.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There will always be a gap between our highest pursuits and our everyday reality. But being mindful of that gap is one of the best motivators to make change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-personal-development","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Decide Your Next Decade - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/11\/your-next-decade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decide Your Next Decade - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There will always be a gap between our highest pursuits and our everyday reality. 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