Combine Short-Term Thinking with Long-Term Plans
It doesn’t have to be either or, because short-term thinking and long-term thinking can both be helpful to you. It’s only when you replace one with the other that it causes problems.
There are things that you can do to make sure that you’re living the healthiest, fullest life you can live while you strive to fulfill your long term plans. Set a limitations on the amount of time that you’re going to work toward your plans.
Instead of working seventy and eighty hours a week to accomplish what you want to happen, cut back to an amount of hours that gives you time to enjoy the here and now. Every time an opportunity to further your long-term plans presents itself, take some time to consider what will happen to your current life if you accept that opportunity.
If it’s something that will cause you to fall right back into the same old routine of neglecting certain areas of your life, then it’s not a good opportunity for you. Take stock of what’s currently going on in your life as far as wanting to reach your long-term goals.
The first thing that you need to do is to check to see if you’re happy. Be honest with yourself. If you’re giving up sleep, you’re feeling stressed and you’re working more than you should, then you’re probably not very happy.
Being motivated doesn’t equal happiness. Being motivated is simply what drives you to do what you do. And this motivation can be driven by wanting a good thing. For example, many people work longer hours than they should because they want their loved ones to have things that they didn’t have.
But if you ask those who care about you, they’d much rather have time with you than the things you’re working too hard to give them. Set up limiting parameters. When you’re working toward an end goal based on your long-term plan, rate that end goal on a scale of one to ten for today.
How many things are you going to have to give up – eating, sleeping, entertainment, family time? How many friends will you have to stop spending time with? The higher your score, the more you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing.
Remember that your long-term plan was probably created by you – so that you could obtain the happiness that you seek. But you should be happy in the meantime while you’re working toward that plan.