Long-term thinking is hard: here’s why.

Thinking long-term is hard - here are 6 reasons why:

1.The pandemic conditioned us to think short-term.

We couldn’t plan.

For nearly 2 years.

So we didn’t.

That’s a habit that takes a while to get out of.

2. Deciding what we want in the first place can be paralysing.

How do we know at 25 which job we want to be in at 35?

How do we compare the pros and cons of moving house with going on holiday?

How do we decide what we want to do with the rest of our lives when we can’t even pick what to watch on Netflix?

Because we’re used to so much choice, deciding is getting harder - especially when it comes to the big stuff where the stakes are so high.

3. “You can’t/ don’t deserve to/ will never be good enough to have/be/become…”

The voice of self-sabotage.

It stops us in our tracks before we’ve even begun.

If we don’t allow ourselves big dreams and believe there’s a chance we can achieve them, we never will.

4. Where do we begin?

You can’t eat an elephant all at once, the saying goes.

Even when we’ve allowed ourselves to think big, decided on what we want, ignored the voice telling us we can’t have it… where do we start?

Sometimes the first foothold is the hardest to find.

It’s easier not to start at all - to procrastinate and tell ourselves we’ll begin tomorrow.

5. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

If the hardest foothold is the first, the next hardest is the second.

And the third hardest the third…

We need the willpower to stay the course.

To achieve big things takes time, consistency and persistence.

6. What if we change our mind?

Do we double down or double back?

We can feel compelled by the sunk cost of money and time to continue on.

But sometimes the way forward is to go back.

Or sideways.