civineer“People overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can in ten”. Culled from www.kathleensiminyu.com
At the end of last year, I blogged on how to set your goals to achieve in a day, month or a year. Click here to reread it. By June 28 2017, half of the year is remaining for you to do whatever you want in 2017. So if you have set yourself some of those annual goals, it is time to review how much you have come and how much is left.
Last week, I received a notification email from my friend’s blog, Kathleen when she posted. Kathleen narrates to us a discussion she had with a techie at a tech-business-y event held in Nairobi. It was about how much one, as a person thinks he can achieve in one year and in ten. He stated, “we overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in ten” (want to read the whole post from Kathleen’s blog, click here). Can you just reread it and take a moment to allow that to sink in? Is it true for you?
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In a good example, Kathleen is a wanna-be polyglot. She is taking Spanish and French Languages lessons weekly. Every day, she tries to practice her language skills by watching some film series recorded in either of the two languages she intends to be fluent in. Day after day, the work became overbearing for her as she thinks she tries to achieve a lot in 24 hours. And somehow, she neglects or rather fails to see the big picture if she does a little over an entire year. Kathleen primarily focused the achievements of her goals in one day, trying to do a lot and thinking it is only the day she has while neglecting to stretch her ambitions over some months, a year or even a decade.
It is what I always aim to preach, focus on your to-be list instead of a to-do list. To-be list is a big picture list. It is the end goal. It is what you become when you do those little tasks on your daily to-do lists. Having the big picture perspective is always important.
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As such, that’s half the year is a good time to pause and review those goals you wrote down at the beginning of the year. How far have you come? Is the steam you started sufficient enough to sustain and enable you reach your goal or you have to pump it up? The time is just right to evaluate your daily, weekly and monthly targets while keeping an eye at the big picture.
For me, I tried to be committed to my set goals but flexible in my approach of achieving them. So my to-do lists has changed over time in a manner I can still arrive at where I want to be, albeit not in a good time. Many of the projects I set out to-do are lagging behind their expected time of achievement. But I guess it is natural for so many projects. It is just reality, challenges and issues causing it.
As I take the next few days to reflect what I need to do ensure I reach where I want to be by 31 December 2017, I would be considering taking more pragmatic steps. Because I have already started the journey of achieving them and experienced some challenges, it would be wise enough to factor such experiences as I set out to the second half of the year.
I invite you to take the next few days as well in reviewing your to-do and to-be lists. If you haven’t set any, there is no better time than now. For those who have already reviewed their lists, how far have you gone? Is the steam just enough or you need to pump it up? Please comment below.
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