Pursuing Long Term Goals – A Blueprint for Success
Pursuing long term goals is not for the faint of heart. By long term I’m referring to goals that require a minimum of 4 years effort.
Think about this for a second, every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States. Getting a high school diploma is one of the most basic long term goals. In fact, it’s an expectation for nearly every single American.
- For the most part it’s free
- There is a significant amount of structure
- Generally speaking, all you have to do is what you’re told and show up
Yet, about 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.
The Difficulty in Pursuing Long Term Goals
Imagine the difficulty and success rate of those pursuing long term goals that are significantly more difficult than pursuing a high school diploma, and cost a significant amount of money. Imagine pursuing long term goals that have no boundaries and no requirement to show up. We can use graduating from college as an example. The college dropout rate is about 50% compared to the high school dropout rate of about 6%. That’s a big jump!
If nearly 50% of people drop out of college, what percentage of people would you guess fail at pursuing long term goals that have less structure? There is no way of knowing for sure, but would you think 80% was too high? How about 90%?
Based on just the people you know (friends, family, social and professional networks), would it surprise you if 99% of them fail at pursuing long term goals?
- We all know a handful of people who set a goal to lose weight. These people may or may not lose it in the short term. And if they do, 4 years later they are right back where they started. (I’m one of those people)
- We also all know another handful of people who have at one time or another set a goal to quit their job to pursue their passions or start a business. Sometimes they take the first step, and often that’s the only step.
The bottom line is that pursuing long term goals is hard. I wish I could end this by being motivational, but I can’t. Unfortunately, I must end this with a reality check.
The Blueprint for Pursuing Long Term Goals
I was reading a great article about Ryan Carson, the founder and CEO of Treehouse, a company that teaches people how to code. In it he shares a story about how long it took for him to become successful using social media as a marketing tool. He mentioned 8 years of hard work and said:
Just another proof point that having a long-term perspective and putting in years of work WILL yield results – you just have to stay patient.
In addition, he shares 3 pillars for social media success. It immediately hit me that his 3 pillars for social media success were the same three pillars for success at pursuing long term goals:
- Patience
- Passion
- Discipline
Certainly, this is not a secret sauce or shortcut for pursuing long term goals. However, it is a blueprint. Paraphrasing Carson’s advice on his three pillars, the blueprint is simple:
Patience:
Success doesn’t happen overnight. As a result, you must have patience and accept that pursuing long term goals requires long term commitment. If you don’t have the patience to work day in and day out doing the hard boring stuff without getting a reward, don’t waste your time.
Passion:
If you’re going to wait at least 4 years to get any return on your investment, you have to genuinely care about the goal. You have to be truly passionate about why you want to achieve the goal. In fact, it should be part of your core. You must eat it, drink it, sleep it, and live it.
Discipline:
We’ve established that pursuing long term goals is difficult and time-consuming. Consequently, you have to ensure you’re consistently doing what you have to do day in and day out. Establishing daily rituals and routines around your goals is the best way to do this. Discipline is a must, and it’s important to realize that discipline requires you to create habits.