Sometimes you just have to take a few minutes to to stop and check out where you are, where you’re going and where you want to be.
In honor of the beautiful weather on Wednesday, two of my best friends and I enjoyed an impromptu gathering at Chicago’s finest Mexican and margarita establishment (for those of you who live in Chicago, I’m sure you agree that Blue Agave is really something else).
My friend Whitney just started a new job at an amazing company that is very focused on personal development for their employees. As a requirement, each employee must fill out a detailed form which maps out their 10 year vision and goals in several categories. The CEO of the company reads every single employee’s 10 year vision.
I could go on and on about how wonderful I think this is from a corporate perspective. Since when does a huge company actually care about YOU, the front line employee, and where you want to go in your life? And not only does the company care, the CEO cares! I can only imagine how much more innovative the company is in serving their target market and creating better products because of these visions. I’d guess that the employees have the highest level of job satisfaction, brand evangelism and retention because of this company’s value for individuality.
So naturally as we started sipping on our margaritas, we couldn’t help but talk about our ten year visions. This activity was not hard for me in the least. I quickly spouted off what I saw for myself in terms of my career, lifestyle, family, relationship, etc.
Which is ironic, because I am not a planner AT ALL. Like not even a little bit. I function on the LTF operating system: work your butt off every single day, love what you do, family first and leave it to fate. I feel that everything happens for a reason. When I look back on past experiences, even those which were not pleasant, they always led me to a better place or where I am today. You can argue with me on this one, but just remember that we all have a choice on how to see things.
Our other friend at the table was terrified by this activity. The mere thought of it practically gave her an anxiety attack. She is the biggest planner in our group of friends (you should have seen how mad she was at us during the Chicago marathon last year because we didn’t have a plan!). She didn’t want to write something down and then be disappointed if it didn’t turn out that way.
I can tell you first hand that fate was good to her in foiling some of her earlier life plans (I’m sure we can ALL relate to this). She is exactly where she should be, she is SO happy and she is living a completley different life than she would’ve expected when we met almost 10 years ago.
So maybe the lesson is to stop planning all together. Or maybe we should set targets and understand that there are a thousand different ways to get to that target. Or perhaps we should focus more on our top values and know that staying true to those values will lead us down the right path. What do YOU think?
Am I the weird one here, or is this activity scary for a lot of people? Do you believe in writing down a 10 year vision?
For the young professionals out there who email me every day because they aren’t sure what type of career they want to pursue, I challenge you to sit down and try to fill out a 10 year vision for yourself. It will be like weight lifting for your brain. Fill it out as if you had no limits: money isn’t an issue and nor are other peoples’ judgements. Take your college major out of the equation. Write down your dream life and see what it reveals to you about where you are right now.
To prove that fate is good to us, I will share some of the amazing career stories I’ve received as part of my book research in a follow up post. You would be shocked at where people started and where they are now in their lives. All of the stories had much happier endings than where they began.
What’s your 10 year vision?
If you are up for the challenge, here are some of the things on the form Whitney sent us:
- What is your ideal life in terms of: career, income, net worth, home(s), geography, lifestyle, health, family, relationship, education.
- What are your top 3 values? Some ideas listed are: entrepreneur, fun, passion, leadership, development, balance, diversity, family, recognition, integrity, legacy, patience, growth, achievement, creativity, knowledgeable, wealth, quality, courage.
- If success is a combination of what you are good at, passion and how you make money, how would you describe each of the three categories of success for yourself?
- Set some goals in each of the categories above once you determine a general vision. These goals can be as specific or general as you want.
My hope is that envisioning your ideal life in 10 years will serve as a map to get you there. Maps aren’t always accurate, there are often many pit stops and unexpected detours along the way, but you can’t go anywhere unless you know where you are going.
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If anyone can relate to where you're at in your career, it's Nicole Crimaldi: Nicole spent 5 years in corporate America, switched career paths, worked at a start-up, survived a layoff and is now self-employed. Nicole believes that career satisfaction is a huge part of overall happiness. Therefore, she started Ms. Career Girl to help other women get off the treadmill and onto a more fulfilling path.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a fabulous post! I have a friend that I am constantly life-planning with (we have an entire life plan written up ending with us in a fabulous appartment in Paris). But I do think it’s funny to reflect on plans from the past. I thought I was going to go into agriculture at the beginning of high school. Interesting experiences resulted in my choice of International Affairs as a college major and now I’m focusing all my free time trying to break into social media marketing. But all of my previous paths gave me important lessons for the next step. Life nudges our life path in directions we never knew existed–often without us even realising it. Ain’t life funny?
I totally agree that each step was important. I even think abotu the people I have dated: one of my x’s totally introduced me to this whole online/social media world. The other made me fall in love with labradors- a dog I always thought was way too big, way too, sheddy and something I would never own. My dog and my blog are two of the highlights of my life. Kind of a silly example, but true.
Sometimes when I think about huge goals that I ended up totally going the other way on, I think those goals were not truly MY goals they were goals, rather, someone elses. As if achieving these goals would impress parents or fill some “hole in your soul.”
I’m like your planning friend. This activity is really hard for me, even though I’m a planner. I had a 10-year-plan when I graduate from high school, and it’s 10 years later, and I’m not there. I’m no where near THERE. That has been a difficult pill for me to swallow, but I am realizing that I’m ok, that my life is ok, that I am pretty content in a lot of areas. Of course, there are areas I need to work on, and that’s where I am developing a vague 10-year-vision. I don’t want to lock out the possibilities and opportunities life may throw at me; for example, I’m pondering career fields right now that I didn’t even DREAM of 10 years ago. The careers I thought I wanted 10 years ago don’t interest me anymore.
You make great points here. The more I think about it, the more I think you have to wait until a certain point in your life to even go there in yuor mind. The age is different for everyone.
At 22, I probably would not have been equipped to do even see 2 years out. And definitely not in high school. Also, when you are 18-, age 28 sounds like a dinosaur when really those are probably the fastest years in our lives. Plus we learn, change and grow so much in that time frame too.
And yes, career interests can DEFINITELY change. I keep hearing more and more examples of this lately too.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I’m also like your planning friend. Im considering filling out a 10 year plan, but I’m worried my goals will either be too modest or too lofty. Also, I find my goals change so rapidly because one experience leads to another. As a graduating senior, I’m still in the stage of my life where I’m not sure where the next two years will lead me, let alone the next 10. I do like the “core values” part though, because I don’t see that changing much. Overall, a good post Nicole- but I think you will find not everyone is as enthusiastic about goal setting as you are.
Ashley- Our battle of goal setting continues!
I guess it doesn’t bother me because I don’t really care if it turns out how I expect it to or not. Knowing me, I am so ADHD that I will forget exactly what my goals were anyways and will be on to the next thing.
I really think picking your top 3 values and making decisions based on them is the best way to go, especially as a graduating senior.
It’s sort of ironic that you wrote about 10 year plans today. Someone asked me the other day where do I want to be in 10 years. I could only answer that I’m not really sure. I know kind of where I’d like to be professionally, and that in 10 years I hope to be married with a family, but that’s it. But I am a major planner – my day cannot start until I have a proper to do list – how could I not have a 10-year plan?
But oddly(?) I’m ok with it. Too much has happened in the last few years alone. I’m very different from when I was 16, and what I wanted then is very different than what I have now. If anything, the past 10 years has taught me I can’t control everything and that everything happens for a reason. I can achieve the goals of my “vague 10-year plan” and I’m sure it’ll be an interesting ride getting there!
I’m also in agreement with your planning friend! Although, I am getting better at not being afraid to look that far in the future. My fear has always been that I would set goals for myself that I would never achieve – either because they no longer interested me, or I discovered that they just weren’t plausible. Over the last year or so, I’ve started to change my mind. I’ve learned that it’s OKAY if my goals change and things don’t interest me anymore. There’s some fun in setting new goals! And for the ones that aren’t plausible – I’m starting to believe that anything is possible, if it’s something you REALLY want to do. If you don’t have the determination or desire, you’ll never reach that goal
Wow, 10 years is really far ahead. I’m just turning 21 and thinking I’ll be 31 one day is extremely difficult. I have always had an overall idea of what I’d want to achieve by then, such as become a best seller author, direct a film, get into politics (hopefully mayor of Toronto – gotta dream big
), and when I’m in the 30s, to have a place in San Tropei and then start looking to start a family. Hmm, maybe looking 20 years ahead is more realistic for my plans, huh? As much as I’d like to say I want to finish my studies, I think it’s just a means to an end so if my goals are reached before I finish uni then I’ll be happy to drop out. A big part of my life, however, is definitely my family and would love to be able to give my parents the retirement they always wanted. I think I’m one of those people who looks to the future quite often, so this vision is always in the back of my mind.
Really great post, and it’s funny too look where I was 10 years EARLIER and what I’ve achieved since then. Crazy difference!
You’re right Nicole. A 10 year vision is scary. Especially if you’re over 40 or over 50. I couldn’t do it at 30! But I think it’s really important to be clear. There more clarity we have about our lives, our dreams, our beliefs, the more chances there are to carve out that authentic life for ourselves. Whether it’s 10 years, 10 months, 10 days or 10 minutes…
One of my favorite quotes is by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “When you make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen.” I saw that yesterday, when my friend Lisa Greenfield went to “The Apprentice” audition. After the audition, we sat there at the Coffee Bean cafe, we put our hands together, and visualized Lisa getting a callback. (one step closer to being on the show) 10 minutes later her phone rang. It was the casting director calling to schedule a callback. Lisa left her years corporate world to fulfill her dreams of being a hand analyst. And here she is, fulfilling that dream of an authentic life.
Nicole,
This is a really important post, especially for the 20 somethings out there. I remember something a guy who was a salesperson at Sun Microystems told me when I was a summer intern there in college. He said “I’m sure you have the next 5 years of your life planned out, but just know that it probably won’t be anything like you imagined. Life comes with alot of unexpected things.”
However, I don’t see that as a bad thing. If you asked me even 2 years ago if I thought I’d be doing what I do for a living I would have told you were out of your mind. When I got to business school I told people “I want to get as far away from this internet bul#$# as possible.” Talk about irony
. But, I love what I do and love everything about my life. So what does that actually mean. I think that goal setting should be done in such a way that you focus on the process ,not the outcome. Considering that the outcome will often change dramatically, we probably don’t want to have too much attachment to it. The other thing I would say for anybody in your 20′s is that you’ll be amazed at how much your values change based on the life experiences you have.