Portfolio of Hope

Lisa Fouweather

Why Is It Important To Set Long-Term Goals In Life?

11 Sep 2023

‘Plant The Seeds To Taste The Fruit’: The Importance Of Setting Long-Term Goals To Aid Short-Term Decision Making…

We’re all so quick to complain about all the things which are ‘wrong’ in our lives but, when it comes to actually doing the work required to change our life’s circumstances, we just… don’t.

There’s always some reason, some excuse, as to why we ‘can’t.’

We ‘don’t have the time.’

We’re ‘too busy.’

And so, we remain stuck in the same place, repeating the same patterns that keep us stuck there, forevermore. Indefinitely.

It is only when we push ourselves to make changes in our lives, that our lives will do just that, change.

Don’t know if you need to make changes in your own life? You just need to start asking yourself; ‘How would I feel if, this time next year, nothing has changed? If, in five to ten years from now, I’m still in the same situation that I’m in today?’… How you answer that question, it can be a good indicator of how you, perhaps subconsciously, feel about your life’s circumstances.*

*(In other words, if the thought that, in five years from now you will still be in the same job that you’re currently in fills you with dread, then, that’s a pretty sure-fire giveaway that you’re not really happy with your life at the moment. Whilst yes, sometimes you will do things in life that you don’t particularly love, just as a sort of ‘stepping stone’ to get you to where you actually want to be (for example, going to university), at the end of the day, life is so short. We live, and then we die, with the time in between those two inevitable eventualities passing us by in the blink of an eye… And so, we mustn’t waste so much as a second of our precious lives doing things that don’t align with what we really want to be doing)…

Now, I should note that I’m not naïve in thinking that we can all go through life doing only the things which make us happy, I get that there are certain things that need doing, like cleaning, for example and, because I know for many people this is a big one, blindly conforming through year after year of compulsory schooling (eye roll). But, we can (and, we must) make sure that we give ourselves time to consider what we genuinely want to be doing with our lives, long-term, not what we feel like we ‘need’ to be doing, or ‘ought’ to be doing. Why must we do this? Because, if we’re unable to determine where we hope to be in the future (what we want to be doing with our lives/who we want to be), then, how can we possibly hope to get there?*

*(Disclaimer: We can’t get there (wherever ‘there’ is), and, we won’t)…

To understand just how nonsensical it is to go through life with the absence of any long-term goals, just consider this analogy…

You set off on a long car journey with no idea where your end destination is- you know that there’s somewhere you need to be, but, you have no idea where that is. You fill the car up with what may or may not be enough petrol to get you to this unknown, mystery destination, start the car up, and start driving. You drive around and around, completely aimlessly and, with no idea of why you got in the car in the first place, or why, let alone where, you’re driving to…

The car analogy above is exactly what having no long-term goals in life mirrors. You get up every day, not really knowing why, just to keep doing the same old thing(s), driving forwards, feet firmly held down on accelerate but, again, not really knowing why…

Without goals, we ultimately end up doing just this, moving through life directionless, lacking any real sense of purpose or, to put it bluntly, lacking any indication as to what we’re even doing here/what this is all about…

Now, for me, this is what I am most afraid of- getting to the end* of my life filled with regrets for all of the things that I didn’t do- for all of the projects that I didn’t start (let alone finish), for all of the places that I didn’t visit, for all of the people that I didn’t meet…

*(When I say the ‘end’, this isn’t necessarily some faraway date in the future, by the way. The ‘end’ could be tomorrow for all we know… Life is so short, and we never know when our time here will come to an end. I say this, not to be ‘morbid’, but to serve as a reminder of life’s impermanence/to remind us all of the inescapable fact that, nothing lasts forever and that, we must make the absolute most out of the time that we’re lucky enough to have been given here)…

And so, to ensure that you don’t become yet someone else who gets to the end filled with more regrets than memories, you must remember to ! THINK LONG-TERM !

You don’t need to have it all figured out right now- don’t worry, I’m not proposing that you write a minute-by-minute to-do-list for the next ten years- you just need to have some idea of where you want your life to go. Do this, and you can make the change(s) needed, and work towards ensuring that the smaller, more ‘mundane’ tasks you do today, contribute to getting you to where you want to be tomorrow (not literally tomorrow, we’re talking longer-term, remember, just ‘in the future’), ensuring that your actions and your intentions align… (E.g., If you have always dreamt of becoming an Artist, then you need to make art. If you have aspirations to become a Doctor, then you need to go back to University to get qualified in medicine)…

Failing to do this, failing to set longer-term goals in your life, would be like planting an apple tree and being annoyed when, in the future, you go to the tree to pick a pear and it has only produced apples. You can’t do one thing (in this case, plant an apple tree), and expect another thing to happen (in this case, for the apple tree that you planted to have produced pears)… No, you need to go into any and all decision-making with more of a long-term perspective, so that what you choose to do today does not harm who you hope to be tomorrow (again, not meaning literally tomorrow- just ‘some date in the future)…

And so it can be said that, ultimately, it all boils down to this:

‘If you don’t plant the seeds, then you’ll never get to taste the fruit.’

You must ‘plant the seeds’ so that you can reap the rewards of your efforts and enjoy the fruit… But, as my previous fruit analogy proved, make sure that the seeds you plant will produce the fruit that you actually want…

Like planting seeds and waiting for the fruit to ripen, getting to where you want to be in life, it isn’t a quick process. In fact, in most cases, it is anything but ‘quick…’ But, with time and patience, all of your effort will pay off, and you will get to reap the (literal) ‘fruits of your labour’, i.e., you will get to live the life you’ve always imagined/you will get to live the life of your dreams…

Not just another cheesy, cliched quote, it’s true when people say that;