I am prone to bouts of being reflective, particularly at the end of December. The time of year is prime for it – we’re on break from school, I’m visiting my family and completely out of my normal routine. For this week, I don’t have a million things going on. In fact, I have about four things going on: spending time with my family, spending time with my friends, reflecting on the past year, and setting goals for the next year.
Because it’s the end of the decade, the reflecting and goal setting is turbo-charged into reflecting not only on the past year, but on the past decade, and setting goals not just for the upcoming year, but for the upcoming decade. It’s funny how much pressure I put on myself about this – it’s like all of my previous goal setting experience has maybe just been training for this very moment.
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
Bill Gates
In the past ten years I realize I’ve done a lot, both in the major-life-milestone sense, and in the personal-growth sense. In chronological and stream of thought order, here’s what I’ve done between 2010 and the present.
- Played in the NAQT national quiz bowl tournament twice.
- Taken the ACT.
- Taken (and passed) two AP tests.
- Gotten into design school.
- Graduated from high school.
- Worked at summer camp (twice.)
- Went to design school.
- Started Fifteen-Seventeen.
- Had work exhibited in Site:lab Workflow.
- Did an internship in New York.
- Moved (briefly) to California.
- Transferred to Western Michigan University.
- Worked in the Communication and Social Robotics Lab as a research assistant.
- Got into Teach For America.
- Worked at Motown Mission.
- Worked as the Editor in Chief of The Western Herald.
- Did my honors thesis on News in Virtual Reality.
- Moved Fifteen-Seventeen to SamanthaKMacy.com
- Graduated from college.
- Moved to Mississippi.
- Taught for three and a quarter years.
- Got into a fellowship for graduate school.
- Ran three half marathons, two 10k races, and a bunch of 5k races.
- Bought a house.
- Started to work as Dean of Operations at my school.
- Graduated with my Master’s in Elementary Education.
I am sometimes struck by time and how quickly it passes, and get caught up in comparing myself to arbitrary timelines and other people’s lives. When I actually write it out, I notice that I’ve done a lot, and a lot of aspects of my life (nearly every aspect of my life!) have changed since 2010.
When I think about the goals I plan to achieve in the next ten years, it’s a little bit hard to fathom. I’m happy with my life now. I definitely, of course, plan to grow, learn, and change over the next ten years, but there’s not one aspect of my life that I look at and say “That has got to change radically in the next ten years.”
I’ve also been thinking about goals, and I realize this – if I define one or two things as goals, it means that I have to be willing to sacrifice other things to get there. If I set a long list of goals (which I have done in the past) then I’m likely only going to get a few of them done. It feels like I have to strike this balance in several dimensions. I want my goals to be achievable but still challenging. I want them to cover every important area of my life, but still be measurable and specific.
That’s a lot for a handful of goals to cover.
I was journaling on this topic a few days ago, and I came up with a list of intentions – they’re more broad than goals, they aren’t as measurable, but they encapsulate the direction I want to move in the next ten years.
- Maintain relationships.
- Take care of my body.
- Have a career that I am proud of.
- Read more books.
- Save and invest to build wealth.
I definitely plan to have other goals throughout the upcoming decade, and even for 2020, but this is broader – more about the direction I want to head in overall, less about a specific “Exercise every day in Summer 2019” or “Read 50 books in 2020.”
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: Have you set goals for the next decade? For this year?