Life is a moving target.
人生は常に変わるもの。
The end of a year or the start of a new year doesn’t make me excited or sentimental. I used to – at every year-end, I was very keen to look back on what I did during the year and set ambitious goals for the next year. But I stopped doing that a few years ago.
Now my life is based upon a long-term vision and short-term experiments, not annual goals. I visualize what things (including myself) would be five years from now, then do experiments to see what works better for getting closer to the vision. Each experiment is no longer than 2 months; it’s usually around 2-3 weeks. When something works during the experiment, I keep doing it — but if nothings works, I stop doing it and move on to the next experiment.
Things change quickly nowadays. If we stick to setting annual goals, we might be left far behind. But we definitely need to have a vision — a compass that will lead us to where we want to be in five, ten, or twenty years.
We don’t have to wait for a new year to make changes happen. With a long-term vision and a series of short-term experiments, we can change ourselves at any time during the year. Just start now — no matter what day it is today.