How to Manage Short-Term Desires and Long-Range Goals (Part 2)

What do you want today versus what you want five years from now? That's a familiar and crucial question in anyone's life. Short-term desires tend to dominate what happens at work throughout the day, because life is immediate--it's always happening right now. Long-range goals are different, not because they lie far ahead in the future but because what you do right now isn't the same as fulfilling a short-term desire.

The chief obstacle to consciously building a future for yourself is having to focus on the torrent of small things that will fill your mind unless you free yourself. The future unfolds one day at a time, so unless you make time for the future before it arrives, a year from now you will be doing basically the same as what you're doing today.

Making time for the future comes down to five steps. Let me repeat them since they lay the groundwork for fulfilling long-range goals.

Write down a single vision, project, or mission.

1. Set time aside to work on it every day.
2. Work consists of doing research, making connections, investigating your target audience or market, learning from projects similar to yours, challenging your assumptions, writing a proposal, seeking a mentor, partner, or confidant to bounce your ideas off, and raising capital if needed.
3. Set interim deadlines that you can reasonably meet every month.
4. Be adaptable about changing your project as it unfolds.

As you see, some real commitment is involved. It's important therefore to think about what your vision or mission should be. Let me propose an idea that runs counter to a certain school of thought. That school focuses on the pursuit of excellence, climbing from "good to great," or adopting the habits of highly successful achievers. In other words, you are urged to concentrate on external goals and the means to achieve them.

In my experience teaching high achievers in business school courses, the one thing they point to as the cause of their achievement is luck. They look back and realize that they were in the right place at the right time. A vision that can only succeed on the basis of luck only works for the tiniest sliver of the work force. Behind every CEO who makes the cover of Fortune magazine there is a trail of frustration littered with everyone who didn't make it to the top. Luck is the exact opposite of consciousness.

The most fulfilled people in any profession, regardless of who climbs to the top, are those who followed an inner vision. They consciously shaped their futures from the inside, which is the only place you have any real control. A large percentage of these people had highly successful careers, but that was secondary. First and foremost came the freedom to write their own scenario. The externals of your life fall in line with your internal values and the atmosphere you create around yourself.

So when you sit down to write your long-range vision or mission, consider these criteria.

1. I will be satisfied with the work at every stage.

2. I will benefit everyone around me.

3. The effect on my family will be positive.

4. I will feel creative.

5. I will take pride in my accomplishment.

6. I will be smarter, better, and wiser the more I pursue my vision.

7. I will head into the unknown, a place I want to discover and explore.

Every vision brings setbacks and frustrations; there is inherent stress whenever you step out to accomplish something no one else has tried before. No amount of self-discipline can control the stress. Only if you are centered, self-confident, and secure in the values you are sacrificing for will the journey become conscious.

In the current environment, inner visions are celebrated only after someone has struggled to reach the top. Along the way, there is more competition than collaboration, and if you don't enter the dog-eat-dog fray, people will call you weak. We live in the midst of huge abundance. Ruthless, soul-killing tactics are rewarded, but so is moving upward through consciousness. Sit down with yourself, your family, your closest confidants, and work through the seven criteria I've outlined. They will serve you well if you truly dedicate yourself to inner fulfillment ahead of material rewards.

Read part 1 of how to manage short-term desires with long-range goals here.

Deepak Chopra, MD is the author of more than 80 books with twenty-two New York Times bestsellers. Coming soon The 13th Disciple: A Spiritual Adventure.