Plans Change. Plan Anyway.

Monday, January 5th was my first day in the office in 2015. I must have been feeling pensive, because I sat down at my computer and drafted a twenty (ish) year goal document. I was sixteen months away from turning forty and I decided to think about what life might look like for me in the year 2036 when I will turn 60. I printed the document and stuck it up on my office “wall of inspiration.”

Here I sit 2,328 days later staring up at those goals. When I think of all that has happened in my personal life, my business, and the world since I drafted that document, it is hard to believe that any of it is still relevant.

In retrospect the goals are not big enough. That is not to say that they are not lofty in their own regard. Selling the agency and retiring at sixty sure sounds nice, but have you seen the cost of college tuition? It looks like I will be drafting brand strategy documents well beyond that. And I am lucky enough to be able to do it alongside a great team who I know will have my back well into old age.

It feels privileged to call the goals small. Yet they lack ambition in that they represent the things I want, not the person I want to be. They are achievement-based metrics that reflect what the world and society has told me to desire. Some measure of career and financial success. A happy marriage. A foothold for the next generation. If pressed, many of my friends would come up with similar themes. As my father would say, it does not take a Philadelphia psychologist to realize these are ego driven.

In a previous post, I wrote about the changing sign at the Harvester Baptist Church and how it has inspired me. I am culturally Jewish (very). I am spiritually Jewish (in the ilk of Jewish overnight camp singalongs). I do not know the bible beyond the classic Sunday School stories. The Harvester sign piqued my curiosity, and I did what any modern guy would do. I signed up for a “Bible Verse of the Day” email.

On August 26, 2020 I was introduced to Micah 6:8. I know this because I was so intrigued, I took a screenshot and saved it on my phone. I have learned that it is a relatively popular verse. I am drawn to specific direction and expectations in life. In just a few lines, the verse outlines what G-d wants of us.

The verse is a tight construct. You can take religion and G-d out of it and still find tremendous meaning. It is what each of us owes the universe and each other. I summarize it in my head as:

1.   Live justly

2.   Love mercy

3.   Walk humbly

I have thought about these three seemingly simple actions since I first read them. But here is the thing. They are far from simple. I have come to learn that consistently achieving them is the ultimate goal.

Just before drifting off each night, I tend to come back to Micah 6:8. I try to reflect objectively on my actions of the day. Often, I come up with some (hopefully insignificant) action that does not quite measure up. But I remind myself that a goal is meant to be audacious. And in the words of Meat Loaf (a local fixture in the Stamford of my youth), two out of three ain’t bad.