Think long-term

Think long term

This is an extract from Rajesh Setty, RS is an entrepreneur, author and teacher. Setty serves as the chairman of CIGNEX Technologies, Inc, a company he co-founded in 2000.

If we ask a kid, “What are you doing?” the response you will get is something like “playing”, “reading”, “watching TV”, etc. The time horizon for kids is very short. If we ask “What do you do in school?” again the response will be about what they will do on that particular day in theschool.
When we grow up, unfortunately (for most of us) the time horizons don’t extend very far.When we ask, “What do you do?” to someone, most often the response will be related to their job and their role in the company. Very rarely, will you hear a passionate answer about how someone is going to change the world. Very rarely will you hear an answer that will cover the time horizon of a lifetime.

I continue to believe that we are becoming a world of “short-term thinkers.” My good friend Vallal told me a few months ago that “we overestimate what we can achieve in a day and we underestimate what we can achieve in a year.” This is so true. Take a look at some of your daily “to-do” lists. Very rarely will you check off everything you planned to do that day. Now,take a look at your annual plan (if you don’t have one, please create one right away) and see if that’s the best you can do in a year. You will be amazed at what all you can pack in a year with some discipline and commitment.
We can distinguish ourselves just by refusing to give in to the temptation of “short-term
results.” Next time, when someone asks “What do you do?” think of your lifetime as the time horizon and try to answer the question. Again, if you have not thought this through, please don’t try to answer this question in the next few minutes (short-term) as it may take a while to figure this out (long-term)

I am going out on a raft run to rishikesh ... to figure out my long term goal ...

ravi on the raft ...... | zice holidays !