Try This Now: Set a 100-Year Goal
The freshness of a new year inspires many of us to contemplate the future and the person that we will become. Perhaps you’re like me in my yearning for quiet reflective time during the last week of December, when I capture lessons learned and set a course for the next year. What new habits, new achievements, and new identity do I want to have?
During these periods, I’ve tried setting a New Year’s Resolution, declaring a word or intent for the year, focusing on my ONE THING, creating complex plans and sets of new habits, and going through a variety of journaling processes.
With one notable exception, they’ve all resulted in forgettable outcomes.
This year, I’m doing something different. It’s been a few years in the making, but this is THE one: the year I go bold on my 100-year goal.
What’s a 100-Year Goal?
I first read about the concept of the 100-year goal in Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge several years ago, and it intrigued me. It has been said that most people overestimate what they can do in a year, and underestimate what they can do in ten.
Imagine what can change in 100 years.
Here’s a key to the differentiation of a 100-year goal, and to its power: you likely won’t be around in 100 years to help it across the finish line. All you can do in this lifetime is contribute steadily towards it, like compounding interest. You’ve got to set the goal, decide on a couple of initial strategies, and then take action.
Benefits of Thinking Bigger
In contrast with other personal change modalities like setting intentions, resolutions, and habits, the 100-year goal offers all of the following benefits:
1. Because it is so big and so long-term, there is a necessarily more general path to getting there, which means you will be open to seeing unconventional opportunities for action and change. With so much undefined, I find a sense of wonder and freedom in the process, rather than the restriction I feel on a predetermined path that defines success binarily. The fluidity energizes me and is a source of positive reinforcement.
2. You are creating something big, which will outlast you. It’s not just about changing you, it’s about recreating the world in a sustainable way, and you’ll be causing a ripple effect as you do it. “Creating” is always more interesting and evokes my innovative spirit far more than “changing” does.
3. It has the potential to align your life’s efforts, to be your North Star in personal and business matters, which may be the key to experiencing LifeWork Harmony, a phrase coined by friend and colleague Aaron Dimmock. For me, it has helped me choose the next path in my business (see Project Arete here), and it guides me in my relationships.
4. It is SO. DANG. MOTIVATING. It’s a bright light that never goes out. On the darkest days, I can still feel the sun on my face. On the best days, it’s like jet fuel for both creativity and productivity.
Will you establish new habits, systems, and processes? Yes! Will you define smaller, interim goals or milestones? Yes! Will you go through an evolution in identity? Probably! But each change will likely feel less like forced discipline and more like a “can’t not do.”
It Doesn’t Require Discipline
There was one year when my decision on New Year’s Day had a memorable outcome. In 2017, I decided that I was going to start writing the draft of my book on Jan 10th, and that I would finish it in 30 days. And I did. Afterward, people praised my discipline, and it confused me. Discipline? Though I woke up each morning between 5 and 5:30 am, fit in writing wherever I could during the day, and wrote in the evening, it did not feel like discipline. I simply couldn’t not do it. The urge in me was THAT strong.
I love the 100-year goal for the same reason: it provides consistent motivation to act in ways that I might otherwise not because they are uncomfortable, require me to change habits, or risk failure.
Whether it is the 100-year goal, or something else, I encourage you to find the thing that fills you with wonder and freedom, evokes creativity, aligns both personal and professional aspects of your life, and keeps you motivated no matter what.