Long-term Planning & Goals

I sat down at a hookah lounge last week and as I meditate there, smoking, I reflected on what had been missing so sorely in the past few months. It hadn't truly been missed until I reflected on it, however. Ironic.

Regardless, I realized all of a sudden that I hadn't made any really long-terms goals or thoughts on how to achieve them. When I was younger, 17 or so, I had known exactly what I wanted, when I wanted it, and how I would go about getting at it. By age 20, I had achieved all of my original aims and intents, even if it hadn't been purely by the manner I envisioned them.

I lived how I (had) wanted, worked where I (had) wanted, was nearly complete with my formal educational process, and did as I desired, with convenience, comfort, and interesting, profitable prospects.

I was also completely unhappy.

Through counseling by religious leaders, friends, and family, as well as self-analysis, meditation, and reflection I realized many factors were the cause of this, not least of which being that I had achieved everything I had intended, but long-term goals as they were, they were within an immediacy I hadn't considered (3-5 years seems like such a long time when you're caught up in the romance of it all - life, youth, innocence) and not achieving them in the manner I had desired played a large part too. I resolved at that point to return my life to where I had left off, to my younger, more ideal self, even if I had been scarred, matured, experienced, or whatever terms you may want to use, in the intervening years. Foolish sounding, but it seemed a logical course of action at the time.

I made drastic changes to my lifestyle, took a vacation out of the country, visited family, and returned to my roots, though I struggled to retain a semblance of the freedom and lack of true responsibility that I had experienced previously. Over the course of a little over a year, I turned away from that arrogant brashness as well.

So there, smoking thoughtfully all the while, I considered, feeling much older (unfortunately, considering I'm short of 23 by a few months, yet) than I was, what I should be doing in my life, and how I should go about achieving it. The reason this entire thought process had entered my frame of mind in the first place was the cognitive science book I had completed the month prior, Andy Hunt's Pragmatic Thinking & Learning, which mentioned generating a roadmap to success, or using his terminology, creating a "Pragmatic Investment Plan." You list out your goals, and "SMART" (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Boxed) objectives to reach those individual goals. It makes a lot of sense: if you don't already know what it is you want to do, list it out and make a plan for it; and if you do know what it is you want to do, make action items to facilitate the process. But consider the context of people in general, and you realize that the obvious or common sense things in life tend to sometimes go over our heads and around our tunnel vision. Thinking about these things, I resolved to get my life back in order. Mind you, my life is in pretty good order, considering - I have a comfortable home, a loving family, caring friends, blessed good health, a steady job that I love, and at least a small measure of faith. However, God (or Nature, Science, Life, the Spaghetti Monster, you pick) doesn't reward those who sit idly. You have to continue to work hard and try and reduce that incredible ignorance we all somehow retain.

I made a list of 20 goals, short-, mid- and long-term, interspersed. I know some are repeats or off-shoots of the others, tying in on themselves in some fashion - but it's a start. The thing about rough drafts, or scratchy starts, is that at least it's something. In fact, in Andy's book, there's a great sidebar: "Shitty First Drafts." And I quote:

Part of being comfortable with uncertainty means being comfortable with something that's incomplete and unfinished. You want to avoid the headlong rush to try to achieve "perfection." Author Anne Lamott is an advocate of purposefully creating a shitty first draft. That is, it's better to complete a shitty first draft than to never complete a perfect one. In her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Lamott explains the dangers of perfectionism:

"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it."

I mention this because I have made an internal goal, ongoing, to always be willing to scratch the surface, even if it's a shitty first draft. I don't care what the project. I've always been an advocate of perfectionism, and therefore I've spent countless hours in the design room before writing a line of code, or willing to make an outline, etc. - time I could have spent revising and refining something that I could have worked with. I believe in the newer philosophy, the "agile" philosophy of prototyping and being flexible. Adaptability counts, and you can't adapt until you've at least initially attempted.

1. Travel: Sweden, Switzerland, Egypt, London (again), France (again), Spain, Montreal, Germany, Holland, India (again), Japan, China, Russia, Jordan, Lebanon, Dubai.
2. Own and run my own successful business.
3. Consult and teach.
4. Develop and design games.
5. Write a fiction book as well as an informative text.
6. Write a weekly column.
7. Have an immediate family and still live with my parents (I bless my culture).
8. Be famous for my knowledge and skills or my designs and products, but stay out of the "limelight."
9. Excel in my career and be a hard worker.
10. Be cultured, well-read and articulate.
11. Be in excellent physical condition and know at least one discipline of the martial arts.
12. Memorize the Quran in Arabic, and read interpretations and translations.
13. Become a good/better Muslim.
14. Network to the point that I have at least one contact per industry across all industries that are pertinent to me who is in a position to be called upon and be useful and who may find use in knowing me.
15. Be versed in many technologies and languages, verbal, programming, scripting, and otherwise.
16. Have (even more) interesting and reliable friends.
17. Be a good and dependable friend and family member.
18. Show my younger brother the right path and the virtues of working hard.
19. Be a good son, husband, father and brother. A good man.
20. Innovate and improve my community.

I need to categorize and organize these goals and break them out into specific tasks (SMART objectives, if possible) with priorities and deadlines where applicable. I need to also ensure I don't ignore my immediate concerns and reliabilities or outstanding duties. I also want to document the process and make visible my progress. That, at least, will psychologically bolster and reinforce my constitution. I don't want to take shortcuts or give in to temptations. I never want to burn any bridges. There's never any profit, in the truest sense of the term. No one stands to gain anything by it.

This blog entry is essentially a mission statement to myself. I want to be able to look back at this post, and the eventual Pragmatic Investment Plan I generate within the next few posts, and see progress. I want to be able to look back and say "Okay, I achieved these objectives and reached these goals. Where does that leave me, and how do I move forward from here?"

There's always room for improvement in any endeavor, especially self-improvement. Let's hope this, at least, drives me.

Cheers,
Ahad.