KnowHow founder Bushy Martin writes: It is that time of year when everyone is setting goals, resolutions and plans. But the reality is, for most people, they won’t stick. Why?
Why don’t we take the required action now and set up a long term plan that will significantly improve our lives in the future?
It comes down to short term thinking. Our instant everything world has become totally dominated by short termism.
At its simplest, short termism is being locked into a cycle where the here and now eclipses our ability to think or plan for the long term.
The Behavioural Scientist Ivo Vlaev defines short termism in psychology as our tendency to overvalue immediate rewards and undervalue long term intentions.
For example, retirement just looks so far away in the future so we tend to discount it, ignore it and put off doing anything about investing in the future for a later date – a date that rarely if ever happens.
So how do we shift our thinking from short term to long term? How do we develop the patience and persistence to make decisions and take actions now that focus on our future self not our present self – to shift from the immediate to the infinite?
Here’s a few tips to bring about the change:
- Readiness. Become aware of the problem and position ourselves to shift.
- Importance. We need to value and prioritise our future selves.
- Self-efficacy. We need to believe that we can make these required changes.
I explain much more on this at the beginning of Get Invested episode 135, tune in here.
What will you do to kick off 2022 with your future self in mind? Leave a comment and let me know.
Want to put a plan in place that will enable you to leave the rat race and live by design? Let’s talk.
