Forget the Medium Term, it's a Complete Distraction
Begin to play the long game and you will start to think differently. The medium term is where dreams go to die. Here's why.
In Never Stop Learning this week I will be covering the following 1-2-3:
One Big Thing - forgetting the distraction of medium term thinking
Two Recommendations - two resources to get you thinking about your long term plan
My Top 3 articles of the week
Enjoy.
One Big Thing: Forget the Medium Term
“In life, there’s only the action you take today and the vision you’re aiming for. Everything else in the middle is a distraction.”
Have you ever felt as though you’re just going through the motions. Moving through a day ticking off actions but when you step back you’re not sure exactly what you’re aiming for?
Let’s look at action as a starting point.
We can only take action right now. Not tomorrow or next week or in a few months time.
Action can only happen in the moment. Now.
On the other end of the scale you have the long term
This is your vision for where you want to go, what you want to achieve in your life or business or whatever. This is the thing that gets you up each morning and drives you to complete various actions throughout the day.
Without the vision, you’re simply doing a few random tasks and hoping it gets you somewhere.
So that leads us to the grey area in between - the medium term
So what is the medium term then? Any why is it so dangerous?
Many of our political systems work in the medium term. In the UK we work on a 5 year electoral cycle. In the UK railway, where I work, there are a few medium term horizons.
Funding for the railway is set out in a 5 year plan called a control period.
Government Spending reviews tend to take place every 3-4 years depending on other factors.
Train Company franchises tended to be 7 years.
All these overlapping timeframes for funding, plans and strategies show you how difficult it is to plan at this level.
The railway doesn’t have is a 30 year plan.
What’s the role of the railway?
How will it interact with other modes of travel?
How will it innovate?
All massive questions that can only really be answered when we zoom out and see rail for where it sits in time and place.
Take this one:
How can you build a new train fleet that will be in place for 40+ years when everyone is only thinking a maximum of 5 years ahead?
Where this leads us
Without the long term vision there is no framework to make these long term decisions. No principles to judge whether the daily decisions being made are taking us closer or further away from that 30 year vision.
And it’s even worse than that.
Without the long term vision you leave yourself open to political decisions that tend to focus on short term fixes that don’t address the underlying issues to help build a better future.
I may have used the railway as my example here but this applies to anything we do in life
Take this newsletter and how thinking medium term vs long term can make a big difference. Let’s look at some examples of medium term thinking.
Medium Term Thinking - by Christmas I will aim for 1,000 subscribers
In this scenario I would be thinking about how I can increase reach, maybe seek out paid acquisition and maybe even be tempted by click baity sensational rubbish (its ok, I’m not tempted).
Long Term Thinking - build a newsletter that will grow and be here in 30 years
This is now a completely different proposition. We are immediately driven towards different behaviour:
Posting schedules would be sustainable - I don’t want to burn out in 6 months time.
I might be more inclined to be innovative - after all, we’re here for the long game here. Why not experiment…we can always recover.
Instead of vanity metrics we would focus on relationships. Who’s going to come with you on the journey? Who’s going to be rooting for you in 5 or 10 years? Maybe you will find a cohort who you can grow alongside.
Thinking long term can give you the space think
Instead of focusing on the next post or the growth charts, you can focus on content and on growing your knowledge. On being consistent. On iterating and keeping it fresh for you and for your readers.
Notice that I haven’t said Short Term vs Long Term
There is a reason for this and it comes back to the point I made at the start.
Action is needed in the present to make it happen.
The inherent danger of thinking long term is procrastination. The danger is feeling as though the vision is so big and unattainable that you cant see how you will do it. So you don’t. “It will be ok, I’ll start tomorrow”
But tomorrow never comes because you can only take action today.
Having the vision in mind and breaking that vision down into short term actionable steps will ensure you move towards where you want to be. You can adjust your course as you go. Long term plans will need that, but the purpose doesn’t change.
So let me show you what this means in action
I’m offering you 60 days free upgrade on your subscription to Never Stop Learning.
Why? Because this newsletter is around for the long term and I want you to see that value over a longer period of time before committing.
So, no obligations, here it is:
If you don’t feel you’re getting value you can cancel any time.
And if you’re already a Paid Subscriber, please drop me a message if you’d also like to take advantage of this.
Let’s see where this goes in the next 30 years. It’s going to be quite a ride.
Two Recommendations - what to consume this week
1. 3 Ways to Plan for the (very) Long Term - Ari Wallach
Some brilliant examples of where short termism can affect how we think and how to start thinking more for the long term. Move beyond reacting to that tweet or the latest news story. Start planning for a better future and see that as your aiming point for your actions today.
2. Long term and short term planning animated
I enjoyed this one. I like a diagram. This video gives you some great ways to visualise where you might want to take your plan and how to think in the right way.
Top 3 articles of the week
Finding great articles on Substack can be difficult. Fear not, I have been digging deep into the discovery areas of the platform so you don’t have to.
Here are my top three posts to read this week:
The challenge faced by content creators by
ofHow my breaks enrich my work by Jack Watson of
Take Control of Your Time: A Beginner's Guide to Time Blocking...#24 by
ofSubstack Recommendations
A big part of this newsletter is the community we are building. Never Stop Learning recommends these Substacks that I suggest you check out.
Last week’s post
In case you missed it:
Imposter Syndrome can be a Good Thing
In Never Stop Learning this week I will be covering the following 1-2-3: One Big Thing - learning to cope with Imposter Syndrome Two Recommendations A great podcast covering ways to combat anxiety An inspirational video on a better way to live your life
If you liked this post, please click the ♥️ below.
Thank you for reading and see you next week.
This is spot on. I actually just made a long-term decision today for my newsletter. I'm going to go down to one post per week instead of two. I think it will be more sustainable and hopefully a better read.
Thanks for the shoutout Martin. Much appreciated.🙏