In three to five years, what do you want your life to look like? What do you want to achieve with this class/degree/training? What do you want your epitaph to say/what do you want to be able to remember on your death bed? There are countless variations of this exercise that have shown up in my life again and again.
I often listen to a wide range of podcasts and in the last few days I have again tripped over this exercise again most recently on a Jordan Peterson episode of Theo Von and before that Debbie Millman's first appearance on Tim Ferris. The stunning Last Lecture by Randy Pausch comes to mind too.
Thinking back, I can only identify one time I have really done this and it was accidental. As a kid I knew without a doubt I'd end up programming computers for a living. Full stop, that was going to be my lifes work. Looking back I wasn't even that good at it but I saw amazing possibilities. The other times I remember being faced with this was in classes, the intro questions. "What do you want out of this class?" type questions. My stock answer is brief, "An A."
If I have ever done this exercise as an adult I don't remember it. Change is the only constant in life. The last comprehensive, whole life goal list I remember setting had one thing on it and I was single digits in age. It seems everything since has been tactical. Degree or not? Kids or not? Move or not? To make a play on Doctor Pausch's, "Achieving Your Childhood Deams", maybe it's time to think about my middle age dreams.
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