When we deprioritise making good decisions & engaging in good behaviours…
When our standards slip…
When achieving victory starts to matter more than the path we take to attain it…
We start off down the path towards failure.
And if we’re not careful, that can be a journey of no return.
Our time horizon informs many things, not least of which are the things we focus on.
Short-term thinkers behave in predictable ways. Long-term thinkers do, too.
And as obvious as it might seem, the two groups create very different outcomes over time.
In certain contexts, it seems as if a short-term focus is the answer we’ve been searching for.
The strategies that allow us to win (and win big!) today are tantalising…
Because the less we care about the long-term implications of our actions, the faster we can go.
Push people to the point of breaking.
Cut corners.
Elmininate critical maintenance.
Pack your calendar with meetings, To-Do’s, and urgent work items.
Look at the return you can get today – or 6 months from now. But no further ahead than that.
Make promises without considering how you’ll deliver on them.
Avoid hard conversations in favour of continued comfort.
These approaches are like accelerating on a straight. On an infinitely long stretch without a corner demanding you check your speed, you have no reason to hold back. It’s full throttle all the way.
But life doesn’t give us an unending straight to test our speed on. It curves, loops, twists, turns, doubles back on itself, and presents us with crossroads at every turn.
In this context, with our foot pressing the pedal to the floor, our fate hangs in the balance.
That’s what short-term orientation does to us:
Blinds us to the corners heading our way.
When we fail to consider the bigger picture – to expand our focus beyond the optimal strategy for victory now, not later – we find we have plenty of options initially.
But what we might consider (unchecked potential) is a liability, not an asset.
The more narrow our view, the fewer options we take off the table…
And the more low-quality, ultimately harmful solutions we’ll keep in the mix. Ones that tempt us to accelerate full-bore, past the point of no return, even with the looming threat of a sharp corner up ahead.
But the broader our focus – the longer our time horizon – the less risk there is of these net-negative strategies slipping through the cracks.
Because when we filter choices based on the trajectory they put us on (not just what they give us in the here & now), we put ourselves in the strongest possible position to choose the best path to reaching our goals.
If all we care about is succeeding today, nothing is off-limits.
Lots of things work once.
But what things work reliably, again and again, ensuring that we can continue moving forward, long after the present moment has passed?
That’s a question worth asking – and one worth answering.
However we manage it, those are the things we want to focus on.