ten-year goals

Since my birthday that ends in a zero occurs a few months before the new decade^* this provides me a double opportunity to review my last ten years and consider what I want to do with my next ten years. When I consider the last ten years, I am confronted by a lot of competing thoughts about how long and short the time has been. Ten years is a lot of time for things to happen, but it is also a short enough time to procrastinate on a lot of things that I thought I would have accomplished.

It certainly helps in my view of the last decade that about half was without kids and just under half comprises the time after we found out that we would have NJ. Life without kids is so much different from life with kids that I almost think of the past ten years as two separate decades. I am sure I am not the only person who has ever had that observation, though.

Ten years ago I was just completing college and did not really know what to expect from the ten years I had ahead of me. If I had to guess ten years ago what my next decade would include, I would have probably been selfish with my expectations. Few people want to talk about the responsibilities that they will take on more than the benefits for those responsibilities.

Interestingly, I am not much clearer on what my next ten years holds now than I was ten years ago. I know there are certain things that I would like to happen in the next ten years, but I always have a bit of trepidation about focusing too much on those. Sometimes those things that I would like to happen are just not possible or ideal and I don't want to be stuck ten years from now measuring the past decade by a standard that turned out to be unrealistic.

With all of that being said, I do have some generic goals for the coming decade. The problem is that they are not the types of goals that are easy to list. Very little is specific and measurable, some of it is private, and a lot of it is selfish. As an example of a selfish one, a goal of mine is to make more time to read and play video games. Some people would think playing more video games is a horrendous goal, but as someone who is highly strung and has had other priorities in the recent past I think the end result of doing this would be that I would be an easier person to deal with. It also represents a way for me to connect with NJ (I do have goals about connecting more with Golden and CD as well). Another goal is to, at some point, take the family to Florida to either Disney, or MGM, or Epcot, or something of that nature. If the finances for that do not work out, though, it may be better that that does not happen.

Something that I try to keep in mind with my goals is that something is only a worthwhile goal if I am willing to make a sacrifice to complete it. Graduating from a degree program qualifies as a goal because doing so requires a time and money sacrifice. Playing more video games only qualifies as a goal if I am giving up something else that I like in order to reach that goal.

Does anyone else have goals for the upcoming decade that are either the same as what has happened over the past decade or are a complete departure? I would love to hear about them.

* I understand that 2011 actually starts the decade, but does anyone really think in those terms? It is just a technicality based on the fact that there was no year zero.