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What’s Your 5 Year Plan? Your 10 Year Plan?

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Have a seat, son, and let’s talk about your goals. You might be 18 or 28 or 48. Your age doesn’t matter. We need to sit down and talk, because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? What are your goals?

It all seems overwhelming, and that’s because your unconscious mind realizes something that none of these idiots talking about goals do.

Planning is for cowards.

People make plans for one reason only. They are cowards unwilling to accept that life is chaos and warfare.

They are cowards afraid of recognizing that success or failure depends not upon outside circumstances that can be “planned around.”

They are cowards unwilling to admit one undeniable and horrifying fact.

You are in control of you.

This is a horrifying realization because it means you must take personal responsibility for your life.

This is terrifying because you want an excuse to lose control of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

You want to rant and rave against the world and forces outside of your own control rather than take control over yourself.

You are afraid because once you accept that you are in control of you, then you cannot blame external circumstances or the “unfairness of life” for your station in life.

You don’t have the courage to ask, “What is living life with no excuses like?”

I was once a coward.

It’s 2014. Ten years ago I was about to graduate from law school.

Up until that time I was an all-American boy. I was an officer in the Army Reserves. I worked my way through college. I followed all of society’s rules.

I did everything right.

I planned on having a nice life. I was going to be a highly successful trial lawyer.

Then, as the cowards say, “It was all taken from me.”

I got charged with rape. I was too stressed out to study. I lost my scholarship.

I cried myself to sleep and contemplated suicide.

“This is so unfair. It’s not my fault! Why is this happening to me?”

Nothing was taken from me.

Nothing was happening to me.

I was happening to me.

I lost control of my life. That was a choice I made.

I choose to look outward at the cold, cruel world rather than inward at myself.

What was happening to me? Me.

What is happening to you? You.

Your only plan is you.

You don’t know where you will be or who you will be with.

The only person you know will be there for you is you.

Your only answer to that stupid question about your five year plan is, “Me.”

“What’s your 5 year plan, Mike?”

Me.

“That doesn’t make any sense, Mike.”

It doesn’t have to make sense to you. It’s my life and only has to make sense to me.

Invest in yourself. YOU, Inc.

The only plan that ever worked in the history of man is for you to be the best man you can be.

Being the best or the worst or settling for mediocrity is a choice you make every day, and every minute of every day.

Life has hit you hard? Join the club, buddy. There’s room to your right and your left, but it’s going to be a tight fit. We could fill 10,000 stadiums with people who have been worked over by life.

We couldn’t fill a single stadium with men who say, “Bring it on. Bring it all on.”

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more’ … Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.’ Nietzsche, The Gay Science, §341.

Start planning now.

What are you going to do today to invest in yourself?

I walked my dog. He ran some sprints and is laying by my feet as I type this. I never touched my iPhone and gave him my full attention. If I had children, I would have spent my morning playing with them. Not iPhoning it in as a dad.

I talked to my consultant at BADNET about logo design.

I chugged a nootropic and talked with my business partner in that venture about product formulations.

I worked with my new web guy. (You’ve probably noticed some changes and may have gotten a PDF from me; sorry about that typo in there.)

I watched a Jeff Walker video and got a great idea. I’m going to convert a wall into a white board that you can write on and erase.

I’m going to the gym to jump rope and hit the heavy bag.

I’ll do 100 or 1,000 small tasks that will build the road that I walk through life.

I’ll be laying bricks for another 12 hours before sleeping like a man who has done something with his Sunday.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to sit around and rant about the unfairness of the world, like some Tumblr dork?

Play some video games?

Maybe you’re getting over a hang over? “Ugh, my head hurts so much. I’ll never do that again.” (And then you take another drink.)

Jerk off to Internet porn like some filthy drug addict?

Are you going to cry yourself to sleep like some lovesick teenager?

Or are you going to make the decision to take ownership of your life?

Vigilance is a virtue you live every second of every day.

Vigilance is chief of the masculine virtues.

This post is on its 44th 58, 87th 93rd edit. You’ll still find a typo in it. The work is never done.

You don’t wake up, decide to take on life, and then watch everything fall into place.

You make hundreds or thousands of decisions every day to win or lose, to conquer or retreat, to laugh or cry.

Each of these decisions is a brick you lay. Rome was not built in a day. Nor will your life be built in one day.

Start laying some bricks.

  • I think about, what could I work on that would create the greatest amount of value? And get that one done first. I also leave a post it note of it on my desk next to my computer so I can’t ignore it.

    • FlorianUlrich

      That’s a great mentality to have. At the beginning of this year, I taught myself this very habit by using Victor Pride’s “30 Days of Discipline”. Now, I have gotten the most important things out of the way by 7 – 8 am, and the remainder following the rest of the morning. I find there is nothing better than being relaxed once the afternoon comes around.

  • FlorianUlrich

    Great article, Mike, I feel it hits a mark for myself just at an interesting time.
    I used to be upset at my JOB that I have to keep until I get my Green Card. I then realized that it’s simply useless to be in a bad mood since it won’t change anything – and instead decided that I can actually use the job to teach myself becoming efficient.
    I thought back at when I used to be really happy – back when high school ended between 1 and 3 pm. 20 years back! I finished the lessons and I had the whole rest of the day for things I really enjoyed. I had time to actually observe my environment, I never felt I had to guard my time as I feel nowadays.
    Thus, I made the decision to get at least one important task done every day, then relax. Maybe polish what I produced that day a bit and send it off to my boss by the end of the day.

    I looked at my situation and decided to get ONE THING DONE per day. That’s the plan. And I am happy.

    Right now, the things I do will bring me closer to the publication of my next research manuscript. Thereafter, I will take on my next steps towards financial independence and transitioning out of a “regular job”.

  • Chris Adams

    I did jerk off to internet porn, but also did two loads (speaking of which) of laundry, took a 45-minute walk (will probably take another one later), did my 4-mile run this morning, and just finished a 42-minute upper body workout. I’ve read a chapter in Blood Meridian and will read more at some point. But the porn . . .

    • anon1

      I’ve had Cormac macarthy on my list for ages now. Just too many damn good books. Need to get the road as well. Currently on my kindle I’ve got Ryan holiday media manipulated, rise of superman Steven kotler, art of seduction Robert Greene, launch by Jeff walker, what I talk about when I talk about running by haruki murakami, some Nicholas jack books and Nathaniel Branden’s the psychology of romantic love. All In varying stages of completion

      • Chris Adams

        I’ve also read “No Country for Old Men,” also by McCarthy, but “Meridian” is another beast, entirely. It’s a perfect marriage of poetry and prose. The man’s vocabulary is AMAZING – even with the Nook dictionary, I find myself going to Google a lot to get word meaning. There is a lot of untranslated Spanish. His habit of not using punctuation with character dialogue also raises the challenge a bit. Nor does he capitalize words or use apostrophes where you’d expect.

        This is my third or fourth go at it, and I’m going to finish this time!!

  • This site is fast becoming my favourite one on the net

  • Bill Strahan

    I’m not much of a planner, but I maintain a vision of what my life is. Sometimes I list the things that will show up. I keep those lists, but don’t review them often. But when I do I’m sometimes shocked because my subconscious was making it happen. I forget stuff on those lists until I Happen to read them and realize I’ve done that stuff.

    I recently strict pressed greater than body weight. That made the list 6 years ago, and it just happened.

    Some vision of what you all your doing should create is critical. At least make a list of things to do before you die. And don’t make that conform to anyone else’s criteria. Some of my before I die list items that have gotten a checkmark: wear my hair in a pony tail, build an airplane, learn to snowboard.

    A random choice of the unchecked: start a business that devotes all profits to charity, bench 350, live on a sailboat for a month.

    Somewhere your subconscious needs a picture of how you want this life to occur.

  • Wall white board!

    I have one in my living room, 6′ by 4′. Its glass, and instead of buying an actual one, I went to the furniture store and bought a glass table top for $200. Its frosted and has nice beveled edges, and hug it myself. I love it, I get marker all over the walls and have to touch up the walls every once in a while around the edges. Overall I think I will always have one in my home after this.

    • Danger & Play Blog

      I’d love to see a pic of that.

      • Guest

        I got them to deliver it too for a small fee. They sell nice glass whiteboards for offices, but they easily run over $2K

      • Guest

        They make glass whiteboards for offices that run well over $2K, this was about $250 with delivery.

  • bear

    Take control of your time or your time will take control of you. Guard it jealously as one would a precious jewel.

  • Speaking of white boards, I made my own 4×8 one, via a method similar to this one: http://www.white-boards.org for about $20:

    –4’x8′ White panel board from Home Depot
    –Command brand, large “picture hanging” strips (about 8)
    –Dry erase markers

    The adhesive strips were to avoid nails (renting, didn’t want to pay for room damage). The strips are used as a duo: one sticks to the wall and one sticks to your object. Stick it to the panel board first, hold each one for 30secs – 1 min. Then remove the protective backing from the “wall side” ones and press against the wall. It never fell down for the ~12 months I used it.

    P.S. Mike, check your email

  • bear

    Sunday nights are spent planning out the week ahead. Every night before going to bed I plan out the following day by breaking it into blocks of time. I do allow for flexibility due to unforseen circumstances, however by doing this I find my efficiency and productivity to be at its peak. Little to no time is wasted. When I follow this regularly I never look back at the end of the day and say to myself” where did the day go”?

  • I’m always surprised about how even the smallest things, in the worst of situations, add up…

    I had days, when I was very sick, that I could barely do anything. It took all my effort to crawl out of bed, eat some food, brush my teeth, and stretch my aching muscles. On a good day, I could surf for research articles and jot a few ideas down for a blog. Somehow, I’d piece together a blog post for the end of each month.

    Three years later, even pushing to do “just a little bit more” in that difficult time paid off. The teeth I brushed are still in my head. The muscles I stretched were not crippled and get better every day. Those posts that I struggled to put together have been read by millions of readers and form the foundation for a future career.

    I’m not perfect. I had my depressed days. But, I tried to stay focused on what I could possibly accomplish each day, rather than wallowing for too long. Even when it did not seem like much, or was way less than I would ideally like to have accomplished, I pushed myself to do what I could. In the end, it added up to something meaningful.

    Now, back to placing the next brick!

    • bear

      Very uplifting!

  • greek god

    This line of thought reminds me of a Ray Lewis video I saw a few years ago. Dudes mindframe is unstoppable and its no wonder he’s one of the best ever. Stacking Bricks. 3:30 mark is what I’m talking about.

    The tone of this message is dead on, Mike.

  • Ben

    I have never planned. I make a list each day and I do my best to finish that list each and every day. I have been doing this for the better part of 30 years. So far it has worked pretty well.

  • DN90

    (this is a slight digression from your post, but your words about the futility of plans made me think why)

    People plan with the right intentions (thinking long term), but it doesn’t work because they don’t realize that most plans are really an unknowing attempt at achieving a long term goal with a short term fix—the devising of the plan, that is. Most people spend too much time focusing on a plan of action instead of just putting in the requisite amount of work to achieve their goals. And most plans fail to account for the “chaos and warfare” of life that you mentioned, and assume that once the perfect plan is devised, everything will fall into place.

    Think of the millions of people that come up with extremely rigid “X Week” diet plans designed to get them to lose “Y Pounds” or get down to z% body fat. The plans are so restrictive, and assume no variability in someones life that may cause them to go off plan sometimes. They assume they will be able to follow the plan to a t, when that’s much easier said than done.

    I think goals are an important thing to have, as they lead to some direction in life. But, rather than approach them with plans, a person should strive to develop habits that take them in the direction.

    For instance, I have a goal of getting back below 200lbs (I’m around 220 now), fairly lean (not shredded or contest lean), and get my lifts (bench, squat, deadlift) to respectable numbers.

    I’m not coming up with well planned diet for the weight loss, I’m just going to do a Leangains style 16/8 fast, and replace one of my meals with a protein shake, and consume a PWO shake as well. I’ll limit junk food to 4-5 small treats per week. I’m going to cook meat in bulk on Sundays (extra lean ground beef) for the week, so I have something ready that I can eat with rice and broccoli. I’ll try and eat the same dinner every night, or maybe have 2 dinners to choose from. For the training, just lifting 4x a week, trying to beat last weeks numbers.

    Those are all habits I will adopt that will get me going on the right path. The fast on its own will stop me from eating unhealthy snacks throughout the day (my normal pattern), not to mention it will be hard to overeat in the 8 hour feeding window, which will include my workout, as well as part of my shift at work, and a 1.5 hour commute home. Replacing one of my meals with a protein shake while not perfect, will be an improvement for me, since it will be lunch that I replace, and my lunches at work are normally pretty bad.

    I think this will work better for me than a plan. If adjustments need to be made for life, they will be made. I’m not afraid of not having a plan to follow—I’ll take control of things and make adjustments when necessary, while holding myself accountable.

  • I like choosing financial goals, one million by 40, $3K passive income a month, etc. But I agree, if you want to get stuff done, you gotta do it. No planning and procrastinating…

  • Dragonstone

    I plan out things where I need to put resources on standby if I might need to use them (money or equipment). I’d rather not be unprepared if some planning would prevent it.
    Writing down “I’m going to run tomorrow” doesn’t seem all that helpful to me, since I already know I’m going to do that. Planning shouldn’t get in the way of doing, it should help in what you want to do.

  • Titan

    Going to disagree with you here Mike. I set plans at the start of each year. I have a life planned out in terms of my career which spans the next 15 or so years. I have a set of skills I want which gets added to or subtracted from as my knowledge increases. I have a wall whiteboard of projects and their next steps, as well as to do lists for both today and the near future.

    The plans I make are based on reality. They are smart and come from a strong mindset. They are ambitious as hell. Most importantly they are open to being adapted and they are always executed with audacity and ferocity. The plan I have for life now is different from the plan I had a year ago. But each plan and revision brings me closer to having life exactly the way I want it.

  • anon1

    Very small start but I began the alpha male posture exercises yesterday at the gym (specifically the Conan flies and dumb bell shoulder rolls) holy hell it was hard! But very noticeable, felt better, felt bigger, felt stronger. Wished I had done it earlier. Will be periodically checking in to report on how they’ve helped

  • Costello

    I often send myself emails in the future using OhLife’s time capsule service to check that the bricks are laid. I find being accountable to my past self reinforces the paths I wish to take.

  • I disagree here Mike.

    First of all, what you said in the beginning is actually correct. If you fail to plan you do plan to fail. It’s important to be flexible because life will throw chaos bombs at you, I know that only too well,but you have no chance of landing in the right harbour if you don’t even have a chart or map to begin. Also, having a logical plan HELPS during times of chaos because when your emotions are messed up you can just logically stick to the plan and get through it without derailing.

    Secondly, I’m pretty sure that while Rome was indeed built brick by brick, there were blueprints and plans for at least the bigger, more magnificent buildings. I can’t imagine they just started laying brick for the Colosseum without at least drawing it up first.

    That being said, you’re on point about we could fill stadiums with people who have been worked over and not so many who still have the fighting spirit.

  • Dave93

    This was my favourite post from the last months. :)

  • Ao393

    Golden Post!

  • Rion

    As quoted by another great man himself.

    “Lay the five bricks” Dante Nero

  • “Life has hit you hard? Join the club, buddy. There’s room to your right and your left, but it’s going to be a tight fit. We could fill 10,000 stadiums with people who have been worked over by life.”

    This is great. I had a girlfriend once who always made excuses for her friend’s lack of ambition or progress in life. “She had a bad childhood.” “She is in debt.” etc..

    How long can one use such excuses? Everyone is hit with adversity and must fight through to make gradual progress towards the life you want to build. Nothing infuriates me more than excuses.

  • Lazer

    My default state is happiness. Even on a “bad day” theres still little things to keep me going. Little habits that get you through the suck. I got a pull up bar on a door Im forced to walk several times a day. Instead of scheduling out time to do pull ups I just do them when I walk through. Usually sets of ten several times a day, with legs parallel to the ground, on top of going to the gym.

    Ive also stopped taking an MP3 player to the gym and instead switched to industrial ear plugs (31 db blocking). The focus is astounding. It makes it so much easier to control your thoughts this way as the music does not block them out. I was shaking and on the verge of puking the other day after I worked out at the tail end of an 18 hour fast using them. They are also awesome when you are working on any solitary task. All you can hear is your breathing and heartbeat.

  • Tyler W.

    Article reminded me of this from earlier this year discussing goals vs. systems. Good read.
    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230333

  • Very inspiring…….

  • Clovis Haboc III

    Great piece mike! thank you

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