Amanda Setili shares a few practices designed to help you excel at both long-term and short-term thinking.
Every one of us knows well the constant tug-of-war between long and short-term thinking. You want to lose weight, but you also deeply desire that double chocolate cake. You want to put a new roof on your house, but you also have your heart set on a restorative summer vacation.
Long-term big thinking is the foundation of all major accomplishments. From the interstate highway system to the automobile manufacturing plants that populated it, such accomplishments are the result of decision makers’ choice to invest—sometimes painfully–now to create impact across many decades. But they also are the result of countless individuals working one day at a time.
So—as you already know—the trick is to excel at both short as well as long-term thinking, each in its place. But that is harder to do than it sounds. Here are a few practices I’ve found helpful:
Key points include:
- Incent short-term behaviors that have long-term benefits
- Work on both fronts at once
- Progress of all sizes
Read the full article, Navigating the Constant Tension Between Long and Short-Term Thinking, on LinkedIn.