My birthday is coming up and it reminds me of something I did when I turned 40.
I called it my “10 by 10.”
It was my desire to do “10 great things in the next years.”
To this point in my life, I was not the planning type.
Sure, I had goals.
But I spent the first four decades of my life reacting. Challenges, problems and opportunities would come my way and I would simply react.
The “10 by 10” was the first time I was truly proactive.
The first time I said, “I want to achieve these things in the next 10 years.”
My list was a combination of career, family and personal things.
Stuff like…
I want to win a major piece of global business.
I want to take my family on an epic vacation.
I want to raise a puppy.
The specifics of my 10 by 10 are not important.
What is important is the power of this kind of thinking — this kind of plan.
The 10 by 10 gave me a sense of purpose. On those days when I wasn’t sure what to do I had this plan running in the back of my mind that was saying, “Oh, you have stuff to do.”
The 10 by 10 gave me meaning. These goals, and this time limit, suddenly changed my life from just a string of days to something bigger. Something intentional. Something architected. Something unrandom.
So I offer this framework up to you: The 10 by 10. Wherever you are in your life.
What are 10 things you want to make happen over the next 10 years?
And mind you, the number is irrelevant.
You want to do a 5 by 5 or a 3 by 3, have at it.
The point is, you don’t always have to react to life.
Maybe today you can be proactive and you can start to make what you want to have happen, happen.