10 Years

10 Years

Seasons change, 
better or worse...
that's up to you.

Ten years ago, I wasn't a parent, barely a husband, not a state employee.  I was an active firefighter, search and rescue responder, and non-profit executive director.  Ten years from now, what and who will I be?  How do I learn from the old and prepare for the new?  How do I evaluate my roles through that paradigm?  What regrets will I feel more or less?  Bill Gates is quoted as saying, "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years."  It is awfully easy for us to get stuck in the "windshield" distance view of our life where we're focused on the immediate zone - day, week, month.  When we get the margin and proactivity to widen our aperture to the 10-year view and beyond...we can set ourselves up for the magic to happen.  

Shrink or 
grow...up
to you.

This isn't to say that you need to or even should try to script out a 10-year plan and lay out every detail.  It is, rather, a reminder to take a look at the longer-term and next-term seasonal big rocks that you want to prioritize.  Will this or that decision set me up better for long-term success in 10-years?  This isn't necessary for every decision...but probably critical for some of them.  Should we stay in this job or that job?  Move to this house (or city) or that one?  Should we homeschool or not?  Should we max out our Roth IRA or YOLO?  When we see our field goal post in the short term, we make different decisions than when we look at the same goal post years across time and space. 

It goes fast...soon you're a 
Grandpa...not a toddler.

These 10-year season buckets can be temporal landmarks, like we have talked about.  You've probably got two periods as a parent with kids under your roof.  What are the things that they need in their backpack to be successfully prepared for the rest of their lives?  You make different decisions about playing a ton of video games or hanging out with your friends, or whatever else, when you use the paradigm of the longer time horizon.  You've probably got six periods from early adulthood to retirement.  You've got maybe two or three chunks where you are retired.  If you're lucky in those, you've done the things to set yourself up for a happy, healthy, wealthy future.  

Humble 
beginnings is
where all 
great things
start.

When our kids came along, leaving the fire department wasn't much of a choice, and while I enjoyed it immensely while I was there, learned a lot, made a difference, etc, it was a no-brainer.  The required minimum each month was 48 hrs a month in the station on shift (as a volunteer), plus training, etc.  Those hours were discretionary time stolen from family (not from my day job work).  Do the math and round it off to 50 hours/month times 12 months equals 600 hours/year.  Do this times the 10 years old our oldest son is, and that's 6,000 hours...of family time (granted, some of those were sleeping hours at the station...but many were not).  6,000 hours in 10 years is the same time that I'd spend working full-time for nearly 3 years (2,080 FTE).  Anyhow, I'm so thankful that for years I had firefighting, I'm more thankful I used that wisdom to not be looking back now and not knowing my kids like too many of my peers in that space.

A lot can happen
in ten years...
from a pole to a 
boat.

In those same ten years since I've been gone, many other firefighters from our little group have come and gone.  Several others are divorced, estranged from their kids, etc.  Not that there is a direct equals sign, but ten years of investment in whatever you're investing is...gets results.  If I'd have stayed down there volunteering, I'd have a few more cool stories, body parts would be a little more sore, and I'd not have so many good memories or invested hours in our marriage and children.  In your life, what is your version of firefighting?  Is it every football game all fall long?  Hunting?  Bowling?  Your phone?  What has been filling your time over ten years?  The time is going to go by one way or the other...at the end of it, you'll just have something to show...to a large extent, you get to pick.  Choose wisely.  

Baby steps
add up over
time to real
capabilities.

I want to circle back to the quote at the beginning about estimating our capacity in a year vs ten and our growth.  Malcolm Gladwell talked in his book Outliers about the concept of 10,000 hours to mastery.  A thousand hours a year.  That's 83 hours a month.  That's about 3 hours a day.  Still sounds like a ton...but do you have three hours a day before/after work to pour into your kids?  How about if you do six or nine hours on Saturday and so forth...it adds up fairly quickly.  Shifting gears, think about work...are you markedly better, with new skills you've developed over the last ten years?  The answer to that is really dependent on how much you've intentionally, deliberately invested over the years.  Not every day, but more days than not.  It'd be easy to be the same old, same old person you were back then...or a much better version of yourself.  

Pretty soon...they're
getting solo.

It's with an important reminder that today is the first day in your next ten-year chapter.  What season of life will you be immersed in by then?  For us, we'll be graduating our youngest and sending him off into the world.  That's a powerful reminder and call to action that time and life are fleeting.  Anything we really want to put in our kids' rocket ship...has to be done in this next season.  If we ignore our marriage...it shouldn't be surprising that we could be in the "gray zone divorce" in ten years.  If, instead, we invest, we'll be heading into the empty-nester years with a lot to look forward to.  Invest consistently over the next ten years...we're looking at a comfortable retirement. Don't...well...working to the grave.  This longer horizon isn't about diet and exercise, missing a single cheat day, but rather winning more often than not. 

Lastly, as it were, it's Easter Sunday as we hit go on this blog post.  Think about your faith life and faith journey...in ten years, will you be closer or further away from where you want to be?  Jesus' impact on our earthly lives...and eternal...all cemented in a few 10-year periods in His time on earth.  As we look at our next ten-year zone, it's an important call to action for us to double down on prayer, church, youth group, small group, and so forth to give our family the firm foundations for lasting success.  As we say goodbye this week.  From our family to yours...Happy Easter...He is risen indeed!

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out a few parts of life that you want to make meaningful growth in over the next ten years.  Spell out what success looks like in ten years.  From there, start the actions that move you closer to those desired end states.  
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in the next 30 days that move you closer to where you say you want to be.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Outliers book by Malcom Gladwell