A close friend of mine once shared a quote that stopped me in my tracks:

At the time, it was one of the most profound things I’d heard, and years later, it is still a very accurate assessment.

Think about it.

Look back on the goals you set for this past year.   Think about your countless new year resolutions.  How many did you actually accomplish? Probably not all of them. Now zoom out. Think about your bigger dreams and aspirations.  The ones you thought would take you a decade or more to reach. Chances are, you’ve already knocked a few of them out of the park.  I often reminisce with close counterparts about what our goals were a decade ago and how we achieved them before the 10 years had passed. Were even more taken aback when we realize, looking back, that it was actually laughable that those were the 10 year goals.  

Now we have even loftier goals, and want to achieve them in an even shorter amount of time. I’m willing to bet that in another decade we’d have the same end result.  Surpassing said goals will take longer than we want, like, or expected, but when we zoom out from a macro point of view, we would have surpassed those goals and then some. 

This isn’t just a personal reflection.  It’s a universal principle.

Most of us drastically overestimate what we can do in the short term. We jam-pack our schedules, obsess over daily to-do lists, and sprint toward lofty goals like there’s a timer counting down in the background.

When we inevitably fall short, the disappointment can hit hard. Some people even quit altogether.

The real game that this should teach us is that, if we kept the same goal and just stretched the timeline, we’d be in a much better place.

Actually, scratch that.
What if we removed the timeline altogether?

What if we stopped obsessing over when it happens and instead focused on how we’re showing up each day? Validation should come from the process, not the outcome. From the habits, not the highlights.

At OGM, we’re all about balance, and this is one of the most powerful examples of that in action.

Work every day like your dream is due tomorrow. Like the goal has a hard deadline, and you’re racing toward it with purpose and precision.  However, while you’re doing this, don’t tie your worth or your motivation to whether or not you hit it on time.

The balance here is the ability to combine having urgency in the day-to-day with long-term patience.  With this you become unstoppable.

You may not hit that goal this year. Maybe not even next, but if you keep that same energy, that same hunger, over the course of a decade? Odds are, you won’t just hit the goal, you’ll blow past it. To heights that currently aren’t in your realm of possibilities.

Work like you need to achieve it this year,
But play the game like you’ve got a decade to win.

That’s how OG Millennials move.  With purpose in the now, and faith in the future.