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A quick Google search of "short-term thinking" vs "long-term thinking" yields a lot of results related to business and economics and not many regarding personal development, which kind of sucks. I think about long-term thinking all the time, mostly because I notice that 1) very few people these days seem to engage in it and 2) most of the problems I see in my practice stem from a lack of it.
I think most of us default to short-term thinking, not only because our American culture supports it, but because it is filled with such easy promise, such as: "eat this cabbage soup and lose 20 pounds in 20 days" (what they neglect to tell you is you'll gain 30 more on top of the original 20 in the subsequent 30 days). Who wouldn't want to lose 20 pounds in 20 days? Well, people who know it's just a set-up to failure, who know to take the long-term view when it comes to managing life.
Short-term thinking seems easier, because, well, to be snarky, in the short-term, it is. In the business world nowadays, public companies have to focus on pleasing their shareholders by putting all of their beliefs and resources into the next quarter's earnings. Who has time or energy to think about things like long-term impact or sustainable growth? As a result, departments such as research & development and marketing tend to get ignored, which will inevitably lead to long-term losses down the road. The same line of thinking can apply to bad habits like smoking. Who wants to think about (the near-certainty of) getting emphysema or lung cancer 'one day' when you can just focus on enjoying the next cigarette. Yes, the nicotine buzz feels good, but down the road, the picture won't be so rosy.
Short-term thinking is seductive. It's common to behave like Veruca Salt in the humorous and astute film, Willy Wonka, and scream "I want it now". The things that we are now able to get instantly, like text messages from 6,000 miles away, are fun, so it's logical to then expect to get great things and great results in other areas, without putting in a lot of time or effort.
I chose to take this on as a blog topic because one of my main "whys" in the world is to help teach people how to adapt to rapid change. Being adaptable is key. As I've written before, things are changing how we work and live and we have several choices in how to deal with this, namely: 1) to do what worked in the past because it worked in the past (in spite of evidence of it not working now) 2) refusal to change because we "don't like" what is happening or think it's "not fair" or 3) accept that things don't work the way they used to and then figure out new and better ways of doing things. (I like number 3!)
Some of the problems I commonly see in my practice are: stress, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, depression. These are all problems that may start from any number of factors (shaky economy, dealing difficult people, bad environment) but grow as a result of short-term thinking. We do not get depressed from time to invest in our personal relationships, get physical activity every day and get enough sleep.
Depression is a cumulative by-product of continually engaging in a slew of bad habits: staying in abusive relationships, "putting on a happy face" to get through the day, taking care of everyone else except yourself, not eating right, not sleeping enough, being sedentary, just to name a few.
Think of a time when you had to put almost everything in your life on hold in order to get something done. For example, lets just say it was a project at work such as opening a store. You probably did not sleep much, ate a lot of fast food, skipped exercise and neglected your friendships in order to get the job done. Sometimes you will have to do that (and hopefully you'll take a nice rest afterward). But I find, more and more, is that people live like this on a continual basis. Instead of being a very temporary situation, it's the default mode.
How do you know if you are succumbing to short-term thinking on a regular basis? Have you ever said to yourself, "I don't have time to exercise?" or "I'll sleep when I'm dead" or "there aren't enough hours in the day to do what I need to do and eat right." Well, if you have, (and who hasn't?) you've succumbed to short-term thinking. We all do it sometimes. Just ask yourself: where, when and how often are you engaging in short-term thinking?
Taking the long-term view requires a great deal of planning and setting priorities, what Stephen Covey calls tending to the things that are "important but not urgent". If you are in good physical fitness right now, it's because you made a choice to get off your butt and move everyday and, now you're reaping the benefits of your good choices. If you make a point to get the right amount of sleep each night, you're probably rarely tired.
"But it takes too long" is a common response to the suggestion that one make long-term changes in order to have better results down the road. I take an exception to this complaint because it's not so much the time that people are complaining about, it's the effort, which is harder to admit. Results take time (which varies), but they always take effort, and this, I feel is what we resist so much.
"Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort and stamina." - Hugh McLeod, in his book Ignore Everybody: And 39 other keys to creativity.
I find I get kind of curmudgeonly on this subject because everywhere I go I see the outcomes of short-term thinking and these outcomes are almost always negative. We see it in our politics, our economy, our schools, our infrastructure, businesses, our physical and mental health. It is frustrating to see someone complain about poor health, poor relationships or business when they refuse to see the role their short-term thinking played in creating these conditions. On the other hand, it is incredibly cool to help someone out who recognizes that they either made crappy choices or had bad stuff happen to them (stuff that was not their fault), but know its up to them to make the needed changes to get different results. We all make crappy choices sometimes, and yeah, bad stuff happens.
To quote Seth Godin, as I tend to do, "eating ice cream is easy, making stuff that matters is hard." It's time to put down the ice cream.
Jackie Dotson is a psychotherapist, blogger and the founder of Jackie Dotson, LCSW in Sacramento, CA, as well as the co-host of The Powder Keg of Awesome Podcast.
Engage with Jackie on Twitter: @jackiedotson or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Jackie.Dotson.LCSW.
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