Introduction
Long-term thinking is a key component of sustainable business practices. It allows you to develop strategies that will help ensure the success of your company over years, decades, and centuries. But how do you do this? How can you bring long-term thinking into the present moment? In this post I’ll outline five simple steps that will help you get started on developing your own long-term mental models:
Think in 10-year increments.
- Think in 10-year increments.
As a rule, it’s best to think in terms of 10-year increments. This is a good time frame for planning and budgeting, strategic planning and long-term planning. It also helps you avoid the temptation of thinking too short term when it comes to making decisions that have an impact on your business or career.
Plan for the unexpected.
Plan for the unexpected.
The best way to plan for the future is by thinking about what could happen in the present. The more you consider, imagine, and envision scenarios that are likely to occur in your life–and how you might handle them–the better prepared you’ll be when those situations actually do arise. For example:
- You could get stuck on a train without enough money for food or water (if this happens often enough).
- A friend may need help moving into their new apartment or house (you’re going to have friends eventually).
- Your car breaks down at night while driving home from work (it’s always good to know where your spare tire is).
Give the future something to work with.
The present moment is the only place to be. But it’s also important to prepare for unexpected challenges and opportunities, which means thinking about the future.
Long-term thinking requires you to give the future something to work with–to build on your previous actions and decisions, so they can have impact in the present moment and beyond. This means not assuming that what works now will always work; instead, commit yourself fully to each decision no matter how insignificant it may seem at first glance (or even second glance).
Focus on limiting your risks, not eliminating them entirely.
The first step to embracing risk-taking is to understand the difference between smart risks and reckless ones. A smart risk is one that you can quantify the potential benefits, but also keep track of the potential downsides. For example: “If I invest $10,000 in this new business idea and it fails, then I’ll lose some money.” A reckless risk is harder to measure because there’s no way for you (or anyone else) to know just how bad things might get if your plan doesn’t pan out as expected–and even if it does work out well for you personally, there may still be unintended consequences on society as a whole that weren’t foreseen by anyone involved in their planning process. An example would be something like “Letting terrorists go free because they might have valuable information about future attacks.”
The second step is figuring out whether or not your idea warrants further consideration before taking action; once again using our example above where someone wants us all dead because they think we’re stupid enough not realize how much better off everyone would be if they were allowed access into our homes without permission first (which isn’t true). If this person has already been convicted once before then chances are high that they’ll do something similar again soon after being released from prison so long as nothing changes during those years apart from gaining more experience at breaking laws successfully without getting caught again.”
Use the power of compound interest to your advantage.
Author’s Note: I’m going to talk about compound interest, which is a powerful and simple concept that can do wonders for your long-term thinking. Before we get into the details though, I want to make sure you know what compound interest actually is.
Compound interest is basically when you earn interest on top of your existing savings or investment balance. So if you have $100 in an account earning 5{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} per year (or 0.5{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} monthly), then after one year that $100 will have grown by $5 and be worth $105 at the end of 12 months–that’s because each month 1{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} was added on top of last month’s balance rather than just being added to your initial deposit amount ($100).
Make sacrifices now for long-term gain in the future.
One of the easiest ways to bring long-term thinking into your present moment is by making sacrifices now in order to be better off later.
For example, if you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck and can’t afford healthy food or regular exercise classes at the gym, maybe it’s time that you give up some other things like cable TV or coffee shop lattes so that those extra dollars can go towards groceries instead. Or maybe there’s an expensive habit on your credit card bill that needs to go away–like buying new clothes every month because “you deserve it.” Instead of getting rid of everything else in your life so that one thing doesn’t seem so bad anymore (and then starting over), try cutting back slowly but surely over time until eventually there won’t even be enough left over financially each month for those luxuries anyway!
The key here is knowing what sacrifices are worth making versus those which aren’t necessary; only then will we truly understand how far our actions affect others around us as well as ourselves
Long-term thinking is a key component of sustainable business practices
Long-term thinking can help you plan for the future.
Long-term thinking is a key component of sustainable business practices, but it also has many other applications in your everyday life. For example, if you want to buy a house or start a family but don’t have the money right now, long-term thinking could help you save up for these goals over time by putting aside some money every month until they are achieved. This process is known as compound interest–and it’s one of the most powerful tools at our disposal when it comes to achieving our goals!
Long-term thinking can also help avoid risk: if something seems too good (or bad) to be true now, chances are that it won’t be later on down the road either. In fact, many people who fall victim to scams end up regretting their decision because they were blinded by short-term gains rather than looking at things from an objective perspective
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you a better understanding of long-term thinking, how it can benefit your business and why it’s so important. As we mentioned earlier, the key is to incorporate long-term thinking into every aspect of your business–from planning out your goals and strategies to making daily decisions about what projects or initiatives will move them forward. By doing so, you’re not only ensuring that your company remains sustainable over time; but also improving its chances at success in today’s rapidly changing world where short-termism reigns supreme!
