the new years planning process

so it is well documented that i am a nerd. and nerds like to plan (sure it's a gross over-generalization, but the less we talk about the anatomy of a nerd, the better it is for all of us i think).

so as a planner, every new years eve (or more accurately the week between christmas and new years) i spend time developing a set of goals for the coming year and how that fits into a rolling three, five and ten year plan. the whole concept is built upon my dad's process which review the past year and looks forward to the new year.

the question i get often is, "do you feel you lose flexibility and spontaneity by planning so much and so far in advance?" i would say no. i never treat plans as static things. just a suggested guideline to how i think i'd like things to play out, but inevitably there are a million things that are not foreseen and opportunities that arise that should be capitalized. but i feel that approaching life without a gameplan is just as naive as overplanning.

for example this year, a goal is to travel at least 6 weeks out of the year to places i have let to visit. not very specific because i know that my preferences will change and more importantly, the currency exchange rates.

the other question i get a lot is, "what the point of having a ten year plan if you don't think you'll actually achieve it?" i think that's a fair point, i don't really put much faith in the details of any the ten year plan, but its more about a directional goal. do you want to be retired by 50? well that's 20+ years away, what does that mean you need to accomplish by year 10, how do you get there from year 5, and etc. while it's not really my goal, it gives you the idea i'm trying to employ. i've always felt it makes large and complicated goals easier to attain.

if it makes it easier - sometimes i explain it in finance terms and looking at it from the point of view of a DCF. what is the growth rate required for an exit at time n, what does that mean for strategy and prioritization at time n-5, etc. if you're not a finance person and this makes no sense, be glad your brain is not as scrambled as mine.

so yeah, that's my nerdy approach to counterbalance my desperately unrehearsed preparedness for life.