How far ahead do you look out to?

You always come up with such good things to think about! I have to be the bad guy and tell you that this is a by-product of life. No matter how hard we try to be in control and structure our lives, we just cannot do it. We can to some extent but if you really think about how many variables are involved with one event in life you will ultimately raise your hands and surrender. Life is a rollercoaster that is sometimes on a straight path but will inevitably turn very fast. I think you have to prepare yourself for these times more than setting goals for accomplishments. What's important is that you are living and learning and it really doesn't matter when you accomplish things or if you did or didn't do something. Just that you are here and you are trying everyday to be your best. Isn't that what we tell our kids? We should listen to ourselves sometimes, huh? :)

I never had a set plan , well not in the way you had. When I was 7 I decided that I never wanted kids. When I was about 15 I didn't see the point of college for me. By 18 I thought life was over because I didn't have a plan so I thought of ending it. I didn't but I never ever planned anything beyond a month or two. I still don't know what career i am suppose to be into but I have made a few great dreams come true.I got to play some beautiful piece of music with my friends. I got to visit new Orleans, pre Katrina. and I got to see Chicago the musical both on stage And in film! So even though I didn't have a plan, someone did for me.

Well being nearer to 40 than 30 I have learned like you that those enthusiastic goals set in my younger days have not always happened and maybe are unlikely too now. I still have goals for the future but they don't expand any further than 5 years a head and are ones which I have more control of than those wishful ones I had in my youth. That to me is key, you can have wishful dreams but when setting long term goals they should be ones which you have some control of and a realsitic possibility of achieving.

Well - It depends on what I'm planning. Say, if my car loan is for 6 years, I try and find a way to pay it off in 5 (YEAH!) I didn't want a child before I got married, and ended up with one, so that didn't happen. I figured married by 30, and I got married at 25, so right on track :) In 10 years i want to remodel one 1/2 of my home and make it a spacious, cozy masterbedroom with a full walk-in closet/dressing room, and a bathroom that would make the queen jealous :) We know what we're doing for our one year anniversary (september), etc. I don't normally sweat stuff too much tho. If I can get my car paid off in 5 years, awesome, if not, oh well, another year isn't going to kill me. I didn't faint when I found out I was pregnant, and I have 9 wonderful years to master the plan for my bedroom. lol I think that as long as you have your bases covered, you should be ok. Maybe you can "reword" your first million by 32 as "financially stable by 32"... see.. tweek it a little and you'll be just fine! And don't feel bad - even if I plan just an hour ahead... It doesn't always happen. As I said, as long as your bases are covered and everything is (for the most part) under control, I think you'll be fine. Planning & dreaming realisticly is the goal. Obviously you can't control at what age you get married (to an extent) or have babies (to an extent)... if you're having such a rough time, "PLAN" on taking the garbage out at 3pm and see how that works for you. haha

A product of age, if age translates to experience. When we are young and dream the dreams you speak about, we are the only ones in those dreams, they are about us, all about us. Even the families we dream of in the future are about us, the families we dream of with people we have dreamed up. You didn't get de-railed bounce,, you got experienced. Now you have learned that if any of the old addages are true they are the ones about planning and making plans..We plan and God laughs comes to mind. And children, while cute and fun to play with aren't fulfilling any dreams we had, because we didn't dream of colic and diapers, temper tantrums, and chicken pox and of crusts that need to be cut off. I did use to plan ahead, way ahead, then I got married and was happy to plan dinner, had kids and stopped planning more than 3 things a year for about 3 years, I'm exaggerating a bit but you get the picture, by the time you get to be my age you will be happy if the day goes as planned let alone the year. Flexibility is our friend, I highly encourage yoga I think it saved my life when my daughter was a teenager. You answered your own question with the words I got older and more realistic. The great thing about dreams is that if we remain passionate about them we will make them happen, in time, if you don't remain passionate then it must be one we are willing to give up in the trade off for falling in love and being parents, I don't feel guilty about the dreams I have let go, and I remain passionate about the ones close to my heart..I'm just not the only one I see in the dreams anymore and that is something I can be totally okay with. So I make adjustments and understand it's okay to take it just one day at a time. Sometimes.

I don't really have a timeline for my plans in life. I always believe that everything happens for a reason, so if there is a delay on something that has to be achieved, I think of it as God's will. I have plans but sometimes these plans fail to materialize, for some reason. I just consider that there is something better behind it. My plans are usually short-term so it would be more realistic.

Hey bounce! I guess when we are younger we don't really know what to think about in reality! We have no real idea what life will throw at us and we are just happy and think that things will all go smoothly and go the way we planned! But, as we get older we find out that there are many curve balls that are going to be thrown at us and we must learn to realize that we sometimes have to rearrange things and make changes in our plans that we weren't expecting to do! That is just part of life! I no longer make long range plans! I am lucky if I can plan ahead into a week, let alone a day! Too many bad things that have happened in my life have taught me that we are not promised even the next day, so we must live life to the fullest one day at a time!

nice one. but let me ask you? are those things happens? i mean did u get married at 28 and earn a million at 32? if thats happened, bravo to you huh! and yes i do plan ahead also. but sorry for me because not all things that i planned happens, but until now im still working on it.

look ahead for as far as you can imagine..

Thank you bounce!

it depends. for my career, i plan ahead. having a family, i dont plan at all, if the times comes, thats when i'll plan i think.