7 Guidelines That Will Aid You In Answering The Question: Where Do You See Yourself X Year(s) From Now?
What questions are you asking yourself to improve your life and what answers are you providing to those questions?
I remember being asked this question a lot of times in previous years by my mentors and leaders. It was a question that always threw me off balance not because I didn’t know what I wanted (of course I wanted a good life, still do), but I hadn’t figured out life and the way it works.
So, as soon as the question comes, I’ll quickly imagine how a good life should be and give a response without putting into consideration what I need to do, what I need to know, the steps I need to take, things I need to give up on and sacrifices I need to make.
But growth and development taught me better. Knowledge also helped a great deal.
Truth is most of us have no clear picture or plans of our future. If it turns out better, that’ll be great. If it turns out to be worse, well there was little or nothing we could do to change it.
I’ve left that zone of leaving my life to chance and you should too.
So, when you’re being asked this question, ‘where do you see yourself x years from now?’ the following are questions that should help guide your answer.
Where are you now?
The ‘where are you now?’ is an important question you must sincerely provide answers to for you to confidently answer the question ‘where do you see yourself x years from now’?
Knowing where you are gives you a picture of how far the journey is and how much time, energy and resources are needed.
It’s okay if you don’t know where you are. It doesn’t make you any less of a person. That’s why you need to be honest with yourself or with others when providing an answer to this question.
The question you need to ask yourself and answer is; Where are you at the moment? Level 1? Ground zero? Level 5…? How long will it take you to get to where you are going?
You can’t be in level two or four and expect to get to level fifteen or twenty in the next five years. Don’t get me wrong, of course I believe in miracles, but being realistic will help you a whole lot.
Where are you going?
Knowing your destination saves you time, eliminates distractions and keeps you focused. It also helps the other persons who are interested in your journey
There are lots of individuals who know that they need to embark on a journey but the problem of not knowing where exactly keeps them stuck, confused and frustrated. They keep roaming the streets of life with no clear direction.
Below are critical questions that will guide your answer to this question.
- Where exactly are you going?
- Why do you want to go there?
- How far is it?
- Is that where you really want to be?
- What’s influencing your decision?
What do you need to do?
You can keep talking about where you’re going and where you see yourself in the next five years, but if you don’t sit down and carefully figure out what you need to do, and actually do them, you will go nowhere.
No doubt, every journey has its own peculiarities. So, what an individual who is on a journey to spiritual awakening needs to do will be entirely different from an individual who is on a journey towards career progression.
Do you need to be more open? Do you need to be a bit withdrawn? Do you need to step out of your comfort zone? Do you need more mentors or coaches? Do you need counselling? Figure out what you need and do the needful.
What do you really need?
Of course there are materials, tools and resources you’ll need when embarking on a journey to avoid getting stuck on the way.
The tools or resources needed for family rekindling are different from tools needed for self-awareness. Tools needed to demolish a faulty foundation are different from tools needed to sustain a relationship or gain financial freedom.
Write down a list of all that you will need on your journey as it is peculiar to you. And be insightful and responsible enough to acquire and use them whenever they are needed.
Are your needs inspired by society, friends or family or is this a life you truly need for yourself?
Self-discovery and self-awareness is very important before, during and after embarking on a journey.
Society has a subtle way of influencing your thoughts and decisions on what to do, where to go and how to get there. Your family also has a stronghold in influencing your decisions.
Don’t go on a journey you don’t want to. Know what you want out of life and do what it takes to get it. Your decisions matter.
How do you get there?
After discovering where you are and figuring out where you’re going and what you need to do to get there, this is the next question you’ll need to provide answers to.
Just like there are different means to getting to a physical destination, there are also different means to getting to your destination in life. And this is highly dependent on how soon you want to get to your destination.
You can get to your destination by leveraging on the knowledge, experience and expertise of other individuals who have travelled this same road and were or are successful.
To get to your destination, you can either fly, run, walk or crawl. However you want to get there, the choice is totally yours to make.
What if in the next 5 years, you don’t see yourself where you pictured you’ll be?
If in the next five years or 10 years it appears you aren’t where you pictured you’ll be, change your strategy. It could be that you missed it at some point in the journey.
But as long as you took the right steps and followed the right path, I’ll advise you to keep at it. Keep planting. Keep doing all it takes. Keep moving. Sooner or later, you’ll see the results.
You can also pause or take a break, by taking an inventory of how the journey has been or a review on the journey so far. It could be that you were overwhelmed and boycotted your way at some point.
Above all, don’t beat yourself up, never doubt yourself and never stop believing in who you are.
Take Away
Your journey in the next five years could be a journey of self-discovery, self-care, self-awareness, etc. It could also be a journey of destroying faulty foundations, restructuring, career change or development, spiritual awakening, family rekindling, etc. Know what stage you are in, what level you need to get to per time and what you need to do.
Don’t compare your journey to others. Own your journey. Every individual has its own unique journey, embrace it and go through it with grace.
These points below will help in answering these seven (7) questions in the best way possible.
- Be honest
- Be realistic
- Be optimistic
- Be purposeful
- Be confident
- Be yourself
