Goal-Time horizons

What are the best, or even just minially effective time horizons for setting and achieving goals? Obviously depends on the nature of goals and scoping, but I’ve noticed some paradoxical trends…

Seconds go by way too fast, but minutes can be counted and rationed… up to about an hour before hours and hours go by without contest.

Days can be too chaotic, unpredictable circumstances can occupy a day without regard to your plans, but a week is a battleground for aspirational habits.

An entire month is hard to lose, but six months can fly by. Thinking in 1-year increments is frustratingly inconcievable, but three years is enough to plan, make, and measure serious change.

Five years is a scary time horizon, but with ten years there is comfort and excitement in a new version of yourself, leaving enough room to aspire.

Setting goals for one’s self is no doubt a facet of the good life, but time is both the greatest enemy and asset. The expectation that one puts on one’s self in increments of time is a delicate science. Too much too fast leads to discouragement and inevitable disappointment, probably a self-assigned failure too. But not enough leaves the wheels spinning too, and an assured feeling like a failure.

I’ve not lived long enough to perfect this science. But minutes and weeks give me the greatest confidence, while days and months trouble me. The moment (of now!) is still a little too fast for me.