Have You Actually Planned the Next Ten Years? Try Six Months of Exploration Instead

Without long-range thinking, trouble arrives close at hand — and sooner than you'd like. Modern life is so noisy that imagining the future feels impossible. Most people just want to get through today.

But a "ten-year plan" isn't about predicting the future. It's about using a hypothetical long-term goal to force yourself to know yourself and adjust direction. The value isn't in hitting it 100%. The value is that along the way, you get clearer on what you want and what you don't.

So ask yourself first: do you have a plan for the next ten years? If not — is it that you've genuinely never thought about it, or are you afraid to?

Why Are We Forced to Imagine the Future?

As someone who stays on the move, I rarely run into old friends.

So whenever I do get to catch up with someone I haven't seen in a while, the conversation drifts toward what we want next.

One question comes up almost every time: have you thought about moving back to Malaysia?

The answer: yes, but I don't know when.

I've lived in Taiwan for many years. I love my life here. I love the environment.

But every now and then I think — when I retire, I'll probably go back, right?

I have no concrete plan to return any time soon. But I still ask myself:

If I had no choice but to go back, what would I go back to do?

Why a Ten-Year Plan Has to Start with Knowing Yourself

Without long-range thinking, trouble arrives close at hand — and sooner than you expect.

There's another way to read that line: it's not that we don't want to plan. It's that we don't know ourselves well enough to plan.

We pour ridiculous amounts of energy into the problems sitting in front of us, and almost none into figuring out who we are.

If you don't know what you want, how exactly are you going to plan the next ten years?

I've asked a lot of people: do you have any plans for the next decade?

The answers fall into three buckets:

No plan: no clear thoughts about the future, more pressing worries right now, taking it as it comes
Currently exploring: considering a direction, but no real action yet
Clear direction: already have a plan, already in motion, adjusting along the way

Of course, "no plan" sometimes just means "I don't want to talk about it."

Either way, a ten-year plan has real upside — even if you never hit it.

The act of planning alone makes you understand yourself better, and that usually makes life smoother.

Try a different angle on the question:

Ten years from now, what kind of life do you want to be living?

Why Do Ten-Year Life Plans Get Abandoned So Easily?

When achieving a goal requires effort, we need an "incentive".

Without "enough" incentive, we won't "waste energy" chasing it.

A ten-year plan means a long time and a lot of energy.

You need the resolve to grind through the whole decade.

But here's the truth: we can't "guarantee" the payoff.

So along the way, the goal blurs. Eventually, it warps into something else.

The people who don't have long-term life plans are usually the ones who tried, hit hard failures, and gave up.

You could even argue that most people without a plan once tried to make one and it broke.

A lot of them just don't want to feel that defeat again.

How Six Months of Exploration Replaces a Ten-Year Plan

To deal with a future you can't see clearly, I recommend using a shorter window to "try out different directions."

Six months is my unit of choice. The upside:

You can start immediately
You get feedback fast
You find out whether it actually fits

Example One: Civil Servant to Engineer

A friend of mine worked in a deeply bureaucratic government job.

One day, he saw an ad from an education company: become an engineer in six months!

He got curious — but he didn't sign up right away.

He spent a lot of time digging into reviews, and the program checked out.

Eventually, after one of the many bad days at the office, he enrolled.

Six months later, he was at a tech company.

Example Two: Exploring New Possibilities and Sharing Knowledge

I know a designer who genuinely loves her work.

But she wasn't sure where to take her career next: stay a designer? move into management? start something of her own?

She started asking herself what she actually wanted.

She started writing — turning her perspective into articles, using writing to explore the options.

To gather more perspectives, she got involved in community events. That broadened her view fast.

Then, slowly, she leaned into the direction she actually liked.

She's still a designer. But she's now a designer with real influence in the design community.

And with influence, she has more options in life.

What both stories show:

As long as the direction is one you actually like and you're willing to put in the work, the outcome usually isn't bad.

BUT — exploration like this comes with conditions:

You need more discipline, because this happens on top of everything else. Willpower has to hold.
You need to be honest with yourself about what you like and don't like. You have to know yourself.
You need the courage to leave your comfort zone, and you can't be too attached to the outcome.

Six months isn't long, but it isn't short either.

Compared to ten years, though, it's a future you can actually picture.

Practising six-month exploration cycles is how you prepare for the next decade.

My Own Exploration: Three Failures, One That Stuck

When I was thinking about how to build a personal brand, I tried three directions: game streaming, writing, podcasting.

The first one was game streaming.

Streaming fits my personality — I love talking and I love games.

But three months in, I realized streaming needs long hours of gameplay to pull viewers.

The problem: I had a day job. I couldn't stream long enough.

Worse: streaming killed the fun of playing games for me. The whole thing got inverted.

The second one was writing.

I once cranked out four articles a week and burned through ideas fast. I started getting sick of it.

I dialed it down to two articles a week — a load I could just barely sustain.

It built a habit: every weekend, I'd plant myself in a coffee shop to read and write.

That habit ran for a year, then stopped. Why?

Because I joined a startup as a co-founder, and got buried.

The third one was podcasting.

A roommate and I recorded a show at home, twice a month.

But our schedules were too different. We kept pushing episodes back.

We pushed through for a year, but burned out on work and shelved it.

End of 2023, I started writing articles and a newsletter again. Why?

No special reason — sharing knowledge has always been something I enjoy.

The two-year gap before that was purely because the company was eating everything I had.

When the company was in survival mode, writing wasn't on the table.

My take: only by actually executing a plan can you find out whether it fits.

Even if the plan can't keep up with reality, you still get to know yourself better through it. That's the "exploration" part doing its job.

Like my own creative path — through cycles of plans and surprises, you understand yourself more.

Eventually you "find" the path that fits, and "exploration" turns out to be part of the "plan" itself.

Lock In a Long-Term Goal, or Explore As You Go?

First, ask yourself: are you happy with what you're doing right now?

The concrete payoff comes second.

If you're unhappy with your life or your work environment, you're going to struggle to set concrete goals. My advice: spend more time exploring future directions, because at minimum you'll "draw energy" from different places.

If you're satisfied with your life and work, and you keep getting better at what you do, there's nothing wrong with that. You can absolutely level up while staying at the same company.

Set a simple, specific goal: become a manager within five years. Then layer on realistic stretch goals: buy a home in ten years, hit NT$80,000/month income within three.

Three Rules for Exploring Your Life: Time, Don't Quit Early, Find the Reason

You have to actually try before you know what fits.

A failed attempt isn't real failure.

You just eliminated one option that wasn't right.

Over time, you slowly find the direction that actually fits.

Three rules for exploration:

Spend at least 8 hours a week on one thing for at least 3 months
Don't quit too early — push through at least 3 moments where you want to give up
Get to the bottom of why something does or doesn't fit

You need to do all three. Yes, all of them — not pick one!

You can't approach exploration with a "let's see what happens" attitude.

It's not enough to take a step. You take a "grounded step" — make sure you're standing solid before moving forward.

Why Communities Are the Best Place to Start a New Direction

If you want to try a new direction, my advice: understand the field or industry first.

About 40% understanding is the right threshold — not just a vague "I want to try this."

The next steps are simple:

Show up at community events in the field
Find people you can model and ask for advice
Pick up a course or some books to build knowledge
Share what you're learning to learn faster (Learning by Teaching)

If you do this, the future stops being completely unpredictable. You actually have some grip on it.

Share Your Plan Out Loud

I know a lot of people who are afraid to say their plans out loud.

They're scared of being criticized, and scared of being mocked if they fail.

"I told you so. Why didn't you listen to me?"

I've been on the receiving end of that. Many times. I get the helplessness.

But remember:

You are you, not someone else. You don't have to live by other people's opinions or eyes.

If you can't even share your own plan with someone, how are you going to find the like-minded people who'll back you?

The ones who mock you? They're just showing you early that they're not built for the long haul with you.

I've been through this. I've genuinely walked away from the people who used to mock me.

I've also taken real criticism and feedback. In the moment, I couldn't always accept it — but I could chew on it later.

You share your plan to absorb the perspectives around you.

Even criticism is just a perspective. You can listen, but don't let it steer you — and definitely don't let emotion steer you.

Share your plan out loud. Be brave about it.

How to Internalize a Ten-Year Plan as a Daily Habit

Without long-range thinking, trouble arrives close at hand — really close.

The line is about people worrying about the future, but getting buried in their emotions about it instead of actually addressing the cause.

The future matters. Not just five years out, or ten, or twenty. Building the habit of planning ahead is pure upside.

Cut the cliche about plans never surviving reality. Of course we can't predict the future.

But constantly adjusting the plan is what keeps you flexible — and keeps reality from swallowing you.

Is a ten-year plan really that hard?

Ask yourself: ten years from now, what kind of life do you want to be living?

Write it down. Look at what you can start on now, and what needs more runway.

Sketch a rough timeline: 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, 9 years, 10 years.

If you can hit the goal by year 7, don't hesitate — start moving.

A plan is just a plan. It serves us.

Don't let an unmet plan crush you. It's just a tool.

We're the ones living. The plan is there to help — don't let its success or failure hold you hostage!

FAQ

Q: I've never made a long-term plan before. How do I start? A: Don't start with ten years. Give yourself six months. Pick one thing you "want to try," put 8 hours a week on it, and push for 3 months. Whether it works or not, you'll know yourself better at the end of those three months.

Q: Plans never survive reality — so does planning even matter? A: Yes. The value of a ten-year plan isn't 100% completion. It's that along the way, you get clearer on what you want and what you don't. Treat the plan as a tool — don't let it hold you hostage. With a plan you can correct course; without one, you can't even start. You need a map before you walk into the forest, so you have something to adjust against once you're inside.

Q: How do I know whether a direction actually fits me? A: Cross-check it against three conditions — at least 8 hours a week, push through at least 3 months, survive at least 3 urges to quit. If you've done all three and still don't love it, it's fair to move on to the next direction.