What's your ten year plan?

A wise friend once said something very very wise.  I've never forgotten it.

You can achieve less than you plan in a year

But more than you imagine in ten. 

Now, just read that sentence again.
I found myself giving that advice - not for the first or last time I imagine - last week to some prospective missionaries.  The wise saying captures the truth that we are often over-ambitious when it comes to what we think we can achieve in a calendar year.  Every January we make our new year's resolutions and the list grows as long as both our arms!  Lose weight, get healthy, wake up earlier, less alcohol, less food, better quiet times with the Lord, etc. etc. etc.. And we never get anywhere near ticking off everything on that list of planned achievements.  We achieve less than we plan in a year. 
But we can achieve more than we imagine in ten.  So, add ten years to your current age and ask the question, 'Under God, what would I like to have achieved in the next decade?'  That gives you permission to Dream Big and aim for what Bill Hybels calls Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals ('BHAGs').
When I was thirty and in my second year of studies at Ridley, my wife and I prayed and dreamt big for the Lord Jesus.  We came up with three BHAGs for the next decade:

1. Finish studies, get ordained, have a ministry track record that means you can be trusted with a senior ministry leadership role.
2. Start and finish doctoral studies. 
3. Start and finish having as many kids as we're ever going to have. 

Under God - and it must be stressed that it was God's goodness and doing and strength - not ours'! - we achieved more than we imagined (and in nine years, not ten!).  Having those BHAGs kept us moving towards those specific targets; gave us permission to say 'No' to many many good things that came along in the period; and helped us to understand how staying at work in the bank or taking on this ministry and not that one fit into the big picture plan.  

Let me encourage you to take out a big white piece of paper and draw a line across it.  Mark out ten evenly spaced spots along the line.  Start with your current age, and pencil in the next ten years.  

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Start praying and dreaming!  Love to hear how you go!  (Or, as someone else has said publicly before, 'God has a plan for your life, and Wei-Han has the details....' : )