5 year plans

[gbarv]

I'm a user of language learning forum, recently a forum member shared a story of how he achieved different things throughout his life by focusing for 5 years on each one. I found this very inspiring so I thought I might share it.

My approach is to have serial (rather than parallel) obsessions. Just about the only thing I admire about Russian communists was their idea of having "five year plans". For the past 30 years I have copied that idea, and set myself five years to completely master something - then at the end of five years moved on to something completely different. Here are some examples:

- I was always the worst kid at school in sports. The last one to be picked for teams. So, I decided to become an athlete. I spent all my time training, measuring, learning, and eventually competing. Within the five years I was winning competitions. Not an olympic medal by any measure, but certainly enough to be in the newspapers and a minor local celebrity. That was fine for me, and I felt the goal was accomplished, so it was time to move on.

- I was terribly shy. Never spoke to strangers. Never volunteered to do anything. Never raised my hand to ask questions. I found an equally shy friend, and we agreed to help each other get over our shyness. We learned everything we could about being self-confident. Took Dale Carnegie classes, joined debating groups, and so on. Above all, we agreed that whenever there was an opportunity to volunteer to speak, we would be the first to raise our hands. Progress was actually quite good - compared to my expectations at least - in that the shyness slipped away in a few months. But it became quite addictive, and we both got rather obsessed with it. Within a few years we were both (occasionally) invited speakers, and won a few debating and public speaking awards. At the end of the five years, I felt I had mastered it, and there was nowhere else to go with it. So, it felt time to move on to something else.

- I had a BSc, but had always wondered "what would have happened if I had gone further with education?". So, I decided to become a professor. In my 30s, I quit my job, sold all my possessions, and devoted five years to getting a PhD. As with all the five year plans it became an obsession, and I hung around other (more established) researchers to see how the game is played. A couple of years into it, I felt I had the hang of things: which is pretty much to find a narrow research area that fascinates you, then publish loads of academic papers in obscure journals about tiny improvements you have made. Eventually, I became a post-doctoral research fellow, and lecturer (this was in the UK). Again, at the end of the five years, I found myself feeling I need a new goal, so I moved on.

- I decided I wanted to retire within five years, and there was no way an academic salary was going to enable that. So, my next five year plan was to start a software company, and spend those five years growing the company and its products, so that I could sell it. It was a real sink-or-swim experience at first. Particularly, when I realised that I don't actually enjoy the company of many rather overly (and deliberately) nasty business people. Still, I learned to "swim with the sharks" and kept telling myself it was only for a few years. Due to hard work, and (far more) to good luck and very lucky timing, I did manage to sell the business (actually after four and a half years), and was able to retire in my early 40s.

- After retiring, I felt it was time to have fun, and just for the heck it it made my next five-year plan to become a super-stud. Given that I was geek, with a painful-to-look at physique, I could not rely on natural attraction. So, I studied all the famous super-studs (and bought books and courses) to see how they do it. The techniques are pretty simple: there is no such thing as "charisma" - it is all a learned talent, that eventually becomes part of you. With my new-found knowledge I moved to super-stud-heaven (Prague - where the women are beautiful). The first couple of years were simply practicing to be around stunning women without showing a trace of fear. Then I spent a year working out how to make them make the move on me (rather than the other way around). It was certainly a lot of fun. Highly recommended if you don't take it too seriously. Eventually, I settled down with (and married) a woman of (in my opinion) breathtaking beauty and great intelligence. Certainly, well beyond my "level" a few years back.

- The latest five-year plan is to become completely fluent in Czech. I dabbled for about a year with boring classes, before going it alone early this year. I am full time on this. Thanks to this forum, I have toned down the use of textbooks and turned to authentic material and immersion. It is still too early to say what the outcome will be, but already I am hooked.

What I have learned is that even though each of these five-year immersions is something I put aside at the end, each of them becomes internalised during the immersion process, and so becomes part of you even though you have left it behind.

Just recently, I came across the now-famous 10,000 hours theory about how long it takes to become an expert in something. And when I look back, it probably explains why five years is the right amount of time (at least for me) to devote to something. Ten thousand hours is about six hours a day, every day, for five years.

I have no idea what my next five-year plan will be, but it is likely to be something completely removed from language learning. Hopefully, by then, I will have mastered Czech enough so that it has become a natural part of me.

The original post is here (fifth post on the page)

[Daffy Duck]

That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing his posts.