I think it’s roughly “if focus on the immediate and small issues (the “days”), then the later and bigger issues (“weeks”, “years”) will solve themselves.”
I don’t agree with it, mind you. It looks like a recipe for disaster; I think you should always frame your short-term decisions based on your long-term goals, otherwise your short-term decisions will haunt you later on. For a silly example, picture a farmer who decides to sell all his seed potatoes for some quick cash, and then starves in the next year because he couldn’t plant+harvest more potatoes.
“Penny wise, pound foolish”
“Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”
Love contradictory sayings.
That said, focusing on long term only, or short term only, will both fail.
Same goes for only looking at small expenses or only worrying about big expenditure.
Yup. It’s just like “The early bird gets the worm” vs. “all good things come to him who waits”. Or (my personal fav) “the pen is mightier than the sword” versus “actions speak louder than words”.
Sometimes I feel like the main role of those sayings is to give people some excuse to shut off their brains and not think about the consequence of their actions.
Live in the moment. Live for today. Don’t worry about tomorrow, since what you do today shapes tomorrow.
Because you can’t worry about stuff that is so far down the road, as the future is always in flux. Focus on what you can control now.
The days are long but the years are short
Plan ahead. With a long term goal in mind, the day-to-day decisions will turn to reaching it, little by little, step by step.
I’ve never heard that one but feel it:
I have like a bazillion things to do, like yesterday. They means today is cramped. Tomorrow too. Because of that I can’t even look to next week.
But in a few years I won’t be able to do my job anymore. And several more close (like, two or three years) away private topics that I know will come, because time is marching in no matter my personal opinion.
Months are non existent as a unit of time unless a now is planning for a few months away. Once that’s done it’s back to days and years…
Today, I was one of the lucky 10,000 - thank you!
