in ten years time

This morning, Tanya Geisler shared a story on Instagram about taking her daughter to summer camp, looking up at an office building she used to work at, and realizing how much her life had changed in ten years.

One thing she said really hit me.

“A lot can change in ten years if you are clear about what you want (and don’t want).”

It seems so obvious, but that’s what makes it so profound.

I promptly made myself the above image to remember it.

There’s something I really like about envisioning what my life will look like in ten years. It actually seems pretty easy. I don’t have to think about what I want the next ten years to look like. I just get to start by imagining one single point ten years in the future.

This is a pretty big relief for me.

In ten years, I’ll be 41. Which is, truthfully, also a pretty big relief for me.

I was one of those people who absolutely freaked out about turning 30. (To be fair, the first year and a half of my thirties involved some pretty major life and emotional upheaval, so my dread feels slightly vindicated.) I think, in the future picture I had of my life, my thirties always seemed a little murky.

But 40. For some reason, I’m already looking forward to that birthday.

I can’t quite explain why, but I’ve always had this sense that 40 is going to be amazing. I just have to get there.

And Tanya made me realize that I can use the picture of what I want 40 (or 41) to look like to help navigate my thirties.

If I get really clear about what I want me life to look like (and not look like) at 41, I will have a guidepost to make decisions from over the next ten years.

This doesn’t mean that I want to skip over or rush through my thirties. Hell no! I intend to enjoy them the best I can.

It just makes what had previously seemed like a pretty confusing decade of my life into an opportunity to springboard myself into the most amazing life I could possibly imagine!