Thinking long-term works in any area of life- relationships, business, & Christmas lights
Apr 12, 2016
Next year, we're lighting up our house like a Christmas tree. Literally. Hence the name: Light it Up (which the boys explain in the end of the short video above, which we shot on the way to Wal-mart).
We watched a Christmas movie this year (Deck the Halls) in which the guy's (Danny Devito's character) entire ambition is for his house to be seen from outer space.
He continues emptying shelves of lights from the local hardware store every day until it happens...
As my kids watched the movie (full disclosure: we don't watch much TV, but during the Christmas season we basically watch 5-6 Christmas movies a week!), the boys began laughing about what this could mean for them. Suddenly, they had a vision...
- Judah thought it would be fun to shovel a shelf-full of lights into a shopping cart like he saw on the movie.
- Levi thought it would be great to have people come over and get hot chocolate...
- Noah was intersted in the music and light display.
- Salter was content with anything that involved a big blow-up Minion.
- They all contemplated if we'd have enough electrical power to juice it...
Now, this happened BEFORE Christmas 2015- somewhere in the middle of the December movie watching madness.
Here's the deal, though: I didn't want to spend $2,500 on Christmas lights... so, I told the boys we'd go a few days after Christmas and snatch them all at 90% off.
And we did (I explain it all in the video above!). By thinking- and acting- long-term now for what we want later, we were able to save a bunch of money. Thousands...
(Now if only we could find the blow-up Santa-Minion like Salter wanted ;-)
Oh... and fireworks were suggested!
It's everywhere you look
Thinking long-term while acting in the present works in every area of your life:
- Your finances (savings is nothing more than acting now with the long-view in mind)
- Your relationships (why get the last word now when you can stay in communication and keep your hearts intertwined over the long-haul?)
- Your business goals... you've got to do it now, knowing that the pay-off will come
Most of it
Just about everything you're going to do, worthwhile, takes time. Sure, there are "instant" successes and moments when lightning strikes and something amazing happens- seemingly out of the blue... but...
A lot of times that "instant" success is the result of prior work- hours and weeks and months and even years of hard work leading up to that big breakthrough moment. And,
Most success isn't instant. Most of it is achieved, bit-by-bit- over the long haul.
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Post Christmas 2016 update-
We bought the lights and hung them. We literally lit up the entire block, we had so many. And, yes, we bought more at 90% off for Christmas 2017.
We had the neighbors over. We met some new people, reaquainted with others we hadn't really spoken to in a looonnnggggg time. The crew even agreed we sholud grill out regularly, when the weather gets a bit warmer :-)
And, yes, Salter got a Minion for the front yard :-)
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