A Response to my “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years’ Time?” from 2017

Two weeks ago I published the original five-year goals post from 2017 and did a podcast episode going through what I actually achieved versus what past-me had optimistically written down. This week, it’s the follow-up — looking forward rather than back, and setting out where I want to be by 2034.

Yes, 2034. Not 2027, not five years from now — twelve years from now. Bear with me.

Good question. The short answer is that five-year goals feel a bit short now. Five years goes quick — quicker than you think when you’re inside it. Twelve years is a horizon that actually feels like a horizon. It’s far enough away that you can aim for things that require real sustained effort, but close enough that you’re still thinking about a version of yourself that’s recognisably you.

Also I’ll be approaching fifty in 2034, which is the kind of statement that makes you want to lie down for a bit, but also clarifies what actually matters.

I talk through this in more detail in the podcast, but the broad strokes: I want to have built things. Not just one thing, multiple things. Writing is part of it — there’s more in the There’s No Place Like Summer Camp series that I want to get out into the world, and the summer camp stories don’t end with two books. There are other projects in the mix too, other ideas at various stages of being developed.

The specific goals are in the episode because honestly they’re easier to explain in conversation than in text. But the underlying theme is pretty simple: do the work, make the things, don’t wait for a better time because there isn’t one.

One of the things this whole five-year exercise has clarified is that “being an author” isn’t really a thing that happens to you — it’s a thing you have to keep doing. The book existing is great. Writing the next one is the work. And then the next one after that.

If you’ve read There’s No Place Like Summer Camp and you’re wondering whether there’s more coming — yes, there is. The second book is already in the world, Camp America: Second Summer Shenanigans covers the return summer, and there’s more where that came from.

The honest version of goal-setting is that you don’t know what the next twelve years hold. You set a direction, you make decisions that move you toward it, and then life does whatever life does. The goals from 2017 were partially right and partially completely wrong, and 2022 is better than 2017-me imagined in some ways and different in others.

That’s probably how 2034 will look too. But you may as well aim somewhere.