It is easy to become short-sighted with our goals. Tomorrow is a lot closer than next year is and it is more likely we receive negative reinforcement tomorrow than positive reinforcement next year. It’s the same reasoning that so many companies chase quarterly earnings instead of annual growth. Amazon and Google are examples of companies that borderline neglect the quarterly approach focusing almost purely on the long term and the used to be regularly beaten by analysts for that view.
The short-term game can be fun to play because you get an immediate sense of validation – you win or lose quickly. Validation is given immediately for the tasks you completed. Others want to be able to put in achievements that occurred recently in their reviews and doing short tasks gets more in.
Playing for the short-term is ultimately a bad bet. Financial planners always talk about compounding interest and how the earlier you put your savings in, the sooner you start getting interest on your interest. Thinking long-term about your goals is the same thing. Working towards the outcomes you want in 24 months may seem like no progress gets made over the first 12 but slowly you start to see the ball start to get rolling.
No one ever completed a 24 month task by only thinking about the month in front of them.