Where Should I See Myself in 5 Years?
Questioner: Sir, right now, the placements are going on, so one recurring question is always occurring that ‘Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?’ So, I have seen many people who have that answer, and they have a clear vision of where they see themselves in five to ten years. But I find myself not able to answer that question with precision, or in other words, there was not a particular vision for me. That was the same five years ago, and that was the same ten years ago. And I don’t want to continue doing that, so how can I actually find an answer to this question? How can I see that, okay, I want to do this in my life in the next ten years, you see, in the next five years?
Acharya Prashant: This question needs to be addressed at two levels. One from the perspective of the employer, second from your own self. From the perspective of an employer, let me tell you, no employer is looking for a clear-cut answer to this question. Where do you see yourself in five to ten years? The one who is interviewing you does not know where he will be in five years. Most probably, by the time you join the company, he would already be out into some other greener pasture. Getting it? So, there's no point cultivating a fake answer; it all looks so artificial. For you, it probably is the first interview; the ones who are interviewing you, they have met hundreds of students like you.
So, your bluff is called out very easily. You give a manufactured answer, ‘Five years down the line, I see myself as a senior manager in your company.’ This is quite nonsensical and very nauseating. Just tell them, ‘I take a step at a time. This is where I stand. This is the field I am interested in. I want to probe this field further.’ That's all! And don't think that if you give a relatively vague answer, your selection chances will be impeded; that won't happen!
Questioner: But… for myself, I want that question to be answered…
Acharya Prashant: Now, the second part - from your own perspective, it is not at all necessary once again to be very clear about the future. To be clear about the future means subscribing to and limiting yourself to your own imagination as it arises from your state of today. Today, if I already have a blueprint, a well-thought-out plan, think of where that plan is coming from. It is coming from my state as it is today. Now, five years later, you are supposed to grow up and evolve. Let me ask you a question: When you were 12, what is your age right now?
Questioner: 21.
Acharya Prashant: When you were 16, had someone asked you, ‘Where do you see yourself five years down the line?’ Were you in a great position to answer?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: This 21-year-old, would he want to live by the vision of that 16-year-old?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: Then why would the 26-year-old want to live by the vision of this 21-year-old? Today, you are 20, 21, 24, whatever, suppose somebody, let that somebody be you, suppose you had drawn a plan for yourself, a vision and Imagination for yourself at the age of 15 or 17, Right? Today, would you want to limit yourself to that imagination? Because you know very well that the 15–17 years-old was an ignorant one and today you have grown up. That 15–17 years-old knew not much of the world nor himself. Correct? So, you don't want to constrain yourself. You do not want to say, ‘I had thought of a future - a vision at the age of 16, and now my entire life, I live by that vision.’
That's so stupid! Right? Then, today, why would you want to have a vision for age 26, given that you're 21? And when you will be 26 you will actually find that you feel suffocated living by the ideas of your 21-year-old-self. Won't that be suffocating? How much have you developed between 16 and 21? Please tell me. A little or a lot? A lot! Therefore, extrapolating, how much will you develop between 21 and 26? Again, a lot!
Between 16 and 21, you moved out of your house and entered the campus, right? And there was a lot of development, a lot of change. Between 21 and 26, you'll move out of the campus and settle into the corporate. And that again will be a lot of change. How can the 21-year-old be in a position to dictate the life of the 26-year-old? Is that not logical, please? Can the 21-year-old be in a position to dictate and script the life of the 26-year-old? Therefore, planning does not make much sense. Take it one day, one month, six months at a time maximum. Getting it?
Have your center in place, ‘I want to develop both externally and internally, and for this development, I shall do whatever is needed. Beyond that, I don't want to determine right now. I shall take it as it comes.’ Okay?
Questioner: So, the only goal should be to work on yourself in the short term.
Acharya Prashant: Obviously, work on yourself and know more and more of the world. Both directions, ‘I want to know of how the world runs, and I want to know more of who am I within? And these two levels of knowledge, when put together, will show me the direction to take and I will always be open to change. If I take one step today in one direction, I'm prepared to take another direction two months later. I'm not going to be rigid; I'm not going to be ideologically driven; I am going to be very pragmatic and very flexible. One thing appears right today, and it can appear right today. Six months later, if my logic, my reasoning, my intellect clearly demonstrates that something else is better for me, I will be prepared to change.’
Don't commit yourself too early. This word commitment should be reserved only for the highest one. When it comes to all other things in life, you should be very-very flexible. First of all, don't commit. Secondly, even if you have to commit, don't commit early. If you have to commit to something, try to postpone the commitment until as late as possible. Getting it? Retain your freedom! Retain your Liberty to choose. Don't give it up. If you plan for too long, if you project for too much further in the future, then you have given upon your Liberty.
Questioner: Then there is this term called settling down, which is actually like adults, everyone just wants. If my parents would want me to just settle down once, how do I decide that this is now the time that ‘I don't want to be flexible anymore? I want to have my structure.’
Acharya Prashant: Son, parents want their kids to do great things. All the great things that the parents themselves have never done, and they want that when and after the kids have done all the great things, they should finally do the one thing that the parents themselves have done. How logical is that? The parents are saying, ‘We never went to an engineering college. You should go to an engineering college. We never got that great a salary; you should get that kind of salary. We never visited the U.S., but you should have a job in the U.S. There is no MBA in the entire extended family, but you should do your MBA.’ Right? The father will say, ‘I'm a clerk, but you should be an IAS. So, you should do all the things that we never did.’
And that's wonderful. The parents, if they actually love the kids, should want the kids to do things that the parents never could achieve. That's all right, but once the kids have done all that, why do the parents want to drag them down to the one thing that they did? If the kid is doing everything that the parents never did, then why should the kid follow the parents' life and settle down the way the parents did? Ask this question.
When my life is not at all similar to yours, and that's also what you have desired, you have desired that the kid's life should not be similar to the parents' life because there is not much in the parents' life worthy of emulation. If you look at the lives of most parents, the parents themselves would not want the kids to replicate their lives. The parents will say, ‘Our lives were not good enough. Please don't live like us. You grow, you progress.’
So, fine. If the parents want the kids to progress in every dimension of life, why don't the parents allow the kids to progress and have liberty when it comes to the thing called settling down? Why must the parents insist so much on that? Why that rigidity?
Not needed! Not needed!
