On this page...
One of the core principles I promote is long-term thinking. I’ve written extensively about it in my books and blogs on this site.
Recently, though, I started thinking about the ingredients that support this principle.
While musing over this, one word kept coming up: stability.
You may be wondering how stability supports a long-term planning mindset.
Here’s how: if you meet your day-to-day basic needs, it becomes easier to plan for the long term. But if you’re struggling to get food, clothing, or a roof over your head, it’s almost impossible to think beyond today.
Based on my lived experiences, here are four things you can do to create financial stability and prepare your life to shift from short-term to long-term thinking:
1. Get a Stable 9 to 5 Job
One of the biggest mistakes that hindered my long-term planning was leaving my stable job to work full-time on my business.
In late 2015, I started selling on Amazon while still working full-time.
By August 2017, the business was doing so well that I left my job to focus on it fully.
Unfortunately, at about the same time, Amazon made changes to its system—and it hit my sales hard.
Instead of reversing my decision, I doubled down. That decision led to more mistakes, and by 2018, the business was gone.
In hindsight, the smart move would have been to keep my 9 to 5 job.
Although I later launched a successful tech blogging business, it eventually suffered a similar fate.
From these experiences, I now maintain a full-time job while running my business as a side hustle.
I’m not suggesting that everyone reading this will have the same experience. But having the stability a job provides helps you become more audacious in your career growth, long-term thinking, and planning.
As I explain in point three below, one thing is certain in life: things may not always go according to plan.
Having a backup prepares you to absorb this inevitable reality and prevents it from derailing your long-term planning goals.
2. Save Part of Your Income
As I noted in point one, having a stable job gives you the room to think and plan long-term. But there’s another benefit of having a job with a steady pay cheque: you can save part of that income.
Having a savings buffer does two things for you:
a) It removes the pressure of short-term thinking.
b) It gives you money to invest in your side hustle.
The first point is crucial in supporting long-term aspirations. Because I now have a stable income, I’m in no rush to make money from my business.
This creates a mental anchor that shifts your focus from “I need results now” to “I will eventually get results.”
That singular shift makes a big difference.
The second point—having money to invest in your side hustle—is equally important. Every business requires some form of investment, and a portion of your savings can provide that all-important funding.
3. Execute Your Long-Term Goals Part-Time
With all I’ve said so far, having a full-time job means you can work on your long-term personal goals only part-time.
However, I decided to include this as a stand-alone point because of how vital it is to supporting a long-term planning strategy.
Returning to my experience: since I work Mondays to Fridays, I use Saturdays and Sundays to write articles for this site and my Compass Points newsletter, which I send to my subscribers weekly.
Before moving on, I must emphasise the need for discipline. That means ensuring your side hustle never interferes with your full-time job.
It also means having the resolve to sit down every weekend and work on your goals.
This sounds easy, but it’s not.
Why?
Because after working hard for five days, weekends are meant for rest. But if you want to achieve something beyond your 9 to 5, you must be willing to sacrifice that time—and have the discipline to do it.
That’s where work-life balance comes in. You must learn to rest intentionally, not constantly. Balance isn’t about doing less—it’s about doing what matters most.
4. Get Partners to Share Your Risks
Have you ever had an idea you believed would change the world?
At that moment, did you ever consider that it might not translate into a successful business?
Probably not.
You were likely too enthused and optimistic about your idea’s potential—and you launched it.
But then, a few months later, it failed miserably.
This is exactly my point: new ventures fail. I know this from experience, having had many of them.
Too many of us bear these risks alone. That makes it harder to bounce back when things go wrong.
Now imagine if you had partners. If the business fails—as it may well do—your partners share the losses with you.
That makes it easier to recover and launch new ideas.
Why?
Because you wouldn’t have spent all your savings on failed ventures.
Conclusion
Financial stability and the security a steady income provides give you a solid footing to plan and think long-term.
Saving part of that income further strengthens that mindset.
With these two elements in place, you can execute your long-term planning goals part-time while maintaining work-life balance.
The final ingredient that supports a long-term mindset is partnering with others to share your risks.
Although I’ve focused on combining a full-time job with a side hustle, this approach applies more broadly. For example, if you want to change your career and need to study or take courses, you can apply the same principle.
