Everyone who has been interviewed for a job or special opportunity has at some point in their life been asked where they see themselves in the next five years.
For most people this question arouses excitement and ambition, but for me it has always seemed terrifying. I’ve been thinking things like “should I have figured things out this far?” or “Can’t I just live and be present in the moment?” When the thought of my future left me completely blank, I knew there were underlying issues. I knew it wasn’t because I was lazy or unmotivated, but simply struggled to look that far ahead, but why?
In most cases, lack of long-term vision can point to deeper issues in the present that must be addressed in order to move forward. Stress, burnout, fear of failure, low self-esteem and even depression can make it difficult to see beyond the next few weeks, let alone the next five years. When you’re focused on getting through today, tomorrow becomes even harder to imagine.
If you have no idea where you see yourself in the next five years, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lost, but it might be worth investigating if one of these common challenges is preventing you from creating a clearer picture of the future.
People who have no idea where they see themselves in 5 years are probably dealing with 11 big problems right now
1. You are overwhelmed by daily survival
Yan Krukau via Canva
It’s hard to imagine a future when you’re consumed by the responsibilities of the present. Paying bills and meeting deadlines means long-term planning often takes a back seat. Most of the time you struggle to see past the next few days. Even the thought of what you might have for breakfast tomorrow can throw you into a spiral.
Overwhelm is a difficult feeling to bear. Sometimes it can feel like taking it slow and going day by day is the only way you can get through the week. While this approach may help you deal with immediate demands, it is not entirely sustainable.
If you’re constantly tainted by everyday chores, that may explain why you struggle to see yourself in five years. When all your energy is focused on navigating the present, there is little left to imagine the future.
2. You are afraid of making the wrong choice
Choosing can be difficult. I know I hate it when someone, while trying to decide between two things, says, “Up to you!” Why would you leave anything up to me to decide?! Indecisiveness in your daily life may seem harmless, but it can creep into larger parts of it without you even realizing it, holding you back from being able to see further into the future.
According to the Cleveland Clinicfear of failure, also known as atychiphobia, “can cause you to delay or avoid any activity or scenario that has the potential for an unsuccessful outcome.” You may avoid setting long-term goals because you fear choosing the wrong path. Instead of committing to a direction, you remain undecided to avoid the possibility of future regret. Life requires too many “what ifs” for you to see the future clearly.
In many ways, this line of thinking is quite ironic. You think about the future, just one that doesn’t go the way you want. When the fear of making the wrong choice infiltrates your mind, it can become easier to imagine everything that could go wrong than to imagine where you want to be five years from now.
3. You lack confidence in your ability
As humans, we tend to be overly critical of ourselves, and being our own biggest critic can lead to a steady decline in our self-confidence. A lack of confidence tends to diminish our willingness to think big about the future. If you think you’re incapable of achieving meaningful goals, it’s hard to see yourself achieving them.
Lacks confidence in your abilities can stem from a number of things. Difficult experiences can reveal the belief that you are capable of succeeding. When self-confidence is low, imagining the future can seem like an unrealistic fantasy. Instead of thinking about what you want to achieve, focus on how your abilities prevent you from getting there.
4. You experience burnout
Jean-Philippe via Canva
Life gets busy. We sometimes forget to step back and just breathe, but when we don’t, burnout is likely to occur. World Health Organization (WHO) describes burnout in three ways: energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from your job and reduced efficiency. While the WHO classifies burnout as strictly occupational, it can seep into the cracks of your normal everyday life.
Burnout drains emotional energy and motivation. When people are mentally exhausted, planning for the future can feel like just another task on an already overwhelming list. If you are or have experienced burnout, it may explain why you have a hard time seeing yourself in five years.
5. You haven’t discovered what really matters to you
It’s hard to know where you’re going when you’re not sure what exactly you’re moving towards. While some people have a clear sense of their passions, values, beliefs and priorities, you may still be figuring out what it is you want from life, which is perfectly normal. However, that uncertainty can make it much more difficult to imagine where you will be within the next five years.
Society tends to settle down unspoken expectations. You may pursue certain goals because it seems right, like it’s what everyone expects you to do, even if said goals don’t align with what matters to you. As a result, when asked to imagine the future, you come up blank.
Without a strong understanding of what matters to you, long-term planning can feel daunting. You might be thinking, “How can I plan for a future when I’m not even sure what values I want to continue to carry with me?”
6. You are stuck in a comfort zone
Having a comfort zone isgood, pleasant. It feels safe, familiar. A place you can always escape to when anxiety is high or life gets too much. But simply having a comfort zone and being stuck in it, or unwilling to get out of it, is a completely different story.
If you are unable to step out of your comfort zone, it may be at the expense of your future, which is why you struggle to look ahead. Growth requires entering into uncertainty to some extent.
Limits aside, staying within your comfort zone can hold you back from taking steps toward your future. You may find yourself turning down job offers or a fun night out, both of which can affect your life in different ways – because you think it’s too risky or too uncomfortable.
7. You compare yourself to others
Marco VDM via Canva
The term “The Thief of Joy” is popularly attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. The term, used as a way to personify comparison, holds a lot of truth and may be a reason why you struggle to see yourself in five years.
While comparison has its advantagesit has at least as many disadvantages. Comparing your personal goals to others can make you feel silly or as if they are meaningless and unattainable. Instead of being able to focus on your own future, you become preoccupied with measuring yourself against everyone else’s progress.
8. You think the future is too unpredictable to think ahead
I think we all understand that life doesn’t always go according to plan. Circumstances change or life-changing events happen before you even have time to process them. Because of this, you may feel discouraged or completely skeptical of long-term planning. If the future is too impossible to predict, you think, why imagine where you will even be in five years?
You hesitate to make plans because you assume that life will change anyway. For you, it may feel safer to focus on what is right in front of you than to invest emotionally in an uncertain future. While flexibility is valuable, this mindset can prevent you from setting meaningful goals for your future self.
9. You struggle with decision fatigue
As a university student, I know the struggle of making too many decisions one after the other. It’s exhausting. After so long I just end up choosing randomly because it’s easier than thinking about what the right choice for me would be. This experience may be similar to you, and it may be why you have a hard time imagining yourself in five years.
Psychotherapist Natacha Duke, RP, explains that decision fatigue occurs after making so many decisions in a given day, leading to physical and emotional fatigue and a decline in the thought process behind decision making. Every day, life offers an infinite number of choices, typically on a smaller scale. For example, you may have discussed which fast food place to eat lunch today or which route to take to avoid traffic. We are forced to make small, mundane decisions that over time affect our ability to think critically about decisions that may affect our future selves.
10. You wait for perfect clarity
I’m the type of person who feels I need to get all the facts straight before I can come to a final conclusion. It feels unsatisfying in a way, but with this I always feel like I’m in a constant state of waiting, a constant state of passivity. I have this weird, innate sense that clarity will appear out of thin air and point me in the right direction. If you also struggle with waiting for clarity, maybe that’s why you can’t see yourself in five years.
The biggest problem with this line of thinking is that clarity rarely appears before any action is taken. Life’s biggest decisions often come with uncertainty, and there is usually not a moment when every question is answered or every risk is eliminated.
If you find yourself waiting for absolute certainty, your future may remain empty. Imagining yourself in five years becomes a difficult process when you don’t allow yourself to take the first step in any direction.
11. You feel disconnected from a sense of purpose
A sense of purpose gives people a reason to look forward. It provides reassurance that the choices they make today contribute to something meaningful in the future. But without that sense of purpose, it can be hard to imagine where life is going, or why it should be going there in the first place.
If you feel like you’re moving through life without a strong sense of purpose, something that drives you, that may be why you can’t see yourself five years into the future. Feeling disconnected from your purpose can make your days feel repetitive and mundane, and long-term goals begin to feel less and less important as the days drag on. When there is no deeper reason to guide your decisions, the future can begin to look undefined.
Yessenia Munoz is a writer pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature who writes on lifestyle topics.
Leave a Reply