Before the end of this year, I’ll be posting the highlights for me and what I hope for next year. It’s a good practice to be able to reflect back upon the year and name your accomplishments as too often we only stare at our shortcomings.

While it can be tempting to only point out major accomplishments… and possibly despair at having so little… it’s critical to look at the small things.

Last year, after much reflection, I began to crystalize what I hope for the future. In a personal journal entry, I wrote out what the ideal would look like ten years from now.

Every year, I hope to slowly gain some traction towards that ideal day taking the long road to get there… moving slowly… and being predictable every day. So far, I’m succeeding.

It’s not the flash-in-the-pan overnight success story that has been rammed down our throats. My father-in-law jokes I’m an overnight success story fifteen years in the making.

I shake my head at the slick copywriting on websites that tell people, “I wish I knew this earlier so I could’ve succeeded faster.” Then what?

You got there faster… and…. now what?

Nobody ever wants to answer that question.

Yes, long, steady and predictable is boring, but you also have the stamina to continue for the rest of your life. You’ve built it up and have become an example to emulate, not an outlier to wonder about.

I’ve met people who held steady, middle-class jobs (not making more than 50k) for their entire lives and retired millionaires through boring investing methods (watching their cash-flow and index-fund investing).

In contrast, I’ve also met people making $250k a year who don’t have a penny to their name because they spend their money as fast as it comes in and get suckered with the latest fast-track investing fad.

Patience is a hard skill to cultivate, but it overwhelmingly wins out in the end.

Learn to love boring and you’ll be amazed at where you are ten years from now.