Planning for the Future

So this weekend I sat down and construct a careful time line of what I needed to do for the next 5 to 10 years.  After my recent personal successes in April of publishing and in-dojo certification, I realized that there were a number of other things that I could do - and if I stagger them appropriately, I can get them on the list.
So I sat and worked.  By the time I was done I had a series of learning and certifications out for the next 10 years.  It covered a lot of ground:  language, career related skills, in-dojo certificates, maybe even an additional degree.  All cascaded, one leading into the other such that I am not doing too much at a time.  It was a thing of beauty.

And then it hit the wall of reality.

Of everything I was listing, what there was actually going to improve my life (ignore the financial implications - at this point financing anything is not an option)?  For those things that were career related, is there enough there to give me bang for my buck?  Or am I just pursuing things that I want to that will eat time and energy and not really impact my life at all?

Which gets back to choices, of course.  What kind of choices am I making?  Am I making choices on a system that will continue to exist or am I clearly seeing the world as it is and acting accordingly?  I am guilty of that, of course - trying to see the world as I wish to see it rather than how it is. That can work out well and not so well for one of course - sometimes simply by seeing the world as we wish to see it we can bend certain things to our will that common sense tells us would not be possible.

But doing requires the investing of time - even as does the pursuit of those items I made my list for.

Ultimately the question is this:  What future are you really preparing for?