The world we view is generally considered to be 3 dimensional - we can view width, height and depth. But another dimension that can be considered is time.
Marty and Doc Brown are planning their return to their own time in this clip from Universal Picture's Back to the Future III. They've travelled back to the year 1885 to the old west, and they need gasoline to reach the 88 mile per hour speed required for time travel. There's no gasoline in 1885! So the plan was to use a train to push them to that speed. But they just don't have the space, they would reach 88 miles per hour only a very short distance before the end of the line. It would be suicide to try and drive off this bridge! But in the future where they are travelling the bridge will be there to drive onto. When they reach 88 miles per hour there will be a seamless transition returning them to the time they were from and solid ground.
These words meant little to me when I first heard them. But then I thought a bit more... there is great wisdom in these words whether you have a time machine or not. This changed the way I look at long term planning. Can I think right now how something will be in five years? What opportunity will be right here based on the progress that I will make or that will be made in my environment?
What is your house going to look like in five years? The bathroom floor, your furnace, the stove, what is going to need to be fixed or replaced? How are you going to improve and renovate your home? Your car - are those tires really going to last the whole time you own it? If nothing is done will they still be in working order in two years? Three?
How about your work? What is your work going to look like next year? Or the year after that? Or even 10 years down the road? Are you going to stay where you are or move on? Will that job you see match with the life you see yourself living? Doc Brown and Marty saw a big empty gorge in front of them in the wild west, but the future brought a bridge! Can you see the bridge being built in your career or life goals?
When you look at your life and you don't see success, remember - you're just not thinking fourth dimensionally! Or if you look at your life and do see success... it will just get better. Do you want to rely on someone else and hope the bridge will show up, or are you going to build it yourself?
