They say programming starts on paper.
Almost all programmers have gone through this at least once:
Many programmers have experienced the frustration of writing code without planning their logic on paper, leading to wasted time and effort.
Same exact case with life.
Just like how writing code without logic is a waste of time, life without a high-level plan is a waste of potential. We see people constantly jumping between paths because they hadn't planned out one.
Without a high-level plan, every path can seem like an opportunity, every new move is shiny.
When coding, every minute you spend planning on paper can potentially save you 10 minutes of wasted work. Problem with most adults is they don't know what to do until they have already wasted enough time. Which means they already had it in them. In a way, we all know what to do. It's just that we have to be deliberate about it, we have to say it out loud, write it in paper or tell the world about it & repeat it! Without a clear endgame, every opportunity can seem tempting.
“It took 15 minutes to realize that those are the things I care about. What's crazy is that I didn’t do this exercise until I was 27. In 27 years, I never took 15 minutes to be more deliberate about my pursuit of... life itself”
– https://www.julian.com/blog/life-planning
From what I've seen, most people know what do they want to do when they're older. But oftentimes they forget it. They forget it through the daily, & the mundane. It's normal, because most days we only want to get things done, we want to get to the next item on the list, we get caught, we lose compass.
For me, I know what may endgame is.
I want to be a writer, or a music producer –or even better: a writer & a music producer. I know this is my endgame because I can imagine myself doing it full-time when I'm 50. But it doesn't stop here. This helps me figure out what's important & what's not from early on.