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The 10-year plan for a fulfilling life 🤞

And an Excel SUM shortcut

Hey! Let’s play Two Truths and a Lie. Down below you’ll find two things that you can do with Excel cells—and one thing you definitely can’t. Can you tell which is which?

  1. 📣 Read cells aloud

  2. 📂 Turn cells into folders

  3. 📈 Transform cells into a PowerPoint slide

I’ll meet you at the bottom with the answers. 👀

Excel SUM Tip

Are you still summing cells like this? 👇

If so, I’ve got a time-saving shortcut for you! It’s super useful if you store price lists, expense reports, or sales numbers in Excel and need to do math fast. 🏃‍♀️

💡  Excel Shortcut: Select the desired cell. Then, press the Alt key and the equals sign (=) on your keyboard simultaneously. All the values in the list above that cell will automatically be summed. 

Easy, right? Now you’re one step closer to being able to use Excel without touching your mouse. Which, speaking of, how do we feel about this tweet?

Personally, I’m a-okay with using a mouse in Excel—but lots of commenters couldn’t disagree more. 😅

The 10-Year Plan For a Fulfilling Life

In exactly 10 years, it’ll be June 22, 2033.

Do you know where you’ll be? What you’ll be doing? Who you’ll be with? Of course not! (Your girl doesn’t even know what she’s doing this afternoon 😂).

But I’ve found a thought exercise that can help turn your dreams into reality by visualizing a perfect day in your life 10 years from now.

Milton Glaser, a renowned designer, created the “10-Year Plan” a few decades ago, and the premise is simple—write unabashedly about your dream life a decade in the future. In this vision, no pessimism or skepticism is allowed. The “impossible” of today is the reality of tomorrow. And after completing your essay detailing your perfect day 10 years from now, you re-read it once a year.

One of Glaser’s old students, Debbie Millman, did this exercise and claimed that 17 years later nearly everything from her essay came true.

Don’t get me wrong: I can see why it seems too good to be true. But to me, this exercise isn’t “If I write about XYZ it’ll happen.” Instead, it’s “If I articulate my ideal life, I'll have a better idea of what I’ll need to do for it to happen.”

Plus, there’s something ✨ magical ✨ about just letting yourself dream big. It’s how you identify your limiting beliefs and challenge them. TBH, I wouldn’t have Miss Excel if I hadn’t spotted my limiting beliefs (that I couldn’t perform and that any job that wasn’t 9–5 wasn’t viable) and squished them so I could turn my vision into reality.

The “10-Year Plan” isn’t really so much a “plan” as it is a way to orient yourself. By revisiting it once a year, you’ll reflect on where you’ve been and whether the path you’re on is leading you in the right direction.

Worst case scenario, you spend an hour-ish writing. Best case scenario? You get a clearer picture of your aspirations to help design your dream life.

Sounds like a pretty good tradeoff if you ask me. 😃 

*This is sponsored advertising content.

So, what’s something Excel can’t do? While Excel can read cells aloud and turn them into folders, it can’t turn them into PowerPoint slides. I bet you it’s only a matter of time though—especially with AI!

Stay Exceling,

Kat