The Future is Cancelled – Getting it Back
The present you enjoy now was built yesterday. You’re building the future right now.
“Future is now. If you want to become a leader in 2020, then it is not what you do in the year 2020. It’s what you do today.” Vijay Govindarajan
Living in reverse:
Leaders who react to the past, without the future in mind, live in reverse.
Ask lack luster leaders what they want and they’ll tell you what they don’t want.
Complaining is safer and takes less
responsibility than dreaming.
Ask mediocre leaders what they like and they’ll tell you what they don’t like.
Dislike and dissatisfaction are the
only power of the helpless.
Powerful leaders know the present is a platform for the future.
Evaluate every daily decision by the future it builds.
People decisions with the future in view:
People, not circumstance, determine success. Surround yourself with future builders.
- Losers on your leadership team narrow the platform you’re building. Every time you dance around someone the future shrinks. Every energy drainer anchors you in the past. Everyone who isn’t rowing with rows against.
- What future are the people on today’s team capable of building? Look around and determine where teammates are going. Do you want to go there?
- Does your team display hope building, forward looking attitudes?
You’re tied together – yoked – with teammates like oxen pulling carts. Everyone ends up in the same place. Do you want to go there?
Development and the future:
Leadership development is future building. Sadly, most development is an attempt to solve something that happened in the past.
Determine the leadership attitudes and behaviors that build your future and develop them. More than that, demand them from everyone on the team.
Maintaining the present is preserving the past and canceling the future. The future vanishes quickly. Act now. It’s slipping away.
How can leaders become better future builders?
What future are you building today?
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Dear Dan,
I agree that future is now. We need to act now to make our future better. And to act now, we need good vision to see future. It is not enough to think for today challenges in future. There are lot of unforeseen challenges and difficulties that may arise in future. And leaders should be able to analyze and visualize that future challenges now. People make common mistake of taking present scenario for future. They also tend to generalize the the results taking present actions in future. So, leaders can become future builders if they can envision the future challenges now.
I am building honorable future now. I work in a manner that can feel me proud of my work. I love to be different in terms of achievement, and accomplishment.
Thanks Ajay.
Very powerful idea,”Envision future challenges now.” One way to do this is to discern patterns from the past. Do we have a predictable downturn every year or month? Is so? How can we build the appropriate future today?
The other thought you give me is forgetting about things in the past so that they don’t dominate thinking in the present. Perhaps we should forget about a past success because it invites us to repeat past activities, for example.
When talking about the future, I use the quote:
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
Søren Kierkegaard – Danish philosopher and theologian 1813-1855.
Thanks James. Great quote. Thanks for adding it.
I agree…the people on your team definitely have a major impact on how you take hold of the future and own it. Negativity only drains energy and stifles hope. We all need to envision a brighter future by learning from the past and changing the present.
Learn from the past – change the present = create the future. Thanks Tagrid. Great seeing you again!
Love this post! I especially like the quote that says: “Evaluate every daily decision by the future it builds.” There is a respect for the past that must be a part of the conversation, but it should be about learning from what worked and what didn’t and using that information to move forward! Too often folks get enthralled or embittered by the past and fail to create a brighter future as a result. Or worse yet, they fail to consider the consequences of today’s actions and how those actions impact their future. Good advice for everyone – leader or not.
Thanks Vicki.
The sentence you mention is the one that challenges me. I often evaluate a decision by how effective it is at solving something in the past. Obviously we must fix things that aren’t working.
But true leadership decision making is always about building the future. That means the way we evaluate those decisions should be based in the future, not the past.
Thanks also for reminding us about the dangers of the past…bitterness or complacency.
For me, getting my own house in order helps me better build my future.
The more in harmony my insides are the better everything else seems to go.
As within, so without.
True happiness not lies in the things one has but the things one can do without.
The only true success is happiness.
The more connected to the conscious contact with my Higher Power feels the more seems is all right with the world. Others SEEM Glorious when my insides feel great! When my insides feel crappy, all humans outside get severely judged and are pretty crappy! Funny how that lens of mine works! Yours work like dat?
Now I GET that does not seem to jive with making sense with goals, sales, deadlines yada yada yada!
However when the time for my last breath is to be drawn, what is really important then? Made one more deadline? Made one more sale OR I was RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY and I am fully ready for what is NEXT!!!! If there is anything next!!!!!!! LOL
Like the way the Dude mentioned TODAY, move along Grasshoppa, move it up to each passing moment and get your PRESENT! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I Concur!
Shifterp! Back to My Present!
Thanks Scott.
“As within, so without” That’s powerful…I think it relates to this topic. If I am consumed with past failures or successes in my present then my future is drawn to my past.
There are no failures, it’s just the way it is.
I think a better word is content than happiness because contentment occurs more frequently.
Also, I worry for the mood swings; the happier you are, the sadder you become — this statement could be a fallacy.
However, a leader should maintain his/her composure as often as possible. Could lose respect if others see loss of composure.
Contentment provides the stability most followers want.
I read these and the comments and you always talking about God’s children preaching about what God wants but your last statement here really saddens me. It seems you have no faith in what you believe or else you would know where you are going.
I see this a dangerous to anyone that you may share with if you don’t believe why should they.
Just my observation
God bless
Kymee
Energy that is wasted on the past is energy that could be spent on the future.
Ding Ding!!
WOW! What a call. Thank you for recasting the “dreamer” not as a head-in-the-clouds do-nothing but as an architect of the future. Passion is contagious. If we can lead passionately and cast a vision worth achieving, our teams will shift from maintaining the present to building the future.
Thanks Justin.
I feel hope in your comment. Stop blaming everyone for getting stuck in the past and describe an irresistible future. Of course, part of that description includes an explanation of why the past is unacceptable any longer.
These statements are based on our limited time as humans, eventually we die. So, create the future we want by manipulating the present.
I agree team building and having an understanding of future wants is important. However, knowing your current responsibilities and how they effect your future is most important. Because, these responsibilities will demand compromises for the future.
Therefore, you must learn to be happy with your past, present, and future; no matter what they are. Acceptance is the a great characteristic of a leader.
A powerful post which hits close to home
Great blog ….past it on to our MD
Dan, agree to this post 100%. The future is here and now! If you wake up late you end up late…and do no see what’s going on arround you untill is too late. awake now and do-