Like lemmings going over the cliff in droves, each of us starts the New Year with great resolutions. Myself included! But few of us take the time to set our grand intentions for our future. Not surprising, since most of us have a hard time seeing the future when the present is pushing us forward at breakneck speed. With time seemingly slipping through our hands, we act hastily making choices on the run in hopes of satisfying our unrelenting Inner Tyrants shouting “I want it. I want it NOW!”
Yet taking the time to fast-forward, or what I call Future Forwarding, gives you the perspective needed to focus on the most meaningful—even profound desires of your life. Only then will you have created the opportunity for a great leap forward for yourself, your business, your loved ones and, y(our) world.
We have all felt the growing desire for meaning, agency, authenticity, and contribution. We’ve had the time to step back and reevaluate our lives as a result of the pandemic. Whether you are wanting to change career lanes or looking for a new on-ramp to the future, we can and will have a significant impact on our future with our commitment to peak performance and peak experience. We are striving not only for greater financial freedom and security but greater meaning and possibility. We will not only get what we are after, we will also give back to the max. These times require that we tell the truth as fast as we can (especially to ourselves) or we’ll get brought down by the next curve of change.
Your life’s purpose and realizing our core desires are a funny thing, most of us are not aware of what ours are. By the time we’ve “arrived,” most of us don’t remember what moved us in the first place. Or we realize that what used to juice us doesn’t do so any longer. Purpose and our driving desires are pushed to the bottom of the priority list.
Yet more than ever, this is when we need to dig for our renewed purpose and our dearest desires! It doesn’t matter if we are leading major organizations, running fast-growth small businesses, or taking our family business to the next incarnation. The future doesn’t wait. Suddenly you’re 40, 50, 60, 70 or 80 asking, “How’d I get here so fast?” With no time to waste, right now is the time to reclaim what matters most in your work and your life. Isn’t it the perfect time for all of us to take stock and maximize our time on the planet by becoming masters of our own future?
Staying ahead of the curve of change by creating our Future by Design™ is the only hope we have of sustaining our way of life on the planet. Certainly, this applies to your life plan as well as to your professional and/or business mission and future planning. Fueled by our core desires, our purpose is like the stick shift that kick-boosts us to another level as we get upended or make a wrong turn. No matter what comes at us, having clarity around our desires and a hold on your purpose for yourself, your business, or your work will keep you fueled for the long winding road ahead.
What will mark your success in the endeavor will be a clear statement of your core desires, your unifying purpose, passion to succeed, and a commitment to a greater future. It is my core belief that the greater purpose that will catapult us ahead of the curve is a commitment to social responsibility and sustainability, which has evolved our profit-driven focus towards the new way of life.
What about your life/career? Are you satisfied? Feeling in sync with what you are doing, being? Does your work or business still provide deep fulfillment? Are your relationships filling you up?
We all want to respond with a resounding YES! But most of us can’t do so honestly. Some can because they’ve stepped back from the demands of their life just long enough to be truly honest about their lives, their relationships, and their work.
As leaders, we can seize the chance for greater self-actualization and self-realization in our families, our workplace, community and the world. It’s time to revolutionize our thinking. The journey starts with YOU! Let’s face it: if you can’t lead yourself, how can you hope to lead your team, organization, or your family into a greater future?
When we are in sync with what matters most at our deepest core, everything else falls into place. With our purpose intact, we can more readily rediscover and rank our heartfelt life desires and values, including legacy goals, so that our life plan will support our true aims for our remaining time on the planet. As a result, we’ll become inspired and ultimately take more ownership of our plan, because of its relevance to our life and the greater future we envision!
My purpose is to provide you with a road map; to describe routes to the future that are open to you and the likely conditions you will encounter along the way to owning your signature greatness DNA. Although I can speculate about how the road and road conditions will intersect and influence one another in the future, I can’t offer firm predictions. The willingness to understand the challenges ahead, to embrace change rather than attempt to ward off the forces of change, and to live and lead with greatness.
If you pay attention and make the effort to upgrade the facets of your life and work that need revamping or retooling, you will be able to stay on track in the fast lane and lead others to their greatness.
Put the future in your own hands!
Photo by Cristian Escobar via Unsplash
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