Leaders, well, everyone for that matter, must avoid moving forward to the past. This is when leaders (and organisations they serve) are in motion but with focus and attention on the past. This can be partly due to leaders not reflecting, as way of avoiding past failures, as well as seeing what can be garnered from the past to enable the future of their enterprise.
There’s a way of interacting with the past, both in life and leadership, that doesn’t help our cause for the future [Click to Tweet]
Related: How Leaders Move Forward To The Past
The thing is we can be so consumed about the past that we don’t see the potential of the present. When we drag the past into our present by living in regrets we become jaded, and discouraged; passionless in our endeavours. So, the past has potential to trip us up depending on how we engage with it…
On the other hand, the future just has about the same potential…
Leadership (in this context includes ‘self leadership’) is inherently forward-looking. That is what vision is about: seeing a clear, ‘for-the-greater’ picture of the future and focusing time, energy and other resources to make it happen.
However, there is fine line between focus on vision, as in the future, and being so lost in it that you can’t see or appreciate the present. You can be so future-oriented you overlook the challenges and perhaps more importantly, the opportunities of the present.
The challenge of now is about seeing how the past has you where you are. It is about seeing the past for what it is: the past. And, sometimes as an enabler for the present in either lessons in failure or the foundations success built.
In relation to the future, ‘the challenge of now’ is seeing the greater future and allowing it to be inspiration for actions, now. It is about learning to be present, in the now.
The challenge of the now is not necessarily about being so consumed with the present that the future is out of sight. It is about intense and intentional focus. Compromised focus in the now means we might not survive, let alone flourish, the the future we see.