Poised for Success

“Don’t let your past dictate your future.” ~ Bill Johnson

“Don't worry about yesterday it ended last night at midnight.” ~ John C Maxwell

Whenever I am involved in a project, I start by doing an analysis.  The analysis is to understand where we are, to define where we want to be, and then to determine how to get there.  When I first started consulting, I was taught that the customers will always ask for the world; consultants temper that with what is reasonable to deliver, then you meet somewhere in the middle.  The unique thing about consulting is that you go in with a single purpose, start at a single date and you look forward towards the goal. 

How many times have we heard “We have tried that before,” “After X years, nothing has changed,” or, “You need to understand the history”?  Any new ideas or projects always gets some sort of push back,  generally, due to the fear of change.  However, there are some people who look towards the past and determine the potential future by past failures.  In the first case, the fear is due to comfort while the second is justified by past events.    

Many thought leaders talk about having the BIG GOAL, but stress striving for the smaller objectives.  The understanding is that small change over time has a big impact.  To succeed, one needs to look forward towards the horizon, as opposed to looking back from where they came.  The past may hold lessons, but the conditions most likely have changed, the people involved are of a different mindset and the need for a new goal has dictated the choices.  As Jim Rohn famously said, "It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go."

Someone recently pointed out that a certain group, when talking about moving forward, always start off talking about the “Good Old Days.”  The comment by this person was, “They seem to forget the struggle and pain involved to create those good old days.”  We are good at minimizing unhappy events in favor of the happy ones.  In any venture, however, as we poise ourselves for success, we have the clear choice to look backwards in time or to set our sails and face forward to the future ahead.