Stop looking in the rear-view mirror.

Have you ever thought how difficult it would be to drive your car if you could only look at the rear-view mirror?  I am pretty sure that even thew most skilled drivers would do considerable damage to others who are on the road as well as damage the car they are driving.

The same is true with our lives.  We spend so much time looking at the past, that it’s difficult to navigate the future.

It is so easy to look at what we have done and talk about our successful accomplishments, but it is another to share our compelling vision for our future.  This is really hard to do when we are so focused on the here and now… the pressing deadlines, the daily grind, the responsibilities that require our attention now.

Instead of thinking about what great successes you may have had in the past, challenge yourself to spend 5 minutes – yes, just 5 minutes – each day thinking about the future.

Each day choose one aspect of your life – family, work, personal, etc. – and think about how you would describe the future in that one area to someone else.

To help with this challenge, check out what John Kotter has to say about creating a poweful vision for change.

To learn more about me, click here.

How we think about the future is perhaps even more important than what we think about the future. By unitizing a method for visioning we can help build the future we want and need, rather than simply reacting to a future that happens to us.   Check out this amazing story by Matthew Mitchell.

Robert Shindell - Stop Looking in the rear view mirror

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My leadership journey began more than than 25 years ago with The Leadership Challenge, the most trusted source on becoming a better leader.  So far, more than 2 million copies of the book have been published in over in over 20 languages. Based on Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s extensive global research, this life changing approach to leadership and their enduring work is critical to help us navigate the world of work today.  The basic premise is that leadership is a relationship that must be nurtured and, most important, that it can be learned.