"Invest in your next future, not your previous one!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Too many people live for yesterday, today, instead of living today for tomorrow.
Think about that.
You know it's true if you can go through this list of the 10 we make when we invest more in "yesterday" (the past) than in "tomorrow" (the future). As a futurist who lives in tomorrow, I'm deeply sensitive and aware of these issues!
- Clinging to an outdated identity or past glories: People can remain focused on previous success, titles, or achievements. If you see your legacy as an anchor rather than actively working toward the next achievement, you are doing it all wrong./
- Mistaking inaction for caution: You know I'm going to say it, so I will - falling into "aggressive indecision" (the absence of initiative), delaying important decisions, and believing that waiting will somehow provide necessary clarity. It is one of the worst things you can do.
- Fearing failure and avoiding calculated risk: You'll never move forward if you stick to safety. Letting the fear of negative outcomes will absolutely prevent your forward motion, viewing failure as fatal instead of recognizing that missteps are often the foundation for success.
- Refusing to unlearn: Continuing to use old, familiar methodologies because of the "we've always done it this way" mentality, leading to complacency and inertia.
- Letting the negativity of others define our path: Allowing "dream killers," narrow-minded and closed-minded people, to define your future will discourage your ambitions. Reject their pessimism - prove them wrong!
- Focusing on problems instead of opportunities: Let things go! Becoming a "problem identifier" rather than a "solution generator". Oh, and never let a mindset of gloom overshadow potential growth.
- Failing to invest in experiential capital: I've been preaching this for years. Not actively learning by doing is a huge mistake. We're in the era of a shrinking half-life of professional skills, and job #1 has to be to solve the knowledge velocity problem by acquiring new knowledge through testing and trying.
- Choosing short-term comfort over long-term relevance: You'll never win in the long term if you keep playing a short-term game. Making quick-fix decisions rather than confronting long-term realities will result in long-term complications and a failure to align with future opportunities!
- Allowing your personal responsibility to lapse: Blaming "circumstances" or "other people" for your own misfortunes and mistakes, instead of taking ownership of your future, is a huge mistake!
- Resisting the unconventional and the unique: Why do you think I've been writing a book called Being Unique!Not being prepared to "be the crazy one" or refusing to embrace your inner oddness means that you will just be like everyone else - and this will prevent you from challenging norms and seeing opportunities others miss.
So what should you do? These things -- all of which I've covered in my Daily Inspiration over the last 9 years. They all involve forward thinking, reinvention, action, movement, and initiative!
- Choose ambition in the absence of clarity: When the path forward is uncertain or foggy, let your ambition be your navigational beacon and move forward anyway.
- Opt out of fear and pessimism: Refuse to participate in the collective negativity and gloom, as fear-driven mindsets kill opportunity; choose strategic investment over reckless retreat.
- Leave your nostalgia at the door: Recognize that clinging to past success or tradition is a sedative, not a strategy, and that the familiar is failing all around us.
- Reverse your setbacks sooner: Treat failures not as permanent roadblocks, but as fuel for future success, accelerating your bounce-back with velocity and purpose.
- Confront the illusion of invincibility: Do not allow success to breed complacency; continuously challenge the assumption that your past achievements guarantee future success.
- Turn fear into fuel: Use the anxiety and uncertainty you feel as your own personal "opportunity radar," knowing that when you feel fear, it's a signal to accelerate, not brake.
- Act boldly, reject timidly: Choose to be a leader who builds toward growth and possibility, rather than a manager who cuts and delays projects while waiting for things to return to "normal".
- Embrace your uniqueness: Buy my upcoming book! See your distinct viewpoints and ideas as your strategic superpower; do not conform to the consensus when pursuing breakthrough innovation.
- Redefine your idea of success constantly: Do not judge your potential by past accomplishments, but by the next action you plan to take to continuously reinvent yourself.
- Accelerate, always: Do not hesitate or suffer from "aggressive indecision"; speed and decisive action, even with imperfect information, are the new metrics for long-term success.
- Embrace continuous movement: Understand that action is critical for building momentum; slow-motion failure (procrastination) occurs when organizations freeze in the face of rapid change.
- Launch initiatives with delay: Do not delay an idea while waiting for "perfect timing" or "100% certainty," knowing that intentional, imperfect action beats endless planning.
- Become a perpetual skills architect: Commit to continuous re-skilling and knowledge acquisition, recognizing that current professional skills have a rapidly shrinking half-life.
- Put your curiosity into overdrive: Be relentlessly curious and challenge your comfort zone; treat curiosity as a scientific tool that enhances problem-solving and memory.
- Be relentless on knowledge discovery: Master the specialized skill of acquiring just-in-time knowledge from diverse sources to keep ahead of information obsolescence.
Your next future is going to be here sooner than you think.
Don't you think it's time to get moving?
Futurist Jim Carroll, by virtue of his job, is always thinking about tomorrow, today.