Great Leaders Learn to Think Ahead but Act Now!
A friend of mine mentioned the other day that she had sprained her ankle when she stumbled down the stairs. “What were you doing?” I asked.
“Fishing in my purse for my keys.” Two minutes ahead, her mind was already on opening the door, not on taking each step down the stairs.
That got me thinking about how often we live in the future and miss out on the gift of the present. This month with everyone trying to get started on their New Year’s resolutions, we have our thoughts projected into the future. By the end of the year, we will have accomplished _____… but what about right here, right now?
Great Leaders Learn to Think Ahead but Act Now!
How many times have we missed a step, missed an opportunity, or missed a breathtaking moment because we were either in the past or in the future? Just think how effective a leader would be if (s)he were so far ahead that the followers lost sight of him or her — not very effective!
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with thinking ahead and visualizing our goals. Yet sometimes we project ourselves so far into the future that we forget to appreciate the precious moments we have here and now. While we journey forward to reach our goals, each step has to be in the present.
A good way to keep it all in perspective is to learn from the past, plan for the future, but live in the present. Take time to think about where you are going, but when you act, make sure that your mind is focussed on the present or you will risk missing a step. The consequences can be far worse than a sprained ankle.
As a leader of an organization, you can guide your employees and colleagues to focus on building toward the future while keeping them aware of what the company is doing in the present.
In your personal life, whether you are a spouse, child, parent or sibling, embrace the moments at hand, connect with them and live each moment like it is a life time within itself.
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Good one. One other problem I see with thinking too far ahead is sometimes you can visualize yourself into a negative frame of mind (as I tend to do often). Looking down the road and saying “That will take forever” or “That’s going to be difficult” can put us in a de-motivated state. Much better to set smaller goals where you can see relatively immediate results. The problem I have (and I’m sure there are others) is taking the time to sit down and write down a list of goals leading to the big prize at the end.
Michael,
You have hit the nail on the head. It seems like the new ‘trend’ is all about visualization.
Visualization without an effective action plan is nothing more than living a life of fantasy.
The secret is balancing your visualization of the end product along with your daily actions.
Fred Sarkari