Dating : Thursday Musings: How Do We Propel into the Future?

Do you believe we can leapfrog into the future?

If I tell you that it is possible,

Would you want to listen?

I don’t mean propelling ourselves into the Futuristic World where we get to harness and deploy the capability to fly or network with Martians.

I do mean how we can be a better self from yesterday, the day before and months before. How can we become better every day?

How can we beat the person that we see in the mirror?

I believe that we have to start somewhere and for that to happen, we have to stop overthinking.

• Should we do this instead?
• Shall we take a step back to re-plan?
• Is our plan water-tight?

Actually, it’s a lot better to have a plan firmed up and start execution. Most plans aren’t perfect. We can update them along the way. The important thing is the execution. Without execution, there wouldn’t be completion.

We would miss all opportunities in the midst of attempting work perfection.

One thing that we have to recognise — Plans take time to complete and the biggest assumption we make is the Macro-Environment is on a standstill as we perfect our paper plans.

That is simply not true.

The Macro-Environment changes rapidly, daily. In this regard, it is far better to focus our attention on execution and be able to update our plans to make relevant on a daily basis. It is a far better deal.

Especially so when it comes to Personal Development. That course we have always wanted to attend? Those books that we have always wanted to read?

Hit them. Then the improvement will come. Then this becomes a logical segue into productivity.

Productivity isn’t a business term. It can be applied at the individual level as well.

When it comes to Productivity, it is always measured against Time.

It boils down to the amount of time a day is directed at working to achieve our goals. It is important that we take stock. We can start journaling the time spent on each activity everyday for a week. We might be surprised at the amount of time spent of activities that doesn’t contribute to achieving our goals.

As a matter of fact, I do encourage readers to try it.

It has done miracles for me. I have personally identified and redirected 30% of my time to productive activities directed at achieving my goals.

There are times when we peg our goals on someone else instead of ourselves.

Does competition ring a bell?

We have to ask one important question and answer it genuinely. Is our competition more important than our progression? Naturally, we first need to recognise not all environments are competitive. It is not and it doesn’t have to be.

There are some environments where winning happens at the expense of others (competitive sports) and there are other environments where many can win based on their mindset.

One of those is a progressive mindset where people only look to become better than themselves from yesterday, and everyday. They becoming better doesn’t stop us from being better.

For example, endurance sports.

The progression comes from competing against racing against the clock and / or competing against our best records set yesterday.

Maybe the World would be a much better place if we could recognise that. If we want to be at the top, we have to focus on beating ourselves from yesterday first. Forget about the others for now.

Let them matter only when they do.

The ability to thrive in competitive or progressive environments requires both time and effort.

When it comes to Time, we have to use it sparingly.

Reserve it for the things that really matter. When it comes to effort, we can splash it out generously on work that will bring us to our goals and vision. We have to commit to relentless hard work in order to reach the destination we seek. When both time and effort come together, we are one step a day closer to our goals.

Remember.

Time and Effort matters.

If I can think of next important factor that will make us a better version of ourselves — I think that would be “Showsmanship”.

Success requires resilience. Resilience is about “Showsmanship”.

We have to discipline ourselves to show up when we are tired. Show up when we don’t feel like it. Show up when everyone is against us. When we show up to grind everyday, we are increasing our chances of tasting that success we have always dreamt of.

We also need to surround ourselves with highly progressive individuals and network.

There is this saying: “Want to go fast, go alone. Want to go far, go with others.”

What if we want to go fast AND far?

I would postulate that we will be alone at the beginning. As we make progress with our endeavours, we are going to meet lots of people. Find those whose pace of life matches ours. Get them to buy into our vision and mission. It’s then, we can go fast and far.

Plus, we get to learn from the best in our network.

I believe that the act of becoming the best versions of ourselves daily will propel us into the future, no matter how uncertain that future may look like.

We are our best investments and when we do invest in ourselves, with time, we will reap the returns of becoming an individual ready to take on the World’s biggest stage.