Hey Friend
This past week took me on a road trip. I needed a bit of a break so hopped in my car to go visit my mom and brothers in Orlando. (My older brother doesn’t live there but also came down for a few days). It was designed to be a slow meandering trip with no time frames or expectations. I slept in woods, I slept on the beach, I visited clients and friends both coming and going.
I had a lot of windshield time to think, pray, consider, sing, listen, ponder, look around and think some more. There is a lot of beautiful country and skies between Oklahoma and Orlando. I took the southern route on the way there, going down through Baton Rouge and over. Returning I went up to Atlanta then over through Alabama & Arkansas. The variety of trees and people are amazing!
I turned 50 this week, which put me in a contemplative state. Though my kids assure me it’s not that big of a deal, my personality leans into these rare moments as a time of reflection and projection. I like birthdays in general, but the decade markers seem especially weighty for me in considering who I am, where I’m going, what I’m doing and how I want to move into the future. (I accidentally ran a half-marathon on my birthday as I was thinking about so many things).
What’s so starkly apparent this year, is no matter how much we “plan” for the future, a significant part of it will transpire despite you and I. My good friend Joe Strummer famously said…
The Future is Unwritten.
He wrote songs, so he envisioned the future like every blank page awaiting words to spring forth from his scratchings, scribblings and doodles. Like most artist he experienced being a conduit – where the words just flowed through him and he captured them as they came. But also a contributor, writing and writing and writing till something popped.
I like both those concepts as I deliberate the future.
What will flow through me, that erupts out of who I am?
What will I intentionally generate that advances mankind?
On this trip, one of the books I listened to was an old John Maxwell classic, Today Matters. It’s 12 daily practices that he incorporated into his life over several decades that shaped who he became. When thinking about the future it’s easy for me to diminish today over tomorrow, because there is a reaching for what’s yet not, compared to what’s already here… if that makes sense?
The semantics of past, present, future are peculiar. This present moment just became the past. It’s the most slippery of the three because its existence is almost non-existent. The past is entirely what our life is. The unwritten future is consuming our presenting and converting it into the past, just like that!
Time gifts us with Today, so we can expand the concept of the present into 24 hours. It’s a bit of trickery, but we get to consider all of today as the present… yesterday and before, the past… tomorrow and next week, the future. This artifice construct magnifies the significance of our daily lives.
It’s a contrasting dynamic that’s worthy of wrestling: Making the most of today, because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed is different than living only for today. Spending all our income and not saving for the future over-emphasizes today, whereas most of us, tomorrow is coming and we might need some cash for it!
Would it change how we viewed and interacted with today if we regarded it as the future instead of the present?
Again, semantics?
I’m inquiring because as I find myself “Considering the future” I honestly don’t think it ever includes “today”. And yet to arrive at a visionary destination, not only will it take daily intentionality, but when it arrives it will also simply be a “today”.
Instigating Ideas
1. How would eliminating the concept of the present, alter your approach to today?
2. What are conduit moments for you and can you be premeditated about them?
3. Any road trips worth you taking, even if a daily drive to dream?
4. Can you identify certain daily activities that are “future-focused?”
The notion is that the best way to know the future is to create it. Of course I like the essence of that because it reflects owning our actions to “get there.” I like the goal setting and consistency required as well. It gives us a sense of control, whether true or not. However, I suspect you didn’t create a pandemic future? Yet here we are.
Navigating and reacting though responses, seem to equally contribute to where our today-future take us. Being proactive is preferred, but if we’ve been thrust into an unplanned future, it seems our reactions will also greatly impact our arrival at a future-today that we enjoy.
The note sheet is blank tomorrow. What song, melody or rhythm will we create with our lives that lifts others, truly making today matter? Write the unwritten.
I dare you to contemplate if there is any difference between today-present and today-future. Regardless, like Maxwell says, it matters. I’d love to hear how you make it matter for you? Please share.