Look Ahead

Your Challenge Today:

Look ahead …

By Bernadette Kathryn, LMT, IHLC

Nobody gets to live life backward.

Look ahead, that is where your future lies.

~ Ann Landers

Look ahead … that is where you future lies. Learn from your past, live for today and prepare for your future, that’s the best we can do for ourselves. It’s a balancing act … how do we creatively support ourselves balancing the lessons from our past while planning for our future? Learning from the past is key ~ being able to listen to feedback, assess our progress, be honest with ourselves about our efforts and look at our reality without judgement. There is a distinct difference between assessment and judgement … can you  be fair to yourself and others when evaluating circumstances?

• Are your actions predictable and congruent with your stated positions?

• Do you follow through on your promises and avoid making excuses?

• Is you behavior dependable, can your friends and family count on you?

• Do you respond truthfully (authentically) to constructive criticism?

• How do you treat confidants?

• Are you trustworthy?

• How do you express negative information?

• Under what circumstances do you lie?

• Do you exaggerate the positive and diminish the negative?

• Is your behavior consistent with your stated values, even when no one is watching?

• Do you take responsibility for your mistakes, omissions, and shortcomings?

• Do you make others’ best interests equally important to your own?

When we are living an authentic life ~ we can enjoy the opportunity to be spontaneous, live life out loud and not worry about our integrity. When we are living our life according to our moral compass it’s easy to relax, let loose and look ahead, that’s where our future lies.

Taking personal inventory on a regular basis is an important ingredient in planning our future. When we look ahead and plan our next steps, writing the next chapter, it’s important that we do it with accurate information. Having accurate information is the only way to make an informed decision. We do this regularly with our finances, when we want to make a job change or when we want to make a large purchase such as a home ~ we perform our due diligence to ensure that our investments are sound. It is wise to do the same with ourselves on a regular basis, taking inventory helps set the stage for our next chapter. Look ahead to where your future lies and live like someone left the gate open!