Truth Be Told

As we grow as people, there is this thing called “long vision of time” I routinely talk on. Long vision of time is simply how far out are you looking? How far out are you planning? How far out do your goals reach? Are you planning for a month from now? Are you planning for a year from now? Maybe you are planning for ten to twenty years from now. As kids we are often planning for the next day or the next test. As we get to high school, maybe we are planning towards college. As adults, some may be planning for living day to day and some are planning the length of time out to retirement. Whatever length of time our vision goes to, I always push people to go longer, and double that length of time vision. The longer we plan out to, the more focus we place on that length of vision and the more likely we are to take action and initiate habits to hit those areas of focus.

But...there are times when maybe we just need to live in that day, be present every day, and not forget about the implications of today. I spoke to a great group of people the other day on topic, and after the leadership workshop, I had a good, solid young man email me about his life and some of his experiences. In that email, he talked to me about focusing on the day. He went on to tell me, even though he is a highly accomplished young man, that he doesn’t necessarily plan for the long term, and he focuses on winning each day.

It was in his email, that he was teaching me. I focus on the long term, and I teach focusing on extending your long vision of time no matter what. As tragedy struck our family, I truly began to focus on winning each day, living each day with the attitude of being grateful for where we were, embracing our renewed strengthened purpose, and moving forward each day. This young man, in his email, taught me that as I teach and preach extending your long vision of time, I must also teach that we must win each day. We must embrace each day and make forward progress as best we can. When we face our daily challenges, sometimes just getting through the day is a victory. Your life challenges, like a failed relationship, a crucial or difficult conversation, losing a job, making a mistake, a failed conversation, a bad decision, or something truly tragic, humbles us, and gives us true opportunity to bring direct focus to that day. We can’t live or plan for beyond that day. And that’s ok.

Truth be told, as we walk our journey, there are days I am broken. There are moments in a day in which I become consumed about extending my long vision of time for Nash and his challenges. I think about the new him, I think about sports, I think about girlfriends and future proms, I think about friendships, I think about college, I think about marriage for him, I think about life after he is out of our house, I think about life after Karen and I are gone for him. I think about….I think about…..I think about…..I think about……. I think about……………………….

It is all those things, I think about. In those moments, I can feel worry creep in, concern creep in, and namely I feel satan creep in. My planning for a long vision of time for Nash becomes overwhelming. Truth be told, I am broken at times, as I think about those things. But as this great young man taught me a few weeks ago, we must not always be hyper focused on one year from now, or five years from now, or even twenty years from now, we must focus on winning that day.

We must also let the truth be told, prove them wrong, and lean in to God daily. In our dark moments, we must be grateful, we must focus on the positive, we must focus on small progress made daily, we must focus on laying it all at God’s feet because he’s got this. We always try to overplan the future, but God lets life events happen that reminds us he is in control. When we humbly lay it all at God’s feet, give him full control of our lives to open the right doors and close the right doors, an inner peace takes over. We quit trying to push our own plan, push our own goals, and push our own way to fruition. Having that inner peace that God is there every day, he is present, and in control of every day, allows for one’s greatest self to emerge out of our soul for the most beautiful things on the planet to happen to us.

Now, we can’t just stop our long vision of time either, but we must embrace today. It is a combination of both. Focusing on one and not the other will create an imbalance and loss of a harmonious life rhythm. We must focus on both, but we must not let our focus on long vision of time consume our mind, otherwise we will enter into satan’s playground and get hurt. Our mind will damage our day that day. So today, my challenge to you is to focus on today. I want you to do one or several of the following - be grateful today, look for the good today, maintain hope today, believe in yourself today, take some sort of action on something today, replace “have to” with “get to”, encourage at least two people today, give out one compliment to someone today, or be kind to yourself and smile!