The future arrives daily

As a kid, I remember thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up. My parents and teachers and coaches were always painting a picture of the possibilities the future held. They inspired me with this idea I could be anything I wanted to be.

There's no doubt I lived life looking with excitement toward the future.

Then one day I realized I was there. I was standing in the middle of the day I'd been dreaming of. Only, it looked nothing like I'd imagined. Standing there I was no longer looking to the future as a land of possibilities, but at this distant idea that might one day come save me from my present.

I wonder how many of us rewrite the possibilities of our futures while failing to realize we are already there.

The famous actor John Wayne has this written on his tombstone:

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life; it comes into us at midnight, very clean. When it arrives it is perfect. It puts itself in our hands. It hopes we learned something from yesterday.”

I didn't always get that - this idea that each day is a new slate. As a result, I created a future that was far more about rewriting the past than honoring the gift midnight had just put in my hands.

Today, I still dream about the future. I believe the future has been wired into us as a source of hope.

I've come to realize, though, the future is something we create, not something that finally arrives. The future is the sum of all the answers to the mornings we wake up and ask, who do I want to be today - not who do I dream of being tomorrow.

The beauty in that - for me - is that when you find yourself standing in a future that doesn't much look like you thought it would, you can remind yourself midnight has arrived. It's clean and perfect and it's in your hands. It's here to remind us the past isn't something to rewrite but something to teach us. And ask us:

Who do you want to be today?