You Have a Better Short Game When You Have a Long Game

Your long game is your vision of the future. It both informs and brings meaning to here and now. 

Fortunately and unfortunately, this is true whether your vision of the future is positive or negative. So it matters what you think about. It’s important that your vision of the future is one you want to live in. We might call it your preferred future.

The here and now is where your short game gets played. When you have a vision of your preferred future, it provides context and direction to your choices, behaviours and actions. It also influences the things you tend to notice, and the resources and people you attract to yourself. 

Often our future is informed by our past. This can include:

• Memories

• Family scripts

• Beliefs about who you are

• Beliefs about what you can do

• Default behaviours related to contexts and scenarios (Situational patterns)

• Defence behaviours related to certain triggers (Chronic patterns)

• The way you have always done it

• Your worldview

A future pulled present means making the shift from being a prisoner of past thoughts, memories, identities, beliefs and behaviours, to being a pioneer of new possibility. Possibilities like:

• What do you want to create?

• What do you want to experience?

• Who do you want to experience it with?

• What do you want to achieve?

This takes a bit of work on your part. It’s the real work of leadership (getting yourself out of the way of yourself). It’s the work of self-awareness and adding to your resourcefulness so you have more choice and agency for building better futures. It’s equal parts unlearning and learning. This is what good coaches can help with.

A compelling vision of the future is a context for informing now. In leadership this matters for you and your team. Creating a compelling vision of the future is some of the most important work you can do. But first, you might have to confront yourself!