As a business professional, your focus is always moving forward; calculating the next move in your business strategy, the next goal to be achieved or the next great innovation. Looking ahead allows you to be introduced to opportunities that can benefit your company long term. Looking ahead also helps you avoid pitfalls or being caught off-guard.
Sometime you can’t prepare for what lies ahead, though. Looking back can also be extremely effective. It’s a lot like using your rearview mirror when you’re driving. It’s necessary to drive safely, but if you spend too much time looking back, you won’t see what is right in front of you. How do you get the most out of your past to create the best possible future?
Get Perspective
Take a hard, honest look at yourself and your company. Do you like what you see? Are you passionate about the work you’re doing? If you don’t love it, quit. If you do love it, make a stronger commitment to success. Don’t just go through the motions. Steve Jobs said it best, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”
Learn From Mistakes
While dwelling on the past isn’t healthy, learning from it can be beneficial. You cannot expect things to change or improve if you’re stuck in the same patterns. Look back to what you did in the past to land you in the position you’re in now. Use that information to avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly. Continue to use information from past patterns to correct your company’s future efforts.
Reshape Your Past
When you look back to see what you did wrong, don’t forget to also notice what you did right. Look for your successes and what you did to achieve them. Make note of the methods you used to reach success and plan to use those methods again. Build on your positive experiences in the past to create more experiences in the future.
Get Inspired
Before and after photos are always popular because you can see just how much progress has been made. When looking ahead, don’t fixate on how far you still have to go. Record the progress you are making as you move along. It’s safe to say you are now accomplishing more projects and making more money that you did when you began your business. Take note of how far you’ve come. It’s probably a lot farther than you think.
Ask What If?
A few years ago, researchers from the Kellogg School of Management and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered the power of counterfactual reflection, or the act of asking, “What if X, Y, or Z didn’t exist or didn’t happen?” In an experiment in which employees were asked to imagine what things would be like if the company they worked for had never come into existence, the results were an increased employee commitment to the company. Looking back into your company’s origin from this standpoint is a great way to get inspired about the direction in which you are working.
When looking back, it’s always important to prevent yourself from getting stuck in the “coulda, woulda, shoulda” trap. Instead, glance in the rearview mirror just long enough to ensure you’re moving forward in the right direction.
