Many of us believe a dream is a mysterious message, which needs someone with special prophetic skills to unravel.
New Year is the time to look ahead, to plan for the future, to make preparations. Right?
And yet. Last week I closed the year urging you to be aware of the words of the wise since time immemorial. Be present. Be rooted in the here and now. Tomorrow is a dream, today is real. Do not lose the real in pursuit of the unreal.
I have been a strategy advisor for the longest time. Strategy, surely, is anticipation. My last book was even called Up & Ahead, asking you to look up from the details, and look ahead to the future. So was I busy last week abstaining from the wine I purport to offer?
Great thinkers, poets and mystics across time insist that life is best experienced in the now. It is the only reality we truly have; the past is gone, and the future is yet to come. And yet, another kind of wisdom demands that we think ahead. To succeed in life, we must anticipate, plan and act strategically. Whether in business or in our personal lives, looking ahead is essential to achieving meaningful goals.
How then do we reconcile the call to live fully in the present with the need to prepare for the future?
At first glance, these positions seem incompatible. Being present is about immersing yourself in the moment—feeling it, noticing it, savouring it. Strategy and planning, on the other hand, involve stepping out of the now to envision a future that has not yet arrived. How can one be fully here and now, while also projecting into the there and then?
But these perspectives are not opposites. They are complementary. The truth is that our actions in the present are the only way to shape the future. Planning done well is grounded in the reality of the now, while presence gains meaning when it aligns with long-term purpose.
This week, let’s explore how these two ideas intersect and reinforce each other, both in business and in life.
Think of presence today as the foundation for planning for tomorrow. If you are not currently rooted in any firm reality, all you will plan for are castles in the air. Being present doesn’t mean ignoring the future. It means engaging fully with what is real and actionable at this moment, which includes preparing for what lies ahead.
Living in the now gives us clarity and focus, enabling us to make better decisions about the future. At the same time, thinking strategically about the future ensures that our present actions are not wasted in aimlessness.
The truth is not a distant realm; it is built entirely out of the present. Strategy begins with the now: what we have, what we are good at, what we can improve. It is not a grandiose fantasy; it must be grounded in fact.
Presence and planning, when combined, create a powerful dynamic—we act with intention today to build the future we want tomorrow.
In business, the resolution lies in understanding that the future is built entirely from the present. That is why you will never catch me helping anyone develop purely aspirational, fantastical visions.
Strategic planning is not about escaping the now; it is about using today’s reality—your resources, constraints and opportunities—as the foundation for tomorrow’s success.
Take Amazon, famously obsessive about customer experience, as an example. That focus must occur in deliberate actions right in the here and now. Yet Amazon is also an exemplar of very long-term thinking, investing in things like cloud computing long before any payback happened.
Presence sharpens strategy, and strategy gives presence a purpose.
In our personal lives, the same principle applies. Many of us fall into one of two traps. Some of us live entirely in the future, constantly planning, worrying and chasing goals, while forgetting to actually live.
Others focus so much on enjoying the present moment that they neglect the responsibilities and foresight necessary to build a secure and fulfilling life.
One way to reconcile this is to let your long-term goals guide your actions without letting them dominate your life. Take health as an example.
Regular exercise and a better diet are clearly acts of planning for the future—they prevent illness and improve quality of life down the road. But they are also acts of presence.
Exercising mindfully or enjoying a wholesome meal is about taking care of yourself in the now, not just as an investment for later.
Retirement planning highlights the delicate balance between presence and planning. Saving diligently for the future is wise, but obsessing over tomorrow—sacrificing vacations, joys, and time with loved ones—can strip life of its richness.
Conversely, living entirely in the present, spending every penny on immediate pleasures, risks arriving at retirement unprepared and vulnerable.
The key lies in harmonising the two: saving intentionally while savouring life now.
The challenge is to engage in both worlds at once: to make deliberate, thoughtful choices now that honour the future, while refusing to let the idea of “someday” become a thief that steals the life we already have.
Perhaps this year we can all practise living fully in the now, while letting our actions echo forward with intention and foresight.
www.sunwords.com
