Daily Inspiration: “Aligning to tomorrow? You’ll succeed when you get beyond a series of awful decisions driven by the delusion of denial!”

“Aligning to tomorrow? You’ll succeed when you get beyond a series of awful decisions driven by the delusion of denial!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Most people believe that they can keep doing tomorrow what they are doing today, even when what they are doing today is not working.

They are wrong.

And, in many cases, people keep making the same awful decisions that bind them to a series of regular failures, driven by the delusion of denial that guides their thinking.

That sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it, but it’s true in many cases! As someone who deals with the realities of tomorrow, I see it all the time.

The fact is, denial of your reality is not going to lead you to a better outcome – and making bad decisions based on that denial only makes things worse.

Take a look around – we are surrounded by companies and leadership teams that believe that their current way of doing business will carry them into the future; that their current product line will be powerfully relevant in the years to come; that current staffing strategies provide them with the skills they need to go into the future; that the current lineup of competitors they face today are the same ones they will face tomorrow.

None of these things are true – and yet, their impending disrupted future is the result of a series of bad decisions based upon the denial of their reality of tomorrow.

People make a series of bad decisions all the time based on denial of their reality too. They don’t take the time to invest in the new skills training which might lead them to a better future. They don’t dare take on the risk of trying to do new things, with the result that they remain stuck doing old things. They refuse to acknowledge that their current mindset of negativity won’t allow them to chase the optimistic opportunities of tomorrow. They simply can’t accept that what they are doing today might be entirely irrelevant tomorrow. They continue with behaviors and patterns that are truly destructive and yet refuse to admit that they have a problem. They cannot comprehend the reality of the massive disruptive trends that are set to change their world.

The result is that things don’t work out too well for them – because they continue to make bad decisions based on the denial of their reality.

The fact is, denial is the most dangerous of all drugs.

End your addiction to denial. The only way forward to a better future is to shake off your denial and avoid the bad decisions that lead you to an awful future. Instead, chase a different outcome – accept the inevitability of change, and make better decisions that will guide you there.

Move forward, not back!