Time to Look Forward

Have you noticed how much of a whirlwind things have been since March of last year? Oh, I guess it wasn’t just me.

That whirlwind has seemed to affect a lot of what I share in this space. It often felt much more difficult to write about looking toward the future as we were forced to react to things in the tax and financial realms as they occurred. The changes came quickly. It was a day-to-day process much of the time, sometimes week-to-week, but rarely did we feel we could afford the luxury of looking month-to-month, never mind getting to longer time periods.

Now as things start to (and hopefully continue) to even out, I believe it is a good time to start taking that longer view. Before we do that, however, first give yourself congratulations. If you are running a business that has survived the stormy COVID seas and can now look to the future, you deserve to take credit for it.

Unless you are in super rare air, though, you did not emerge completely unscathed without any moments of wondering if there would be a future. Now that those times don’t weigh as heavy, it is time to take stock in them.

Were there things you could have done before 2020 that would have left you better prepared to get through that year? Now is the time to not just with they had happened, it is the time to put plans in place so that they happen before the next crisis. Fixing past mistakes can be part of your future vision.

Even though there were lessons to be learned through that experience, though, that does not mean that you should stop looking forward. So also start looking to the future now that there should be fewer speed bumps on that path. Will it take some work to get to where you were at the beginning of last year? That’s okay, the falling back from that level wasn’t your fault.

That type of movement can feel disheartening because you feel like you are fighting from behind. It is not always as thrilling to get to a place you have already been in the past. That previous high point can start to feel like a ceiling, a barrier that keeps you contained. And if you have already experienced what seems like the high point, and it wasn’t THAT great, it is tough to push toward it and impossible to look beyond it.

You must look beyond it, though, and the key to that is timing your goals. But more on that later …

​Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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