Are you pulling your future forward?

I recently received this amazing gift in the mail. It was an art piece (the red tandem bike in the picture) and I was shocked to see it was from a former client!

Not only do I love the art piece, granted it is art gallery caliber, but more importantly the story behind it.

You too will be inspired by this story as you consider how you can ‘pull your future forward’.

How this story started.

When we start a coaching engagement, we do a few exercises with our clients to assess where they currently are. What is working? What is not working? Where are you frustrated? Where are you experiencing battle? What would you hope to change by the end of this coaching engagement?

These types of questions provide perspective for where the client is right now. Similarly to the idea the you need to first turn on ‘current location’ before you can use your iPhone for map directions. These exercises ‘turn on’ the current location.

Like all of us have experienced from time to time, this client, Kyle, was in a funk when we started our coaching engagement. Yes, some things were going well, but as a whole, he was not experiencing ‘life to the full’, thus he reached out for coaching.

As we worked together unpacking his answers, Kyle had been making personal sacrifices for the greater good of his family. However, sometimes in the act of helping others, we can make withdrawals that go a little too deep in our self-care account. Overlooking our own self-care for too long leads to frustration and a lack of joy.

Kyle is very creative and painting has always been an outlet for him. However, in recent years due to relocation to different cities for work, being an intentional dad to his daughter, and being a good husband, he put his art on hold. What felt like a small sacrifice at the time, actually became a significant contributor to his wandering.

What are your future dreams?

Once we understand our perspective, we then need to assess where we want to go. What is the potential for your life? What do you want your future to look like in 1, 3, 5+ years ahead? As Kyle worked on this exercise, one item he wanted in the future was an art studio.

After further discussion, it surfaced how important art was in his life. An outlet for creativity. A way to bless others. A way to bring glory to God for how he is uniquely and wonderfully made.

The next step in this process is to start pulling our future-forward. All of us have hopes and dreams of what we want to do in the future. Yes, some of them are dependent on other things to happen. For example, ‘I want to be intentional with my grandkids’. However, my kids need to grow up first, get married, have their kids, in order for me to be a grandpa.

However, there are other items in our ‘future’ that are not dependent on others. We want to start a company. We want to write a book or record a song. We want to disciple other men or women. We want to speak on a particular subject.

However, we often have mental blocks stopping us from going after them. Fears. Concerns. Nerves. What if it doesn’t work? What if I don’t like it?

Over the next few months, Kyle and I worked on many topics during our coaching, but one critical element was pulling his future forward and getting art back in his life. With each coaching call, there was a call to action in taking a step forward. Get quotes on studios, evaluate finances, modifying his schedule to allow for painting, and more.

How this story ends….for now.

Well, he opened his art studio! The first piece of art he made is the one he gave me!! Kyle titled it ‘4-in-Tandem’ because he participated in a group coaching call with two other people, plus myself leading, thus four people.

Per his note, the title is ‘4-in-Tandem’ because together, the four of us, covered incredible ground during our calls leading to growth and transformation in all.

So what is in your future? How can you take steps today to pull it forward?

Please share with me what you are working on!

Artist: Also, here is the website for the artist, William Kyler Davis, if you want to contact him for his work.

Photo credit: My daughter, Kiley Carlson, took some awesome photos of this art! Thank you!

As always, thank you for reading my blogs! Contact me at cory@corymcarlson.com if you want to discuss how we can work together to ‘pull your future forward.’

#blog