021: DeLoreans and Hoverboards

Let’s talk about time travel. Like, for real…..

Now I’m not talking about that sci-fi, mind bending, continuity issue filled time travel from the movies. I’m talking about real everyday time travel. You’re sceptical, I understand, but stick with me until the end and you’ll see where I’m going with this. So get the DeLorean out of the garage, grab your hoverboard, because we’re going back to the future ...or the past ...or the present again ...I dunno, time travel is always a little messy.

One of the most common tropes about time travel is going into the past to change something that will affect your present. That’s at the core of many movies and books on the subject. It plays into the notion of regret that is human nature to all of us. With hindsight we can see how a decision (or lack of decision) has affected us - we wish we could go back in time and change things. I believe that is actually possible, in a way. These movies and stories have the benefit of knowing the future, and their actions are done in order to create a different version of the future. In our version of the story, we don’t have the benefit of knowing the future, but our actions in the present still create the changes.

So how do you change the future when you don’t know what is going to happen? Trust your gut and trust your instinct. That's your brain hitting 88 miles an hour, ready to step into the unknown and make things happen. It’s easy to put the breaks on when we have those moments. To hold back out of fear of what might happen. Change. Change is what could happen, and isn’t that what you’re trying to accomplish with your time travel? To change your future. Have you ever heard the saying - ‘how can you expect a different outcome if you keep doing the same thing?’ Clearly they didn’t know about time travel. How often do you find yourself landing the same type of opportunities, getting the same type of coverage, the same type of reaction to what you are doing? Is it because you keep doing the same thing expecting a different result? If you are taking the same approach today, your future results will be the same as they are now. 

In order to create different results tomorrow, you must do something different today. When you have those lightbulb moments, when the universe is telling you to go down a path, do it. That is the future calling! And Marty McFly is not one to ignore the future.

When you understand that what you do today has a real outcome on what your life will be like tomorrow it gives you the power to shape your future. All too often it’s the things people don’t do that they regret. Those choices you made to play it safe, or to say no to an opportunity - if you could go back in time and change them, would you? Instead - make the choice in the present. Listen to your instincts, understand that those lightbulb moments that seem completely out of the ordinary are what you need to be listening to. Take the chance and you won’t have to worry about going back in time to fix it later.

-Steve