Hindsight With Foresight Brings Insight
We recently published an article in our Final Say column written by Kate Michels entitled “Hindsight With Foresight Brings Insight.”
The general population thinks hindsight is better than foresight because it comes with certainty. Through hindsight, we are able to know exactly what mistakes we made. However, professional coaches know that foresight – seeing what is possible – is also required to build a powerful future.
One of the great reasons for working with a professional life coach is to gain foresight, developing the skill of being able to foresee and then create the future by knowing what actions to take. And for professional coaches, it is beneficial to recognize that the gift of hindsight for our clients and ourselves is just as important as foresight.
Foresight is the ability to predict what will happen or what might be needed in the future. Hindsight is the ability to understand an event or situation only after it has happened.
Hindsight and foresight are two processes that are able to prepare us for making it through the unexpected events life brings our way. As Robert Sharma says “The real trick in life is to turn hindsight into foresight that reveals insight.”
That is the main thing I discovered over the past few years as my life went through some major adversities. One month after my mother underwent cancer treatment and passed away, I received my own life-threatening cancer diagnosis.
On January 4, 2021, I was admitted to the hospital with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Blast, which almost took my life. There were five days where it was not certain whether I would pull through or not. The cancer treatment requires six to nine months of focused healing, and I was not able to really work during that time.
As I shared my diagnosis during a coaching session, my coach asked, “What if you died?” This was one powerful question, which took a combination of hindsight and foresight to answer.
Throughout much of 2020 and 2021, I was only able to work the bare minimum. Thankfully, the preparations I made prepared my business to survive these turns of events, and in many ways, even to thrive.
Steve Jobs said, “You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect the dots looking backward, so you have to trust that somehow the dots will connect in the future.” With the assistance of some great coaches and my team, many of the dots were connected, thus making it easy for more dots to easily come together as time and life went on.
Coaches know how to take the past, mix it with the present, and build a beautiful future. Do this for yourself as well. Look back at where you started. Remember what you saw as possible. Take all that you have experienced, and add in all the skills and insights you have developed.
Include everything – both the good and the terrible – because in all that we experience, there is beneficial information. Project this information into the future and create your next great adventure. My business continues to support me, my coaches and my clients because I saw what existed and what was possible.
Unexpected, unpredictable and even terrible things happened over the past two years, and wonderful, adventurous and miraculous things happened as well. Life happens, but if we use the benefits of hindsight and have the certainty to add it to foresight with some predictability, we can reveal the insights … and the possibilities.
How does it apply to you in your life?
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