Back To The Future.

Building a bigger, better, and more prosperous future with your mind on the past is impossible. You can’t climb a mountain looking downward, and you can’t race a car looking backward. If we want to succeed, our head, mind, eyes, and energy must be pointed in one direction, with one focus… Or we need to move so slowly and cautiously that we run out of time before we reach the finish line.

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DISCLAIMER: This Podcast is for Construction Industry Business Owners who want to strengthen themselves, and their Businesses only. If you’re looking for cheesy leadership, business and development advice, watch a TED talk. Because that’s not how we roll.

We all have one

Mistakes are a part of life. Only people who’ve never tried anything make zero mistakes, which is a mistake in its own right. Life is for living, not dwelling, and we cannot live in the past. We can only live in the moment.

In business, dwelling on the past typically involves missed opportunities, and mistakes on projects, hirings, firings, and clients. It’s important to remember how and where we made mistakes of judgment in these areas so that we can learn from them and be sure not to repeat them. However, that’s where the reflection must end.

No good will ever come from spending too much time in the past, neither good memories nor bad. We cannot get those moments back or erase them from our memory. Just because it worked then doesn’t mean it will work now, or because it failed then, it will fail now. Regret is the ultimate negative trip down memory lane and carries the most weight.

Significant accomplishments require enormous amounts of energy and effort. We cannot afford to waste either dwelling on maybes, what ifs, and should have done’s. One hundred percent of our focus must be on the task at hand if we are to stand a chance.

Driving you crazy

The most common analogy used to highlight the danger and difficulties associated with spending too much time focussing on the past is driving.

The windscreen in our cars and trucks is glass for a reason. We must see where we are going at all times. Otherwise, it would be impossible to reach that destination… alive, at least. The only time we are not looking through the windscreen toward our destination is when we glance at the small mirror, which enables us to look behind us.

If we reversed this scenario and we could only see through a small section of glass, and the majority of the windowscreen was mirrored, we wouldn’t stand a chance of reaching our destination or even surviving! Our eyes and attention must be focused forward at all times. Only glancing backward is safe and acceptable.

We must learn to leave mistakes, wrong turns, accidents, and flat tires in the rearview.

Interception

The sporting analogy of letting the past remain in the past can is best defined by the position of Cornerback (CB) in American Football. Playing CB in the NFL is tough. A CB must mark an opposing wide receiver with Olympic-caliber speed, who’s running a route only they know, which they’ve practiced a million times.

If a cornerback gives up a touchdown or big play, there’s nowhere to hide. Everyone watching knows that player was beaten. However, NFL cornerbacks excel at their job because they don’t dwell on mistakes or errors. They dust themselves off and go again.

No matter how physically gifted or talented a cornerback might be. If they dwell on mistakes and can’t dust themselves off and go again as if nothing happened, they will never make it in the pros.

An NFL cornerback mentality is optimistic, confident, and aggressive. They move on immediately and think purely about crushing the next play. What’s done is done.

Conclusion

Negative ‘I should have…’ or ‘If only’ thoughts, fears, and worries will not help us get where we want to go. Everything we want from our life is found in the present, then multiplied in the future. The past cannot affect the future unless we cling to it or allow it to slow us down. Life will judge us based on what we do in the moment. It doesn’t care about the past.

Our past is a place we should only visit briefly to think about those people and events we love and miss. Or a place we refer to when we want to learn from previous scenarios, situations, accomplishments, and mistakes. It is not a place we should spend time if criticism, fear, worry, stress, or negativity play a role. We have nothing to gain but everything to lose if we do.

Our past does not predict our future. Our actions, mindset, and attitudes in this very moment do.

Chin up, shoulders back, and march on.

Back to the Future of Construction MPa

What is the Construction MPa Program vs. Construction MPa Podcast? The Construction MPa Program was the original founding concept, an online course designed to help small business owners in the construction industry by providing insight, and experience gleaned from 20+ years of running businesses, and leading corporate divisions. However, over time it evolved in the Construction MPa Podcast, why? Because small Business Owners are highly skeptical, and only seeing or hearing would be believing. Therefore the Construction MPa Program evolved into The Construction MPa Podcast, and it possess the same ultimate goal, too:

A) Help small business owners strengthen their businesses from the inside out.

B) Provide a home for small business owners to openly discuss the challenges they face in a sales and bullshit-free environment.

The ultimate aim of all things Construction MPa s to deliver content, advice, and experience in areas that most people never talk about. Most business owner leadership content is outdated and not relevant for working-class industries. Blue-collar people and businesses require blue-collar leadership: straight-talking, experience-based fact-driven content. Mindset, attitude, and perspective get overlooked. Helping company owners transition from a job site trade mindset to a business owners mindset takes time, patience, and conscious effort.

Strong businesses require a strong business owner mindset, and that’s what Construction MPa is all about. If you want to know more about the Construction MPa Program, check out: Program Outline Page.

The Construction MPa Program is for Business Owners Only.