Take the Long View
– Monday Mindset –

Today’s Monday Mindset: Take the Long View

So I was just renewing my work visa, being a Canadian, and running a US company.

And the gentleman in front of me in line, he went forward and of course, they’re asking all the questions that they do. You get grilled. And one of the questions that they asked was, have you ever been arrested for anything or ever been charged with anything? And he said, yes, I have.

And all I heard was, yes, I have, possession of stolen property. And that began the onslaught of questions.

And this guy was just getting raked over the coals on all of these questions related to something that had happened, it turned out in 1990.

The guy was a teenager at the time because he was a pretty young guy and it happened over 30 years ago. And here he was, he and I had talked in line briefly, he runs an automation company, really successful operating in Canada and the US. And meanwhile, he’s got his past hunting him to the extent that it’s 30 years later and he hasn’t lived it down.

He may have been turned down for his US work visa because of it and was just getting grilled because of it.

And the reason I share this story with you is, I think it’s really important that we always consider and take the long view with any of our actions.

And so one of the things that I’ve just attempted to do every day in my life is just think through, all right, is the decision I’m about to make or the action I’m about to take going to have any potential of hurting me in the long run.

And the question that I ask myself is, is there any chance I could regret this down the road? Whatever it might be.

And if there’s any possibility that I could regret it, or if any of my actions or decisions were ever to appear on the front page of a newspaper, would I be embarrassed or feel a sense of shame or guilt or say, “Wow, that was a horrible mistake.”

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, I’ve just made the decision to avoid making that decision or taking that action that could hurt my future.

But it requires taking a long view.

And my challenge to you is whatever action it is, no matter how young or how old you are, we make decisions every single day that can help us or hurt us.

And so my challenge to you today is to take the long view with every decision that you make, every action you take, you’ll never regret taking the long view and asking yourself, is this something I could regret? And if it is, don’t do it. Take the high road, you’ll be glad you did.

That’s your Monday Mindset.