Choose the future you want. In this episode, I'm going to address the question,
"How to focus on the future instead of dwelling on the past?" Get ready. I'm going to share with
you a simple little exercise that takes usually less than 5 minutes to fill it out. And as you
share it, I've asked many many people to do this and they go, "Can I have another one of
those cards?' You're going to see what I mean in this episode. And I'm going to allow you
to download a copy of this compliments of my good friend, Strategic Coach, Dan Sullivan.
So, my name's Doug Andrew and I've helped many many people live a more abundant life
by helping them with tools, thinking tools that allow them to be able to set goals and
dramatically increase the chance that they'll achieve those goals. So, I've been doing this
for more than 45 years. And helping families individuals, business owners, entrepreneurs from
all walks and backgrounds. This is probably one of my favorite exercises. And I want to attribute Dan
Sullivan. Now, who's Dan Sullivan? He's not only a very personal friend but he's probably one of
the top entrepreneurial coaches in the world. He has coached over 5,000 of the top entrepreneurs.
And I was honored to be in this group of his uh top 50 when he began to organize a quarterly
mastermind group of people, entrepreneurs that sort of uh were out of the box thinkers. And he
came out with this tool and has allowed me to be able to share it with people. But it's called the
quick thinker. And it's on one half sheet. And in this episode, I'm going to go through and explain
how to use this. I do this with our children, our grandchildren. I do it with troubled youth.
My wife and I mentor troubled youth at youth detention centers, at crisis centers. I'm on a
board of directors for teenage suicide prevention. And this is so powerful. Whenever I have done this
exercise and it's probably the favorite of our employees every year and at our company party.
But it's very, very simple because in less than five 6 minutes at the most, you write down
3 things in each one of these 3 categories. So, a total of nine statements. And you're going to
see how powerful this is as I continue to frame this and give you an example of how to fill out
the quick thinker exercise so you can choose the future you want; decide what part of the past
gets to come along, and then let go of the rest. I mean, people waste so much time trying to change
the past, okay? And then utilize the present to have the best results so that you can achieve
the future you want. Let's talk about how to focus on choosing a brighter future. Many of the youth
that I have mentored, they don't think they have a choice. How sad is that? And so, this exercise
that Dan Sullivan came up with called the quick thinker is really to simplify looking at the
future and choosing the future you want instead of just thinking you have no control over that.
Utilizing the present and also decide what part of the past gets to come along instead of dwelling on
the past or trying to change the past. And so, if you've ever watched the ridiculous
motion picture low budget film Napoleon Dynamite... If you haven't, be sure and
check that out and watch it. But in this movie, Napoleon Dynamite, he's sort of a geek. And he has
a friend Pedro who he's helping run for student body president. But he has this uncle named Rico.
And one of my favorite scenes in this movie is uncle Rico who is always living in the past,
okay? He is living out of a van and he's always videotaping himself throwing a football because he
played football in high school. And he's trying to eke out a living selling plastic tupperware bowls.
But whenever he gets a chance, he's always looking at uh golly woulda-shoulda-coulda.
So, this is a picture of him on the front porch after he's been eating this steak. And
he says, "How much you want to bet I can throw this football over them mountains?" Okay?
And then he starts to go into the past. And he goes, "Ief the coach would have just put me in
fourth quarter in that football game!" Now, he's talking about high school maybe 15 or 20 years
earlier. "We would have won that game. And then we would have taken region and then we would have
taken state. And I would have gotten a scholarship and gone to the college of my dreams and
I would have played in the bowl games. And then I would have been recruited to the pros and I'd be
sitting here right now with a super bowl ring on my finger in a hot tub with my soul mate."
What if? But then he goes, "But the coach didn't put me in."
In other words, he's dwelling on the past. Always trying to change the past. So, in the quick
thinker, what we're trying to do is decide what part of the past gets to come along
for the ride in the future and let the rest go. You can't change it, okay?
And so, in this exercise, I'm going to show you the brilliance of choosing the future you want,
deciding what part of the past gets to come along and utilizing the present. So, how does
this quick thinker work? You know, it's so simple it's just a half sheet. I usually print it out on
card stock. 8 ½ x 11 and I cut them in half. But it's a very simple form. It's not intimidating.
When I pass this out to my family members or my staff at my office, they are looking at really 3
different uh areas here and they're going to list down 3 items in each one. So,
the very first question that they fill out on this card is to choose the future you want. And it's so
sad because so many of these troubled youth that I have mentored through the years, they don't think
they have a choice. They think they're stuck. And this is one of the main reasons why if they do not
see a brighter future, they don't see a purpose in living and this is one of the biggest causes for
suicide attempts. So, how sad is that? One simple 15-minute exercise can have them focusing
on choosing a future and actually having a choice. So, if I were to pass this out and
people who were to think about their future, they may write down to be successful as a professional
and as a parent to my own children. Now, it's amazing how many times these troubled youth
will write down something similar to that. They would like to be a successful parent even if they
did not have a successful relationship with their own parents. They often want to have their own
children. It's amazing. And whenever I have done this, their parents if they happen to be there
or the counselors are shocked what I get out of these youth with one
little half sheet of paper. And I'm going to tell you some stories at the end of this episode that
will prove my point. A second one maybe choose to be happy and grateful for everything and everyone
in my life. In other words, it's a choice. You choose to be happy and so many times, again,
people think that life has already been predetermined for them and they are always
dealt the wrong hand. So, this is a very powerful mental exercise to be able to choose the future.
Third one, to always be in motion and add value in the world and stay healthy. In other words,
there's 2 kinds of people in the world. There's givers and there's takers. And when you begin
to teach people to contribute to the world, to leave the world a better place than they found it,
to be in motion and adding value rather than just sitting there dormant and waiting for the
world to bring you stuff. It gives you energy and passion when you begin to understand that
you have a choice in a brighter future. So, the first question, choose the future you want. List
3. It doesn't have to be all of them. This is just a quick thinking exercise. Write down the first 3
that come to mind. Then you move into the next 2 which deals with the past deciding what part of
the past is to come along. And also utilizing the present. Now that we have written down 3 things
you want in your future, this is the key is to decide what part of the past is to come along.
So, let's say that you write down all of the incredible memories and of good times with
family and friends. Yeah, you'd like to bring that into the future, that's a good thing.
All of the awesome lessons I've learned from both bad and good experiences. If you read
some of my books, you'll read some stories of how my father made me turn myself into the cops when
I was 16 years old. I'm very grateful for that bad experience because of the lessons I learned,
okay? Maybe number 3, the accomplishments that were a springboard to my brighter future. So,
you decide what part of the past is to come along and let the rest go. Don't try to change the past
or kick yourself for a mistake you made back in high school. Move on, okay? Get on with it. The
other part is to utilize the present. So, when you do that, you're writing down things like to use
this scholarship. I was speaking to an audience of a thousand teenagers who had entrepreneurial
scholarships. And to use this scholarship to catapult, me to exponential 10 times lifetime
growth. Rather than just wasting the scholarship money on a motorcycle or something, I taught them
how to take 1,000 bucks and turn it into a million dollars in 10 years by using an entrepreneurial
idea, okay? Because I have created several multi-millionaires by giving youth $2. $2 as seed
money to buy gas and oil for a lawnmower to buy flour and ingredients to make a pizza. And then
they just started to make more and more pizzas. So, this was a lesson to utilize the present.
Number 2, maybe take advantage of the wonderful mentors and role models that I have. That's what
you can use in your present moment. Or to commit to have a lifetime learning commitment.
In our family, we have LLCs. Now, you may think I mean limited liability companies. We've got lots
of those. But in our family, LLC is a lifetime learning commitment. We'll never stop learning.
And so, we want to enlighten ourselves daily by reading, by studying, never stop learning. So,
this is how to utilize the present. So, now that you have the quick thinker card filled out you
have 3 things written down that you want in your future. 3 things that you want to bring from the
past into the future. And you want to utilize the present for these 3 advantages. 3, 3, 3. See, the
human brain can get its arms so to speak around a list of 3. Now, I'm going to share with you what
you do next. The magic of making this actually take effect in your life. I want to share a story
here as I sum things up and connect the dots of how I did this in the youth detention center.
These teenage boys aged 12 to 18 have done some pretty bad things in their life. Some
of them have attempted homicide. Some of them are what they call SOs --sex offenders. And frankly,
after 2 or 3 years in incarceration, they begin to realize the horrible mistake they made. But
they didn't know any better because they had been sexually abused numerous times from the
time they were 3, 4, and 5 years old. They had to learn that that is not acceptable.
Many of them the gang leader, the OG, original gangster is their mother, their father,
their uncle. And so, when they get released, they go right back into the environment.
Now, when they first get incarcerated, many times, I will go and introduce myself because we would
visit them on Sundays and Wednesdays. And have activities and teach them lessons and so forth.
and I would say, "So, how you doing and what you're doing?" They're saying, "Well,
I'm doing my time." Now, I knew immediately they were there doing their time and I would start
talking about, "So, what do you want to do?" And they would begin to say, "Well, when I get back
out there (out of prison) then I want to do this." And I went wow. We have to do the quick
thinker exercise. So, whenever I did this, it was profound. And so, there were usually between 30
to 60 uh teenage boys in this facility. I passed around this half sheet on cardstock. And I said,
"Boys, I want you to write down 3 things that you want in your future. Choose the future you want."
And they would write down things like I want to be a responsible parent. I want to have a family. I
want to have a job. I want to get an education. Okay? So, they would write down good goals but
it was still, "When I get out there, right now I'm just doing my time". It was the next square
that made all the difference. Decide what part of the past that gets to come along and how are you
going to utilize the present? They realized that they had the choice of having a brighter future.
Some of them thought, "I can never be forgiven. I've made too many mistakes." And I said "No,
no. Your future is spotless. You decide what part of the past is to come along and let the rest
go. This is your opportunity. You're safe in here from the gang leaders. They're not going to force
you to do a drive-by shooting against your will. You're safe here because this is your time to be
able to utilize the present." So, the last box is utilize the present. And they had never thought of
that before. I would say, you want a good job? Why are you waiting until you get out there? Why don't
you get a resume, put together in here? Why don't you develop some skills while you're in here?
Why don't you get your high school diploma while you're in here? Use this time while you're here.
Utilize the present. All of a sudden, they went, "Oh, my heavens. I never thought about that
before." And so, the next morning, they would be in class in school instead of watching TV.
And their teachers in the facility to go, "What did you do with them? They're all being attended.
They're studying. And they're now learning crafts and how to weld and how to do this or whatever.
What did you say?" And I said, "Well, I gave them a little half sheet of paper.
They filled it out." In fact, many of them asked for 2 or 3 more blank copies. They put them in
their room their jail cell and their locker. When they were released many of them asked for
more copies. And they went out and immediately began to get gainful employment. Being managers
soon at restaurants, mechanics shops, muffler shops. If they waited until they got out there,
to get their education or to decide their future, it would have been wasted time. So, this is
extremely powerful. Again, I attribute this to Dan Sullivan. Compliments of Dan. You can go to
eabooktools.com and you can download a copy. And use this in any setting that you would
like. It's the favorite exercise for many of our employees and our children every single
year when we do this. You can also claim your free copy of my book Entitlement Abolition by
going to entitlementabolitionbook.com. You pay a nominal amount towards the shipping
and handling and I'll pay the rest and I will pay for the book. So, here's to your brighter future.