26 Jan Introducing ‘Look back. Look forward.’

At the start of 2021, I am pleased to be introducing ‘Look back. Look forward.’ – an addition to my regular posts on Letting go. Stepping up.

‘Look back. Look forward.’ will be a series of short weekly posts, each featuring a seminal idea from the world’s great thinkers.

The ideas are for the times in which as leaders we live and love: #leadingself, #influencingothers, #gratitude, and #humility.

The inspiration is widely drawn – from a medieval Persian poet quoted by Abraham Lincoln in his inaugural address in 1861 to members of McKinsey & Co, Goethe, Eckart Tolle, and Nancy Levin.

The genesis of ‘Look back. Look forward.’ is a series of LinkedIn posts I started to write in early 2020 as the pandemic was gathering momentum, wreaking havoc and changing our world for worse – and better – forever. My early LinkedIn posts reveal my mood and the meaning I was seeking to share:

‘And this, too, shall pass’

‘Deliberate calm, bounded optimism’

‘Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity’

‘When you fight, you strengthen’

‘Honour the space between No Longer and Not Yet’.

I particularly like James Baldwin‘s wisdom as a way of marking the start of ‘Look back. Look forward.’