We frequently
hear that we need to have a vision, that we should look ahead, keep our eye on
the goal. But some years ago a wise person told me that we also have to look
backwards.
Why look backwards?
Imagine you
were sailing from Durban to Mauritius. That takes a few days on a cruise liner.
As you leave Durban all you see in front of you is blue ocean. As you look
forwards towards your goal of Mauritius it looks as though you are standing
still. But if you look back towards Durban it is easy to see how first the
harbour and then the Durban coastline gradually becomes smaller and smaller as
you move away.
An occasional
look backwards is important when the vision is a long distance one, when the
goal takes a while to reach.
Many of us
find ourselves in the middle of a change process. Perhaps our company is making
changes yet again. Or maybe we are going through a transition in our own lives.
Sometimes it feels as though we will never get to the end, that we will be in a
permanent state of flux. It can be hard to stay motivated when the end looks
far away. Looking back to see where we have come from allows a fresh
perspective.
Last year I
saw a performance of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold and the Boys”. In this play
set in 1950 Port Elizabeth, we see racism and bigotry play out in the
interaction between a young boy and his mother’s employees. It reminded me of
growing up in South Africa in the 70’s. It contrasted starkly with how I, my
friends and my colleagues interact with people of all races nowadays.
As we left the
theatre there was a family ahead of us with teenage daughters. I overheard them
talking to their father. They were saying it was just a play and no one would
have said those things in real life. Their father was trying to explain the
realities of apartheid in that South Africa. He could look back and see a
change. They only know the ‘new South Africa’.
This year I
saw Bailey Snyman’s dance play “Moffie” which highlights the attitude to
homosexuals in the SADF of the early 80’s. This coincided with the time most of
my friends did their national service. Whilst there is still prejudice in 2012
we now have legal same sex marriages and much of society is more accepting of
sexual preference.
And then a
couple of weeks ago we went to a screening of “Searching for Sugar Man”, the
film about Rodriguez (well worth seeing). As a teenager I remember listening
over and over to my sister’s Cold Fact album and singing along to “I wonder”.
The film flashes back to Cape Town in the late 70’s, showing its natural beauty,
but also the obvious signs of apartheid like the “nie blanke” signs. There are
also a few old news clips of protests and an SABC employee shows how the banned
tracks on the LP were scratched to prevent them being played.
Occasionally looking backwards allows us to measure how far we have come, it encourages us that we are making progress and it inspires us to keep on moving forwards towards our goal.
In your own
life have you been working towards something for quite awhile? Does it feel
like you are always striving but perhaps not getting there?
Take a moment,
look back, see how far you have come. Recognise your achievement. And then look
ahead and move on.
