Make Your Future Bigger Than Your Past
One of the greatest discoveries you and I can make as leaders in the marketplace is this: God intends for our future to be bigger than our past.
When you sit behind the wheel of your car, you’ll notice something interesting. Your windshield is a whole lot bigger than your rearview mirror. That’s not an accident. It’s a picture. God wants you looking forward, not backward.
Yet after decades of pastoring, teaching, and counseling, I’ve noticed something: people who constantly talk about the past don’t have a future. If all we see is what was, we’ll never step into what can be.
But God has something better for you. Something new. Something bigger.
God Is Calling You Forward
Isaiah 43:19 in the Message paraphrase says,
“Be alert, be present… I’m about to do something brand new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?”
The tragedy is not that God isn’t doing something new. It’s that many people simply don’t see it. Their vision is clouded by yesterday’s pain, yesterday’s pressure, or yesterday’s patterns.
That’s why your imagination matters.
Memory is for the past.
Imagination is for the future.
Are you exercising it? Are you expanding it? Are you letting God paint a picture on the canvas of your heart?
Then we read Jeremiah 29:11, one of the most well-known promises in Scripture:
“For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
People who have hope for the future have power in the present.
And God says you can have that kind of future. If you seek Him, if you call on Him, if you go after Him with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:12–13).
So the question becomes, How do I do that?
How do you practically make your future bigger than your past?
Let me give you ten keys that will move you forward.
10 Ways to Make Your Future Bigger Than Your Past
1. Be Intentional
Legendary coach John Wooden said, “Make every day a masterpiece.”
Don’t drift. Don’t just exist. Don’t waste the day. Live on purpose.
Trust that God is working behind the scenes even when you can’t see it.
2. Have a Growth Mindset
Whatever is happening on the inside triggers what happens on the outside.
If you’re growing internally, your world will expand externally.
Every day you’re either learning and winning or just losing ground. Choose growth.
3. Upgrade Your Friends
We are the average of the five closest people in our lives.
Your friends determine:
your motivation
your mindset
your future trajectory
You don’t have to drop old friends. Just add new ones who stretch you, challenge you, and believe in who you can become.
4. Get a Coach or Mentor
You will never reach your next level without an example ahead of you.
A mentor shortens your learning curve.
A coach accelerates your progress.
Whether it’s in fitness, finances, marriage, or leadership. You need voices that pull you forward.
5. Create a Future Board
Not a vision board… a future board.
Why?
Because you need to visit your future every morning and every night.
Pictures help you put life together. Just like the picture on the puzzle box helps you assemble the pieces.
A picture of your future will keep you outgrowing your present.
6. Use Your Past. Don’t Live in It
Your past should be a stepping stone, not a tombstone.
Use the victories:
“God helped me with the lion and the bear… He will help me with this giant.”
Use the pain.
Use the lessons.
Use the miracles.
Let yesterday build confidence for tomorrow.
7. Clarify Your Vision
Where there is no vision, people perish.
When the future is foggy, you slow down.
When the future is clear, you speed up.
Make your vision simple. Make it plain. Make it measurable.
Know what you want… and how much of it you want.
8. Pursue New Experiences
New experiences stretch you.
Whether it’s visiting the McLaren dealership with your granddaughter or stepping into an environment you’ve only dreamed about, exposing yourself to what’s possible expands your capacity to believe for more.
Taste it. Touch it. Walk around in it.
Your future grows when you do.
9. Align Your Language
Words are windows.
Whatever you say, you let into your life.
Speak faith.
Speak possibilities.
Speak who you want to become, what you want to do, and what you want to have.
The formula is simple: Be → Do → Have.
You must become it before you can do it, and do it before you can have it.
10. Build Daily Habits That Shape Your Future
Your future is hiding in your daily routine.
Your habits build your character.
Your habits decide your direction.
Your habits determine your outcome.
Start with one or two habits that move you toward the future God has for you and stay consistent.
Your Future Truly Is Bigger Than Your Past
These ten principles will elevate your leadership, strengthen your faith, and expand your capacity to walk into the future God designed for you.
Go back through them. Study them. Apply them.
And never forget, God is for you.
Your greatest days aren’t behind you. They’re in front of you.
Listen to the full episode of the Leadership Lifter Podcast on YouTube or on davidblunt.org
