You Are Creating Your Own Future Right Now

At the July Fourth celebration I attended last week, a band performed. They called themselves "Boogie Nights" and when I saw them take the stage in their afro wigs and 1970s-style clothes, I chuckled and said to myself, "Oh no, here we go." It just all seemed so ridiculous.

Then they started playing. They played lots of classic hits of the era and they were good. Even the kids in attendance, who weren't born when those songs were popular, got up and danced in front of the stage. They were really getting into it—and yes, I admit it, so was I. I was transported back to an earlier time, when I was a young man with a lot of great ambitions and not much else.

I realized that night that my first impression of the band had been a superficial one. When you look back on years past, it's easy to look at the fashions of the time and shake your head and wonder, what were we thinking back then? But once you go a little deeper, you understand that there were a lot of great things about those times—great music, great innovations—that helped lead the way to where we are now.

It's the same in your personal and professional lives. The decisions you made long ago—to become a dentist, to get married—have shaped the person you have become today. Even as techniques and materials change, you can look back and see the habits you developed early on that are reflected in how you deliver care right now.

In other words, each of us is a work-in-progress. We are always learning, always growing and always creating our future selves with today's actions—or at least we should be. Knowing that, it is worthwhile to ask yourself, what am I doing today to shape the person I want to be in the future?