‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time to plant on is today.’ So the ancient wisdom goes. And so we plant trees today.

But we can apply the wisdom to other areas of our lives and it can be equally true.

The best time to ship our work was when we didn’t think we were ready because we were scared and it wasn’t ‘perfect’. The next best time is today.

The best time to consider ethics in our digital transformation efforts is at the beginning. The next best time is today.

The best time to start exercising, eating healthy, spending more time with your loved ones, and so on was yesterday, weeks ago, years ago. The next best time is today.

And so it goes. The beauty of being human is our ability to choose. We can’t time travel (yet), but we can choose what we do today…and tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. Too often we live in regret. In yesterday. Wishing we could go back and redo it. And yet we fail to realise or ‘see’ that today is our chance to ‘redo’ yesterday. In many ways, it’s our personal groundhog day.

But here’s the thing. We need to choose to live it differently. And yes, changing behaviours, changing organisational choices about digital transformation is hard work. Tiring work. But it is the work we get to do.

The choice is up to us.

Photo by Amber Weir