Skip Ahead to Tomorrow
How fast-forwarding your mindset can turn setbacks into something smaller—and your confidence into something stronger.
I figured you’d want the update: last week’s flight to Richmond was officially cancelled at 2 a.m.
Yes, that means I “slept” in the airport—again. Three times in four years. That feels like a statistically significant number of airport sleepovers for one human. Am I wrong?
But I made it to Richmond the following morning, and Campbell and I had a great time. As always, the inconvenience faded, and the good part—time with my son, stuck.
If you’ve been following MARK. Set. Go..., you know I tend to share (or overshare, if you ask my family). That started long before Ten Days With Dad and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The good news for you is that it gives me plenty to write about—especially when I stumble onto something worth passing along.
This week’s “morning listen” was Oz Pearlman’s Read Your Mind, and his section on setbacks resonated with me.
Pearlman explains that our immediate emotional response to setbacks is almost always bigger than the setback itself.
In the moment, we catastrophize.
That presentation feels career-ending.
That awkward interaction feels friendship-ending.
That mistake feels like we should pack it in and move to a different planet.
But Pearlman says that if you train your mind to mentally fast-forward just 24 hours, you notice something:
The sting has already started to fade.
The panic has dialed down.
The world hasn’t ended.
Most people have already forgotten—if they noticed at all.
It’s like having a mental time machine that lets you skip the worst part of the emotional rollercoaster—the wasted energy, the regret spirals, the self-judgment that doesn’t help and never has.
Instead of marinating in those feelings for hours or days, you jump straight to the perspective you’ll have tomorrow anyway.
And that got me thinking about the bigger question I keep coming back to:
What really holds us back from living with purpose and passion—from Living With G.R.A.C.E.?
Most of the time, it isn’t the world.
It isn’t other people.
It isn’t lack of talent, opportunity, or resources.
It’s mental roadblocks.
Doubt.
Fear of failure.
Anxiety.
Imposter syndrome.
Or, on the flip side: comfort, familiarity, routine, and contentment.
All of them—mental.
I was reminded of this two weeks ago when I pitched Volume Two of The Greatest Burden The Greatest Blessing to my professor and writing class. This time, I focused on stories from celebrity caregivers. I was nervous. Of course. I worried I’d forget half the pitch. I worried I wouldn’t make sense. I worried I might black out right in the middle of it.
And was I perfect?
Not even close.
But here’s what happened:
Before the class even ended, I felt fine.
By the next morning, I had almost forgotten about the entire thing. It was like it never happened.
Except it did happen.
And I received great feedback. Feedback I never would have received if I had let the anxiety keep me from pitching in the first place.
We all do this.
We drag out the dread.
We rehearse worst-case scenarios.
We stew when things go sideways.
But setbacks burn hot and fast—and then they cool.
If you train your brain to skip ahead to tomorrow, you give yourself permission to let go today.
So whether you’re pitching your team, giving a talk, going on a date, asking for the sale, or trying something new—remember Pearlman’s suggestion:
Jump ahead to the part where you feel better.
You can train your mind to do this.
And you’ll be amazed at how quickly everything shifts.
Defaulting to negativity is a habit.
But so is releasing it.
And the faster we skip ahead to tomorrow, the lighter we become today.
See you next week.
