Your future is calling
Pick up the damn phone!
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 324
In my last piece, I talked about the danger of getting trapped in our own archives.
I suggested you look at how easy it is to treat a past body of work like a draft that needs endless editing, rather than letting it exist as the foundation it actually is.
I also suggested you to stop looking in the rearview mirror, to accept the cringe factor of your early content as a badge of honor, and to keep moving.
But once you do stop looking backward, you run smack into a brand new problem. You look forward, and you realize your future is calling.
Ring, ring! Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
Which leads to the question of whether you have the courage to pick up, to answer the call, and to accept the invitation.
The problem is that for a lot of creators, entrepreneurs, and strategists, that ringing phone doesn’t bring a sense of excitement.
Instead, it brings a cold, creeping sense of dread.
Why?
Because your future isn’t calling to congratulate you on what you did yesterday. It’s calling to demand something entirely new from you today. It’s calling you to stretch your comfort zone and to challenge your expectations about what you’re capable of right this minute.
What the paralyzing ring of this next-level of the game demands
When we’re deep in the trenches of trying to get established, we tell ourselves a convenient, comforting lie: “Once I get fifty articles under my belt,” or “Once I build this digital framework, everything will get easier.”
We assume that momentum is a self-sustaining engine.
It isn’t.
Fifty articles is just that: fifty articles.
Ditto for digital frameworks, and indeed, for any additional whistle or bell.
The trick is not to reach and surpass more milestones, it’s to keep going once you get to those milestones and you see them for the meaningless markers they are..
Here’s the reality of the creative and strategic life: success doesn’t give you a break; it gives you an upgrade in complexity.
The moment you master one level of growth, your future self starts knocking on the door, demanding that you step into a larger arena.
Here’s what that means:
If you’ve been writing short-form newsletters, your future is calling you to write a book.
If you’ve been selling low-ticket digital assets, your future is demanding a high-level ecosystem.
If you’ve been acting as a tactical implementer, your future is pulling you into the role of a strategic thinker.
And that is terrifying.
It triggers a subtle, modern form of stage fright.
We look at the blank page of our next chapter and we freeze, letting the phone ring and ring, hoping it will just go to voicemail.
Why you’re ignoring the call
Let’s call this avoidance what it actually is: a failure of personal agency.
When your future calls, it forces you to confront the gap between who you are right now and who you need to become in order to handle the next level of salience in your market.
It’s much safer to stay exactly where you are—comfortably proficient, operating within a zone you’ve already conquered. So we ignore the call by drowning ourselves in busywork.
We tell ourselves we’re not ready.
We claim we need another course, another tool, another year of preparation.
We wait for a perfect alignment of circumstances that will never arrive.
But waiting for permission from the future is a fool’s errand. The future doesn’t send invitations; it issues challenges.
How to answer the call (without losing your mind)
If you’re standing there watching the phone ring, wondering if you have what it takes to answer the next iteration of your professional life, here is how you pick up:
1. Stop waiting for the “expert” feeling: If you feel entirely qualified for the next project on your horizon, your horizon is too close.
Growth requires a deliberate willingness to operate right at the edge of your current capability.
Expect to feel a little out of your depth.
2. Commit to the next milestone, not the ultimate destination: When the future calls, you don’t have to map out the next ten years.
You just have to answer for the next step. If the call is demanding a multi-product digital ecosystem, your only job today is to map out the first pillar.
Break the complexity down until it matches your daily execution velocity.
3. Claim your sovereignty: Nobody is going to come along and hand you the keys to your next level.
You have to take control of your own agency.
Decide that you are the type of creator who answers the phone, even when you don’t fully know what’s on the other end of the line.
Pick up the phone
The archive is closed. The past has been written, shipped, and logged. It cannot give you anything more than the lessons you’ve already extracted from it. The only thing that matters now is the momentum you generate in this exact moment.
Your next idea, your next platform shift, your next major project—they are all waiting on the other side of your willingness to step up.
Your future is calling.
Stop letting it go to voicemail.
Pick up the phone, lean into the discomfort, and let’s find out what happens next.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: What happens when you finally pick up?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.