I’ve had two songs running through my head this week… ear worms if you will.

It’s because Ragtime won 3 of the top Tony Awards on Sunday.

Best Revival of a Musical

Best Leading Actor in a Musical: Joshua Henry for Coalhouse Walker Jr.

Best Leading Actress in a Musical: Caissie Levy for Mother

There’s a reason they won leading actor and actress. They sing the most powerful numbers in the show. And they nail them.

The first was “Back to Before,” sung by Mother (Caissie Levy.) It’s a song about awakening. About reaching a moment where life changes and realizing there is no way to return to who you were before that moment arrived.

The second was “Wheels of a Dream,” sung by Joshua Henry. It’s a song about possibility. About imagining a future that doesn’t exist yet and having the courage to believe in it anyway.

At first glance, they seem like very different songs.

One looks backward.

One looks forward.

But the more I’ve been singing them in my car and interchanging them almost mid-lyric, the more I realize they’re about two sides of the same coin.

They’re both about change.

And they’re both about identity.

In my work with creative entrepreneurs, storytelling and identity go hand in hand.

Many people struggle to tell their story.

Not because they don’t have one.

Because they don’t think it’s worth telling.

They’re stuck in their past self story or striving to deliver their future self story.

I hear it all the time...

“I haven’t achieved enough yet.”

“I’m not where I want to be.”

“I haven’t figured it all out.”

“I don’t know if anyone would care.”

They think their real story starts when they arrive somewhere.

But stories rarely begin with arrival.

Stories begin with disruption.

Before the layoff.

Before the divorce.

Before the business failed.

Before the diagnosis.

Before the move.

Before the career change.

Before the dream changed.

There was a time before.

And then something happened.

The challenge is that many of us spend years trying to get back to who we were before that moment.

Back to before things became complicated.

Back to before life got messy.

Back to before uncertainty showed up.

But life doesn’t work that way.

Like the lyric says… we can never go back to before.

Not because the past wasn’t good.

Because we’re not the same person anymore.

Every meaningful transition asks something of us.

It asks us to let go of a version of ourselves that no longer fits.

That’s hard.

Especially when we don’t yet know what’s coming next.

And that’s where the second song comes in.

“Wheels of a Dream” isn’t about what is.

It’s about what could be.

It’s about holding a vision for a future you can’t yet prove.

It’s about believing in possibilities before there’s evidence.

It’s about faith.

Not necessarily religious faith.

Creative faith.

The kind that says, “I don’t know exactly how this will work, but I know I can’t stay where I am.”

I think that’s where many people find themselves right now.

Caught between a life that no longer fits and a future that hasn’t fully revealed itself.

One foot in the past.

One foot in possibility.

Trying to make sense of the space in between.

Maybe that’s why I keep singing both songs in the same breath.

Because that’s where most of us actually live.

Not in the before. Not yet in the after.

In the necessary space between.

And that space isn’t a problem to solve.

It’s where you become who you’re going to be next.

There was a time before.

There will be a time after.

The question isn’t whether you’re ready.

It’s whether you’re willing.

Until next time,

Kevin

P.S. What’s one thing in your life that you know you can’t go back to? And what possibility is waiting on the other side of accepting that? Hit reply and let me know. I read every response.