The past can hold its grip on you if you hold on to it. Yet, when we choose to embrace the present, the past loses its grip.

It seems on this day in Chicago, no one knows this more than the devoted fans of the Chicago Cubs. Joe Maddon, the Cubs’ General Manager, made this clear this morning in the wee hours of a champagne-drenched locker room. Joe obviously knew about the highly-touted and deeply internalized “goat-curse” of the Chicago Cubs. Yet, upon his arrival to the franchise, he never bought into the past. He made note to differentiate the respect for tradition without the weight of a negative past. You might say that Joe fully believed in the present … in the current roster of amazing athletes. He didn’t let a 108-year drought or a decades-old “curse” define the present. You might say he practiced 108 degrees of separation.

And last night might just have made believers out of generations of Cub fans. The present is an amazing gift. Cub fans awoke this morning realizing it wasn’t a dream … their nightmare had passed and all of the joy was right where Joe was all along. In the present.

It’s a lesson many organizations could learn when weighted down by an unhealthy culture. What appears to be impossible, always becomes possible … and probable when we change the tense of where we live. The present is the only place transformation happens. It is where all great things come true.

Congratulations to the entire Cubs organization on an amazing example of transformation. And to both the Chicago Cubs and to the Cleveland Indians for an incredible display of what competitive champions look like at their very best!