Inspiration and Life

How You Can Learn From Your Future

What about the long view?

Have you ever considered how much better you can see the present by simply peering into the future? Is looking into the future possible? Absolutely, and it is not as difficult as you may think! Let’s learn how.

Peering into the future

Do you realize how often you make decisions in the present based on the future? We all do. Knowing this can help you create a better present and improve your future outcome. How, you ask? By simply taking the long view.

Taking the long-term into consideration helps you better understand what you need now, in the near term. Think about something you wanted in the past that you obtained or achieved. Was it a major thing like a job, car, home, spouse, child, or something else? Or was it more modest like a new camera, sound system, instrument, computer, monitor, etc.?

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” Warren Buffett (1930-present)

Before you got it, what did you do? You likely thought about it and imagined what it would be like to have it as you built the desire to acquire or create it. You may have read and studied information and details about it, but you ultimately obtained it because you wanted it. But what made you pull the trigger to acquire it?

You have likely heard the phrase, “People buy on emotion and justify with logic.” There may be some exceptions to this, but very few. While we are thinking creatures, our senses primarily drive our lives. We are emotional beings, after all!

When you mix logic and emotions, you can accurately predict future events, so why not take advantage of this ability? For example, when I wanted a new car, I read about it, test drove it, when over the cost, and because I desired it, it became mine. I could have easily predicted I would purchase the car. I can predict there will be another car in my future!

What about your home? Could you not have predicted you would be in it some time back? Sure, you could have. It is true with anything we spend our hard-earned cash on. Or, in the case of a relationship, what we spend our life on. It is true with everything you now possess, isn’t it?

Taking the long view

“Remember that all success is based on long-term commitment, faith, discipline, attitude and a few stepping stones along the way.” Jim Rohn (1930–2009)

You have one of at least two ways to move into the future.

You can take control of where you are heading, thinking about where you want to be and what you want to become.

Or you can take your chances and just let it happen. Like the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

The two choices will:

• Allow you to take your time and destination into your own hands and out of the hands of other people’s intentions and unpredictable circumstances.
• Leave your life to chance. Choosing this path will likely push and pull you every which way. You will be at the mercy of an unpredictable future, possibly filled with chaos, with your very existence put into other people’s hands.

The choice is yours. Which do you prefer?

If you make the first choice, take a few minutes to think about your life at least five, but preferably ten to twenty years from now. Write or journal as much or as little as you wish, responding to the following questions.

• Where will you live?
• What will your residence be like?
• What will you drive?
• What job will you have?
• What will your career look like?
• How much will you be earning?
• How much will you have saved and invested toward retirement?
• What will your budget look like?
• What will your family look like?
• Where will your children be, and what will they be doing?
• How happy will you be?
• How much will you have changed?

What other questions would you add? Answering such questions can give you that longer-term view of what you want. You are, in effect, peering into the future. The clearer you see the future, the better you understand your current reality. Doesn’t that sound like an important thing to do?

Based on how you are living, what you are doing, and who you are becoming, are you on the right track? Are you engaged in what you need to do to take you to that place in the future?

If not, what do you want to do about it?

Final thoughts

By taking the initiative to peer into the future, you will benefit yourself and the lives of those you love. Imagine the results you will create by taking what you learn from the future you desire and ensuring you are on the path to getting there!

Things that may seem insignificant now will one day have major effects on you and others. Are you thinking about sending your children to college? Answering the questions above will help you see what you want for them and prepare them to receive it.

Another thing in the future that may seem insignificant now may be retirement. When you peer into the future and clearly see the life you want to live, you can begin better preparing to accomplish it. All it takes is a little thinking, reflecting, and planning.

An easy way to complete the exercise of looking at the long term to ensure you are on the right path is to do it with someone else, someone you care about deeply, like your spouse. You will be amazed at how much insight they can bring to the table!

I leave you with some wisdom from a great business philosopher that applies to all of life:

“Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.” Jim Rohn (1930–2009)

Don’t make one of those few errors in judgment of ignoring the opportunity to look at the long term to ensure you are on the right course into the future!

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Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION

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