Not Knowing is the Reason You Can Succeed

Hope is the fuel of life

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.” — Laini Taylor

Have you ever wished you could look into a crystal ball to see if you’ll be successful in writing, in relationships, in all the things that are important to you? Would you like to know what your life will be like in ten years?

Just a little peek maybe?

What exactly would be the reason behind the desire to do that? Do you feel that it would validate what you are doing now? All of us would probably feel more confident in our efforts if we knew for certain we would see great rewards for them in the future.

Beneficial or detrimental?

Suppose you were able to see into your future and know that you would have everything you wanted, your dream job, a family, a yacht, whatever it is you’re wishing for. You feel a rush of relief, joy, emotion, then what? How would that affect your next steps? Would it give you a greater drive to work harder, or would it tempt you to sit back and kick your feet up with the attitude of, “Might as well take it easy, it’s coming to me anyway.”

Of course, if you took the latter course and did nothing, would you have just changed your future because the fact that you saw the outcome introduced the possibility of another outcome?

What if you saw that you didn’t get the things you dream about? What would you do? You probably wouldn’t be motivated to continue working toward those dreams. What would your hope be in after that?

Is your mind exploding?

“If you show someone their future, they have no future. You take away the mystery, you take away hope.”

That’s a line from the movie Paycheck. Ben Affleck’s character invents a time-viewing machine and sends the world into chaos because everyone can see pieces of their future, and it’s almost as though their futures are taken away. What was going to happen was going to happen and they lost any control of creation and formation of what was coming to them. The challenge was gone, and most significant of all, their hopes of all the possibilities of what their futures might have held.

Not only that, but some of the futuristic scenes showed horrific events. The people then tried to change the events by doing things they thought would prevent them, but they actually caused them to be fulfilled.

Don’t fear the unknown, it’s full of opportunity

If anyone ever offers you a chance to see into your future, I would advise against taking a peek. The more hope you have, the more you feel that you have to gain.

“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success.” — Samuel Smiles

Not knowing what’s going to happen opens up a world of possibilities. You are not chained to an assumed fate.

I know the unknown future can be scary. You just have to go for it. It’s yours to discover.

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