Future

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

~Jean de la Fontaine

The future ain’t what it used to be.

~Yogi Berra

What does the future hold for you?

What is around the next corner?

Do you feel like your life is predetermined and you’re trapped on a path from which there is no escape, or do you feel as free as a bird to go where life takes you?

Are responsibilities, expectations, and commitments limiting what you do, or is your life your own to do with as you wish?

For most people, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

No matter how much we prepare and plan, we can’t possibly know all the pitches life will send our way. We can study a pitcher, get to know his repertoire, and get a good sense of his strategy. But then, out of the blue, he may throw a beanball.

Life is like that. No matter how much we think we know, that beanball could come at any time. We have to be mentally and emotionally prepared to deal with its consequences.

Having a flexible attitude about our future can also make life more exciting. For people who like not knowing what’s coming up, life can be ideal. These people revel in the unexpected. They like feeling as if life’s a game and they don’t know where the ball is going to go next. That’s what makes it fun.

Other people spend their formative years preparing for their lives to take a specific path, and having things turn out differently is a big disappointment.

There will always be factors that people can’t control in their lives no matter how much they prepare and plan. Even the most prepared person must be ready to experience a certain degree of the unexpected. People should be open to this; they should teach themselves to embrace the unexpected (see Transformation).

This doesn’t mean you should have a contingency plan for every conceivable situation; it means that you should train yourself to roll with the punches, think on the fly, and adjust to changing situations. If you have these skills and attitude, not knowing what’s around the corner doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety. In fact, it can be a feeling that you enjoy so much that you arrange aspects of your life to minimize your control over situations.

You can intentionally relinquish control over parts of your life just for the fun of it. This might mean winging it while driving or biking somewhere, leaving decisions to the last minute so that you can act according to your mood, or going on a trip and having no control over the associated arrangements.

Think about how much fun it might be for every experience to be new.

The future isn’t something to worry about or fear. Rather, it’s an adventure with twists and turns that will test you, excite you, and make your life fun.

The future contains a world of possibilities.