Predicting the Future by Jim Stovall
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We go to school to learn history and become conversant in things that happened in the past. We read newspapers and get online newscasts that inform us about everything going on in the present. Potentially, the most valuable time-sensitive information would be what is going to happen in the future. Each year, as the calendar turns over, pundits make their predications for the coming twelve months. It is fascinating to look back in retrospect to see what these self-proclaimed experts predicted a year ago and how badly they missed the mark. Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Things in the past seem to be set in concrete, while events unfolding now seem to be fluid, but the future would appear to be totally random. However, this is not the case. You and I control our destiny, and therefore, we control our portion of the history that is being created. People who are victorious happen to history. People who are victims have history happen to them. I realize that you may have lived through a natural disaster, an economic downturn, or a violent war, but in every case, we can change the perspective of history as we change what the facts mean to us.
Napoleon Hill taught us that every adversity, every heartache, and every difficulty is endowed with the seeds of a greater good. This means we can look for the silver lining in the midst of any storm cloud. As a novelist and movie producer, I tell human stories. These stories involve people who face unique life circumstances and show how they are impacted by the circumstances or how they impact the circumstances.
Anytime something happens—whether it seems initially to be good or bad—we are faced with a series of questions including: What is happening? What does it mean? What can be done about it? Where are the opportunities?
In the midst of the greatest human turmoil, the people we revere as heroes have emerged. Abraham Lincoln himself became, arguably, one of the world’s greatest leaders because he was faced with leading our country through a civil war. Challenges always create opportunities. And opportunities, in turn, create more challenges. All problems may eventually will be solved, but these solutions create more problems.
The future is a blank slate that comes with a set of circumstances much like a hand of cards we are being dealt. Experts will tell you that any hand of cards can be played well or played poorly. There are no winning hands or losing hands as the cards are being shuffled and dealt. Only the outcomes that we produce make us winners or losers.
As you go through your day today, realize that you are writing history and you are the hero.
Today’s the day!
Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books, including The Gift of Giving, co-authored with Don Green, the executive director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor).