Predicting the Future by Jim Stovall

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

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).

The Year 2020 by Jason Hewlett

“Worst year ever!”  

“Can’t wait until this one’s over!”  

“The dumpster fire that is 2020.” 

 Plenty of lines and ways to describe a most indescribable year. 

We’ve heard them all, and said most of them, in an effort to put into words what has been experienced. 

I believe it is justified, so don’t think I’m not on the bandwagon as well, since I’ve shared my version of all of these, too. 

And as we come into the final month of this year it is ironic, because when I think of years past where I have also thought similar things, including 2019, 2018, 201… (for example, I once wrote a song with opening lyrics, “2009, Oh it wasn’t a pretty year, all I can say is I’m glad it’s no longer here…”), my fear is that this kind of thinking is becoming a trend in our way of looking at the year that has passed…no matter the year…and our hope next year is that much better. 

But especially 2020. 

It will be hard to top the bottoming-out that encompassed 2020. 

Or… 

Or, we could see it for what it’s helped us create of tragedy, suffering, and being backed into a corner. 

Having not been on an airplane and traveling the world, as has been my work for 20 years, 2020 has forced me to regroup, rethink, recreate my entire way of life, making a living, and delivering what I still can for an audience that is starving for connection, engagement, entertainment, and education…but without a budget! 

Yes, my bank account went from one of health and abundance to a storage unit I opened weekly with one eye open, as it dwindled to single digits. 

Yes, my prospects and clients bailed one by one on a year that was set up to be pretty epic, and suddenly wiped clean a calendar filled to the brim to create an empty white board of lost opportunity. 

Yes, my family asked if we were still going on the road trip across America and Canada we have been planning for years, only to see us put the RV on the market for need of selling it or making our house payment, and then putting my car and all else on the chopping block. 

My friends, your stories are as real and painful as mine—perhaps more!—be it in health, wealth, or “simply” inconvenience. It is all relative. And I am so sorry you have been through what you’ve been through! 

But, and this is a BIG BUT: Can we see that MUCH GOOD has come from this necessity to reinvent? 

A dwindling bank account will see you cut expenses like few things can, going only for necessity and finally getting under control what has been perhaps an illusion in the Keeping Up with the Joneses phenomenon. 

A job that is no longer a way to make a living can open up new possibilities to create, serve, give, and offer value in ways you’ve never had time to explore. 

A trip of a lifetime that now doesn’t happen allows for introspection and more time with loved ones in the home, togetherness, reliability on those closest to us, exploring the beauty of the world immediately around us. 

As a family we were still able to go to Moab, Utah, a short four-hour drive from our home, and most beautiful & otherworldly kind of place. Thankful for that! 

I know I’m a person who relies on the comedic side of things, and that’s important as well now more than ever—to laugh—but I also want to point out what good has come of this most interesting year, from the perspective of someone who really acknowledges it has been profoundly impacting. 

Try this little simple exercise— 

List three things (or more if so inclined) that were awesome for you in 2020. 

You could start with phrases like: 

2020 has taught me… 

In 2020 I was forced to… 

I am grateful for 2020 because… 

And then list out a few of the positives. 

Here’s mine— 

2020 has forced me to: 

Be Brave. To watch it all go away (events, cashflow, stability) and believe I could still make it, and then prove that I could. 

Be Fearless. To try things (video, virtual, launching a book with a publisher) I never have before and succeed! 

Act Quick. To be ahead of the curve while watching peers and heroes waiting for things to get better. 

I’d love to see your thoughts, in the comments below, if you’re willing to inspire me as well. 

I know 2020 will always be a year with an asterisk, but perhaps it could be a tipping point for all of us in living our Promise at another level.  I know that’s what it will be for me. 

Jason Hewlett is a leadership expert, author, Hall of Fame speaker, and award-winning entertainer. His book The Promise to The One is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Book Company, Google Play, Apple Books. This article originally appeared here on The Promise blog and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog. Subscribe for more inspiring content from Sound Wisdom.

A Question for the New Year by Sam Silverstein

One of the questions I ask leaders—a question that sometimes makes them a little uncomfortable—is a fairly simple, direct one: Do you tell your people the truth?  It’s a deeply relevant question, I think, as we begin the new year. 

Forget, for a moment, whether you feel your people tell you  the truth, or how you feel about it on those occasions when you can prove that they don’t. (That’s actually a function of whether you tell them the truth.) 

Forget about whether you think you have a good reason not  to tell your people the truth. Having an organization where people can level with each other and expect the truth from one another is essential to accountable leadership. It’s a commitment you make. You either fulfill it and set a good example on this score, or you don’t. Are there situations where some people, from a practical point of view, don’t need to know all of the details? Sure. Do people need to know the truth about those decisions, events, and initiatives that affect them?  Yes, they do. If you pretend otherwise, you’re walking down the slippery path we call “the ends justify the means”—and that is not where accountable leaders go. 

Forget about “batting averages.” Sometimes when I ask a leader during a private coaching session, “Do you tell your people the truth?” I get a list. “Well, I lied to them about A and B, but I told them the truth about C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J, So that’s two lies and eight times where I told the truth. So my batting average is about .800, which isn’t too bad.” Nope. Lying 20 percent of the time doesn’t make you a leader with a commitment to the truth. It makes you a liar.  

Accountable leadership is all about fulfilling commitments. One of the most important of those commitments is to tell your people the truth, even when it hurts. Period. No gray areas. No excuses. 

Commitments are not easy. Your accountability will often be tested by challenges and conflicts: Are you going to keep your commitment even in the midst of a crisis, or when it is not in your personal best interest to do so? A commitment has to do with character. Everyone is committed when it is easy, but when a conflict shows up, so does the truth about whether or not you are committed. This is where your accountability is manifested. This is where your character is developed. This is where your team begins to tell you the truth, even when it hurts. 

I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. I believe they can often do more harm than good, because people sometimes make them in December and fall into the habit of making excuses for themselves about breaking the resolution in February. But if the calendar running out of December and taking a scoop out of January inspires you to be more accountable to your team, to make a clear commitment to your team that’s hard to back out of, a commitment to tell them the truth, even when it hurts, I’m all for it. 

Just as a plant has to push through the earth to see the sun and grow, we too have to “push through” our challenges and conflicts…and make and keep our commitments. It is in those moments that we grow as people. A clear, spoken, unambiguous commitment to tell your people the truth, starting right now, will give you a better new year—and a better future. Make the commitment! 

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, I Am Accountable: Ten Choices That Create Deeper Meaning in Your Life, Your Organization, and Your World, is now available to buy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Porchlight Books. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.