Tycoon-ism: “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” – Henry Ward Beecher
In almost all religious beliefs, and more emphasized in Christianity, worrying is a form of sin. But in a world where a state of constancy is never a sure thing, and change is, it is not surprising that we all tend to wonder how things will be in the future. We put up hedge funds and buy insurance if only appease our worrisome nature. But how can we stop worrying? If we look closely at our anxiety, we can figure that it only applies when we think of it as bigger than we are. After all, why would we worry about something that we can handle? So worrying becomes a sin only because we tend to think of our problems as bigger than God. Faith steps in as a means to cut this burden of anxiety from us. When we let go of the future, believing by faith that although we cannot control it but Someone higher than us can, we get the full benefits of the blessings of today.
Failure affects us in three ways: One is to enable us to realize the nature of our mistakes and make the necessary steps to prevent them from happening again and the second is to remind us that we need to try again in order to succeed. It is only when we dwell too much in the failures of the past and start feeling sorry for ourselves too often does it serve its third and more sinister effect; that of a quagmire, a chain that holds us from achieving our goals.
We often hear of soothsayers, who appear to have been endowed with the gift to see the future. In fact, people line up to meet with them so they can be given a glimpse of what might be. What they are missing is the fact that yesterday, the future was today and if only they had the foresight to plan ahead then they would know to a certain degree what will happen. What’s the use of knowing the future if you’re not part of it? Or if you can’t do anything about it? Tomorrow is a mould which we can shape to our own desires. It is not solid porcelain but soft clay. Besides, your future is only as good as how well you have invested in your today. So make the most of the present, stopping only once and a while to gaze at the future. Remember, what you plant today, you harvest many tomorrows later.
It is usual for successful people to have a plan for their future, and as you’re reading this it means that either you’re already there or at least you have begun to take control of your life. Planning entails details and the more detailed your plans are, the better you know what you want and conversely, the more you expose yourself to fail. Now, knowing what you want and knowing how to get there is one thing, but if you fret for any impending difficulty then you may get lost in the preparation of future rewards while you miss the rewards of today. As always, balance is the key. Do not worry too much for the future; let the future worry for itself, as the saying goes. Make sure not to miss out on life as you make your plans. And so live your life today, and as an afterthought, maybe you could go ahead and call your relatives you’ve been meaning to call if “you only had the time” today; who knows, you might just discover another way to achieve your goals.
