Make a Difference

Fall In Love With Your Future 1.0

We all make mistakes and experience disappointment. Sometimes our biggest regret is that we can’t undo the past. It’s like concrete that has hardened and can’t be reshaped.

That’s why the future offers such hope. No matter how old we are, each new day stretches before us like wet cement . . . waiting for the imprint we give it. Wise daily decisions can help us build more of the things we truly desire: nobility of character, revived relationships, even increased personal power.

This series of posts will describe the kind of decisions and life-skills that lead to purpose and contentment. Practicing these skills frees us to catch a glimpse of who we really are and the destiny that is open to us. Once we understand and fall in love with our future, it’s possible that the world around us will never be the same.

A consultant who traveled to over 100 different countries through his professional assignments kept a private survey of questions he asked in his spare time. One of the questions was, “What’s the most important thing in life to you?” The answer he received over and over was, “I want my life to count.”

Another question he asked was, “What is your greatest fear?” Surprisingly, very few people said things like death, cancer, or public humiliation. Instead, most confided a fear that their lives would be meaningless—that they would die with their potential untapped.

When pressed, most of us feel there’s a reason we were put on Earth at this place and time.  We have an inner longing to fulfill that destiny, even if we don’t know exactly what it is.  And we don’t have to know.  Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, says “anytime we use our God- given abilities to help others, we are fulfilling our calling.”

Getting excited about our future prompts us to go beyond simply surviving.  In fact, it actually prompts us to go beyond seeking success.  Ultimately, it motivates us to look for significance, which involves finding ways to fulfill a purpose greater than ourselves.

People who have fallen in love with their future have usually discovered this value of being other-centered.  And they apply it to their careers, as well as to their personal lives.  They try to look 5, 10, 20 years into the future and ask themselves, “Is what I’m doing benefitting mankind?”  “Will it continue to serve others in the future?”  If not, they do the soul searching necessary for a career or personal change.  If so, they throw themselves into their work with a new vision for making a difference.

“We each have a song within us that only we can sing.”   — Michael Jones