The Future: Keep Off, Employees Only!

I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.?—?Jeremiah 29:11 (NCV)

My worries mostly stem from thinking about a future outcome or event. I don’t like to worry as anyone close to me will confirm. However, I sometimes fall into the trap of having a sense of control over certain future events like most people. This article is for my future self who may worry about something. I wish to use the opportunity to share with anyone going through a similar situation.

As humans, we are the only animal capable of thinking about our future, other animals just live in the moment. This gives us the ability to project into the future and make decisions today we want to help create our desired future outcome, we call that planning. The negative side of this self-awareness is the risk of worrying, which happens to no other animal but humans. The dictionary defines worry as to feel or cause to feel anxious or troubled about actual or potential problems. This helps us understand why most of what we worry about are potential problems or issues, it’s only in a few situations do we find ourselves being worried about what is happening now. There is nothing wrong with thinking about the future or planning for it, most of us think about the future far more than is needed and thus slip into worry which disturbs our present lives. When we think too much about the future, which in my opinion stems from our need to control certain outcomes of the future, we find ourselves being distracted from living in the present.

I recently had a conversation with my mentor Tola Alabi over something I was worried about with respect to the future. I found myself frantically planning to control much of that future, I guess this one got me really worried. I knew it wasn’t me and I needed to talk to my mentor, we had the conversation and as always, I enjoyed the benefit of having a mentor. When it comes to the future, keep off, it is employees only, this was what Tola told me that struck home and inspired this article. In our conversation, he helped me realize how futile my worry has been, and using his own experiences showed me that most of what we worry about never materializes and the few that do, we find ourselves better equipped to handle them. Interestingly, research done at Cornell University concerning worry seems to agree as well. The study on people they followed over a period of time, discovered that 85 percent of what they worried about never happened, and of the 15 percent that happened, 79 percent of the time, the problem was handled better than they had imagined. This means that over 90 percent of the time, we are better off in the future than we imagined, that is great if you ask me.

In retrospect, I believe the subjects of those researches will ask themselves the use of their initial worry, and to be honest, they are more likely to repeat the same worry pattern as most of us will. However, it is a complete waste of our energy today to worry about future events or problems. It was the teacher Jesus who asked if our worries could add any moment to our lives. If our worry always ends up materializing and helps us better attend to the issues, it would have been a great added advantage. However, most worry is unnecessary. Most, of the things that we worry about never actually happen, and, when they do, the events are rarely as bad as we imagined. And even when our fears come true, worrying has never helped us deal any better with them.

The best we can do is deny ourselves the opportunity to live and enjoy today when we worry about tomorrow. I was doing that, I had overlooked all the beautiful things happening today that I had never imagined years ago, instead, I was fixated on something that most likely wouldn’t happen. The Stoics see worrying as our eagerness to meet with trouble, while they acknowledged we will certainly meet issues in our lives, they held that worrying about life helps no one. As Seneca wrote, “It is likely that some troubles will befall us; but it is not a present fact. How often has the unexpected happened! How often has the expected never come to pass! And even though it is ordained to be, what does it avail to run out to meet your suffering? You will suffer soon enough, when it arrives.” Even if we are ordained to meet the issues we are worrying about, of what good is it when we start suffering today and still suffer when it comes?

“Past is dead, Future is uncertain; Present is all you have, so eat, drink and live merry.”?—?Albert Einstein

Enjoy today, and live in the moment, the only time that matters is the present, not the past, and certainly not the future. The past is dead, and the future is beyond our control. You must have seen maybe in a public place or even your workplace, a room only accessible to workers. We mostly see a sign that reads, ‘Keep off, employees only’. Trying to access this room as non-employees is what we do when we try to worry about the future. As a Christian, I believe the future is God’s domain and not mine. Worrying about the future is trying to play the role of God, it is a show of a lack of faith in His promise to play His role in our lives. We find peace when we understand and accept that God already has sorted our future and it is indeed futile to worry. Today I am reminding you to keep off and focus on your part which is to live in the moment and not get distracted from enjoying today. Even if you are not a Christian, we can both agree on the futility of worrying about the future, another research called it the deceit of worrying.

As humans, life happens to us in a sequence, however, there is someone who has a bird's view of life and He has assured us our future is well taken care of (science backs this up), I rather trust in that. I understand we often can’t help but worry, I sometimes fall prey to that, however, it is best to always remind ourselves when we worry that the future is not certain and we are mostly better off when it comes. I hope that this helps you not accept the deceit of worry or allow worry to steal any moment of your life.

Shalom!