Four Reasons to Stop Worrying About the Future

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In Bob Miglani's latest book, he discusses the idea of embracing chaos and accepting it as an inevitable fact of life.

Here are four truths to help you deal with anxiety and uncertainty of a chaotic and unknowable future:
 
1. You can’t predict the future.  
The main tenet of a lot of our life stress and frustration is this nagging and seemingly scary feeling deep inside that you just don’t know what’s going to happen next.  From your career to your relationship to the way your kids will turn out to how things will play out in your business—it is getting harder to figure things out accurately. And it bugs us and eats us up slowly from the inside causing this vicious spiral of worrying and anxiety. Accept it that you are powerless to predict the future, because you’re likely going to be wrong…and guess what?  You’ll worry even more!

So what can I do?  So stop trying to predict the future and instead try to make changes today and now. That's something you have some control over, and it's probably the best way to hedge the bets in your favor when it comes to future success.


2. Even if you could predict the future, you can’t control it.  
Luck, randomness and chance contribute so much to the unpredictable nature of life that it is just unrealistic to think you can control things even if you have a good idea of what may happen. I have a hard enough time controlling my kids, so it would be foolish to think I can control my career or anything else. Break the root of worry by realizing that you cannot control or dictate things to just be.  It’s just not possible to have total control of your life when you are so intertwined with so much of the world (i.e. butterfly effect). 

So what can I do? Deal with the uncertainty of an unknown future by focusing your energy the only the things you can control:  Your thoughts and actions. You can control your mind, so task it to deal with those things that are within your control now and leave the worrying for another time.


3. You’re afraid that you're missing the best time of your life, not realizing that the best time is now.  
There is so much you miss in life when your head is in the clouds worrying about an uncertain future.  ”My kids grew up in a blink of an eye”, is what so many people say these days. The fact is that we spend a lot of time worrying about a future that we have no control over, and wasting the present which we do have control over. Imagine, you’re here on this rock for a short time and you’re missing the best part because you’re caught up with trying to figure out the future.
 
So what can I do? Be in the present moment. Being in the here and now is the only truth, so now is the best time of your life, so act like it. When you recognize this fact, you’ll be more productive in your career and your relationships. 


4. Sometimes the worst is not as bad as you think.
We often blow things out of proportion and exaggerate the bad that only our own mind thinks is going to happen (without any real evidence). What initially starts off as the "worst case scenario" starts more and more to sound like a realistic outcome. I realized that when I looked back at the chaos of life that I’ve gone through, it wasn’t all that bad.  Sometimes, you don’t even remember it.

So what can I do? Realize that a worst case scenario is as unlikely to happen as the ideal scenario because both are exaggerations of potential outcomes. We often doubt that best case scenarios will happen but take worst case scenarios as inevitable -- why? Both are equally likely and so equally unlikely. What actually happens is usually something in the middle -- and way more manageable than you anticipated it would be.

Four Myths About Reimagining Your Life

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Most of us want to believe that we can reimagine our life's second chapter and purpose, but allow negative and inaccurate thinking to stop us from doing just that. Here is author Richard Leider's list of four common myths that stop us from seeking out our next purpose:

Myth #1: To now have a new possibility means I must do something completely original. Can you really recall anything that is totally new? Almost every idea or creation is an extension or synthesis of previous efforts. New breakthroughs are built on existing fundamental truths. Like runners in a relay race, we simply do our part to carry the baton another leg of the race.

Myth #2: Only a few gifted or skilled people are able to discover new paths and possibilities in their lives. This is the most commonly rationalized of all myths. History, however, is filled with great contributions made by ordinary people who had virtually no experience or expertise in the areas where they thrived in their lives' second chapter. In fact, being a "seasoned novice" gives us permission and courage to step into things with fresh passion and purpose.

Myth #3: What I want to do next will come as inspiration or revelation. Until that time comes, I will wait. Inspiration comes to those who seek it. We don't find beautiful shells unless we're on the beach. If we believe in the the "miracle moment" theory, we rarely will find it. If we wait for "a sign," we end up being waiters for the rest of our lives.

Myth #4: It's too late; I'm too old. This something you do when you're younger.
Realizing new possibilities is a cradle-to-grave quest. Situations and people change every day and continue to change throughout our life. As long as there is change, there are new opportunities. Keep in mind that you now also have two things you had less of before: time and experience. Use them.

The Three Biggest Myths About How to Eradicate Poverty

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In their new book, Paul Polak and Mal Warwick discuss how business and entrepreneurship is the key to fighting poverty and creating lasting economic change and progress globally.

There are still unfortunately many myths about poverty and how to eradicate it. Here are the three biggest ones:

Myth #1: You can donate money to help people out of poverty

Why it's not true: Giving people money or free stuff is harmful. If it’s just a one-time thing with no guarantee of renewal, it simply reinforces the attitudes of inadequacy that hobble so many poor people. And if the giveaway is actually sustained over time, it creates dependency. Both effects are extremely undesirable. In any case, there’s just not enough money in all the foundations in the world to give away enough to the 2.7 billion people in the world who live on $2 a day or less. Poor people have to make an investment of their own time and money to move out of poverty. Only then will they have a chance to improve their lives and those of their families.


Myth #2: National economic growth can end poverty

Why it's not true: Most economists view an increase in a country’s per capita GDP as the leading indicator of poverty reduction, but this entirely misses the point. Growth in GDP inevitably boosts the income of those at the top of the economic heap, and to a limited extent those in the middle class, but it rarely trickles down to the poor at the bottom of the pyramid. Even if government resources are invested in programs to subsidize the poor, a large proportion of the money is routinely siphoned off through corruption. In the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, the effect of increasing a country’s economic output is typically to widen the gap between rich and poor, not to narrow it.

Myth #3: The UN, the World Bank, and nonprofit organizations are taking care of the problem.

Why it's not true: The advocates of foreign aid and philanthropy typically insist that they are making great headway in reducing poverty in the world. However, the 2.7 billion people today who live on $2 a day or less is greater than the entire population of the planet in 1950, around the time when the global fight against poverty began. In fact, the traditional approaches to eradicating poverty have failed—because they plan from the top down, they ignore poor people’s own views of what they need, they are prey for corrupt officials, and they direct nearly all their efforts at more prosperous people in towns and cities and not among the desperately poor people who predominate in the countryside.