Preparing For An Unknowable Future

“The future depends on what we do in the present.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

We are most comfortable when we are familiar with our surroundings and with what we think is ahead of us.

Thus facing an inevitably unknown future can be a terrifying prospect for most people because things might just — and often will — turn out very differently than we thought they would and had hoped for. And the change can be very sudden, magnifying its effect.

For example, serious illness or injury may show up unexpectedly, throwing someone completely out of their comfort zone. Previous life bets would then become either off or derailed in a major way. Thus things would have to change in order to accommodate this new reality.

And the effect is not only on the person with the illness or injury. It is also on their family, friends, and colleagues. Even worse in its impact is the sudden death of someone or a loved one or friend. The future path ahead we had in our minds before, would now suddenly be in disarray as circumstances have changed dramatically right before our eyes and senses.

The stress and strain on a person’s life brought about by unplanned and unexpected adverse events can become nearly unbearable.

But bear them we must because, as everyone knows, life does go on, at least for those of us still living. Of course, every unplanned, negative thing that occurs in a person’s life that disrupts his or her comfort zone and plans is not always something as life-altering as significant illness, injury, or death. But it may feel that way nonetheless.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Things such as a failed romantic relationship, especially if it had been on track for marriage, can be traumatic indeed and have debilitating effects on the two people involved, as well as indirectly on others. While emotionally wounded, the couple must now find a way to recover from their decoupling and get on with their individual, now separate lives. They must do a complete “reset” in their plans, something not easy at all.

A clear-eyed gaze into what could lie ahead in the future, both good and bad and everything in between, is necessary to realistically prepare for what may come.

Mainly looking at life primarily through rose-colored glasses is misguided enough when dealing with the present, although it can serve as a coping mechanism to help us stay well within a nice comfort zone. But this sort of overly optimistic view, when projected onto future plans and expectations, is seriously flawed and could even be dangerous. The real world just doesn’t work that way.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

— Steve Jobs

So how do we prepare for a future that may take us wildly outside our comfort zone?

Well, it’s important to think in terms of possible future events and then to make some realistic contingency plans to deal with such potentialities. For example, if a person is in his or her peak earning years and healthy, it would be wise to have adequate life insurance and health insurance in case of an untimely death or serious illness or injury.

Similarly, someone who is gainfully employed at the moment but could be unemployed in the future should think carefully about what to do if they suddenly lost their job. Having at least three month’s worth of salary set aside, to go along with unemployment benefits, to cover a reasonable period needed to find a new job, would be the prudent thing to do, just in case.

Worst-case future scenarios involve major illness, injury, or even death (beyond the possibility of your own death, which we discussed previously in income replacement terms through having a reasonable amount of life insurance).

They are much harder to think about and plan for because we don’t like to contemplate such extremely painful, disruptive, life-altering events. But giving some thought to such things, uncomfortable as it may be to do so, is necessary to mitigate the chances of being caught completely off guard and thus totally unprepared. That would only make matters far worse than they would be otherwise.

Ultimately the future is truly unknowable for all of us and it’s only a matter of time over a lifespan before we are pushed dramatically outside of our comfort zone.

When that inevitably happens, and our comfort zone suddenly encounters reality, we would all be well-advised to be as prepared as humanly possible.

“If we could unfold the future, the present would be our greatest care.”

— Edward Counsel

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Thanks for reading. Copyright Terry Mansfield. All rights reserved.