“I’m afraid of the future. What should I do?”
I hear you. The future can be scary, because it is such a mystery. No one can predict the future. It is beyond anyone’s knowledge.
We can guess, but we’ll never know.
Guessing can be a harmless game. But often times it isn’t harmless, especially when we start to become too creative with our guessing.
“What if I mess up and then everyone hates me?”
“If I say that, she will explode in anger and leave me forever!”
“If I pursue that road, there is no viable future in it because nobody wants it. Absolutely no demand!”
“If I ask that question, people are going to think I’m stupid and will label me with mean names!”
Sigh. It’s never ending right? This unhealthy guessing game affects all of us, myself included. But the way I deal with it is simple (but not easy).
I focus on what I can control.
Look. I don’t know the future and will never know. I don’t know what’s going to happen 10 years, 10 months, 10 days, 10 hours, or even 10 seconds from now.
I don’t know, and I embrace it. I acknowledge it. Then, I leave it to the One who knows all: Allah.
As for me, I focus on what I do know: Right now. Right now, I know what I’m thinking, feeling, and doing. I know what is right and what is wrong because I have my principles.
What is left is for me to maintain myself upon those principles in how I think, feel, and do. The rest, I leave it to Allah.
It’s still scary, but it’s no longer overwhelming because I don’t obsess over what I can’t control.
That’s attitude led me to places I did not imagine before. That’s the funny thing about the future. It could be bad, but it could also be great. You’ll never know.
This picture was taken in Marawi, Philippines for my mini tour last month.
If you ask me 1 year before that photo was taken, “Do you think you will be standing in front of 1000 people in another country to deliver an uplifting message to them?”
I would probably doubt myself. I might even say, “No way. I am lightyears away from that.”
Boy, was I wrong.
Just focus on what you can control, and allow your future to unfold by itself.
Credit: Aiman Azlan
