Change in prospect
A Study done on our daily thought revealed that 12 per cent of the content of our daily thoughts are futuristic. The concept of unconsciously travelling into the future has been proven to be an adaptive feature of human beings. Whilst some of the travels we make into the future are anxiety triggered, traveling into the future proves to be a helpful mechanism for forestalling pleasure.
The essence of life is to become better. And this is only possible through change. It is said that the only constant in life is making changes. But how do we change? Change is a corollary of experience. But must we always have a personal experience to change?
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One of the greatest blessings we can ever have is the blessing called third-party experience. A third party experience is any experience we don’t experience personally. This is to say that the experiences of others are a blessing to us. Also, our imagined experiences are an awesome avenue for us to change. I regard these two types of experiences as blessings because they allow us to change prospectively.
There are generally two types of change: change in prospect and change in retrospect. What’s the difference? The difference between these two types of change is opportunity.
I aced my after exam test during my tertiary years, I became more like a teaching assistant to my mates because I had taken a personal interest in a particular course which was very difficult for a lot of them. I did my extra studies and had the facts, methods, etc. at the tip of my fingers. But something strange happened during the examination.
On the day of the examination, I was very confident I would make an A in the course. I went to the exam hall relaxed and hopeful. We were asked to start work; I answered sections A and B with ease as I anticipated.
However, section C took me by surprise. I knew the answers to all the questions but there was one question with a figure which to me, didn’t add. I thought the question was wrong, I called the invigilator who called the lecturer for the course. To my amazement, he said there was nothing wrong with the question. Owing to that I decided to answer the question only to the point where I wouldn’t work with the figure I suspected. After the paper, as usual, we were discussing it and then I realised that there was nothing wrong with the question. I began sweating because I was done for.
The failures of people also communicate volumes to trigger some changes in your life.
The truth is that eventually; we will realise some things in life. The only problem is when. King Solomon said, “The prudent man foresees evil, and hides: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” This text corroborates my view that we would all figure some things out in life but the difference would be when.
What’s the use of knowledge without opportunity? Our ability to foresee the necessary changes we have to make beforehand is what usually separates successful people from unsuccessful people. You don’t ever want to say, “Had I known…”
The skill of prospection is enhanced by our ability to recognise. In simple terms, prospection is “premature” recognition. What do we need to recognise? I think we need to recognise events that can play out in our lives. For example, the success of people is communicative enough to make you want to make some alterations. The failures of people also communicate volumes to trigger some changes in your life. Everything that has happened in the past is supposed to be our example but our ability to recognise and timely use history to our advantage is the challenge.
How do you want your life to be? Would you want to be someone replete with a lot of lessons with nothing to show forth because you learned all your lessons late or you would want to be a person who learned all his lessons timely and has a lot to show forth? The decision is yours to make. Figure out all there is and make changes today because you will repair what you fail to prepare for.
Julius