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The Future is Now

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Each of us has several things in common. We each have a past, present, and future. While it is true that the contents of those three segments of life are different, we must admit it is true that all of us have a past, we are living in the present, and there is a future ahead of us. In the business and professional world there are people making mega dollars by helping leaders of industry plan the course toward the future.  One of the great temptations to which many fall prey is to become so focused upon what is going on in the present day they ignore making plans for the future. Joel Barker, the world famous scholar and futurist, dedicated his adult life to helping people develop a vision for the future. Barker is known for challenging the giants of industry and business with quotes such as this: “You can and should shape your own future; because if you don’t someone else surely will.” In this fast paced world that is changing faster each second, it is hard just to keep up with the present, much less try to lay out plans five, ten, or twenty years in the future. One thing is certain, the future becomes current reality quicker than we can imagine and to ignore planning for it is to assure failure. There are folks who tell us we have no idea what lies ahead and it is just nonsense to try to project into the future with plans that will have to be changed once the future arrives. The futility of that type of thinking can be seen in the struggle to understand what to do with the social media phenomenon that is sweeping the globe today. The great temptation is to leave the social media experience to the youth of the culture.  The onslaught of the Internet and the vast doors of information that opens to all people everywhere are proving that we were not ready to utilize the benefits of instant awareness that is open to us. The wireless world makes it possible to engage anyone almost anywhere at anytime on any subject. Web sites, Internet access, social media all roll into a major package of information gathering and sharing the likes of which was not even thought possible a few short years ago. These upgrades in information sharing are leading some people to predict there will be no printed books or magazines or printed newspapers in the near future. All news we receive will come to us by way of wireless Internet access, some argue. Some of us in my generation struggle to keep up with all these changes, and many do not even attempt to do so.

Governments; local, state and federal, are finding it a challenge to place everything online and to adjust the traditions of government protocol to the new age of the wireless access world. We no longer are faced with the issue of turning the clock back to another day and time when life was simple. That is gone forever. That will not happen no matter how many people want to see it take place.

We face the current reality of the fact that we must plan now for the future. We cannot delay any longer. We must determine where we are currently and where we want to be in the future and set plans to reach those goals. To ignore planning is to assure that we will fail is not an empty threat. Admittedly, it is easy to miss what is happening now with our head focused in the future. There must be a balance. Joel Barker also reminds leaders that: “No one will thank you for taking care of the present if you have neglected the future.”

So then, what are we to do? We must look to the future with a determination to not be caught off guard by what comes our way. The planning cycle is shortening as we can no longer delay planning for another time. We must be aware of current changes and look with an open intellectual mind toward what is before us as a nation or we will find that we have been left behind as the future continues to roll toward us with lightning speed.

Now is the time when we must realize yesterday’s future is today’s present and tomorrow becomes today with the ticking of a clock. 

Ray Newman: All Rights Reserved

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