At the urging of a close friend who is an absolute believer, my college-age daughter recently went with a group of friends to a psychic for a reading. While she told me she was going purely for the “entertainment value”, her response to the reading was interesting.

The psychic seemed to provide enough tangible insights to my daughter’s current reality that it added some validity to the future predictions. Now, I have never been to a psychic, and I can’t say that I necessarily “believe” or not, but I do think that some people are just better observers than others.

While the reading was very positive overall in how it described her future professional life, what she will achieve, where she will live, when she will marry, number of children, etc., there were a couple of items that weren’t nearly as positive. Not that they were catastrophic, but more than a little sad in the eyes of a 19-year-old.

Who's in charge of your future?

As she shared the more distressing part of the reading with me, I reminded her that this was for “entertainment” and that she is the one in control of her future. If there is a future that is important to her, then she needs to work hard to make it happen. She heard me, but I’m not entirely sure she was listening. She was too focused on the bad news she received.

However, as the day went on, it was interesting to see how her perspective seemed to change. As most of us are able to do, she started to discount and explain away the negative while she validated and became more and more focused on the positives.

If it were you sitting in front of a psychic asking about your professional future, how would your respond?

Actually, take the psychic out of it and just look at the likely changes coming to your industry and career. None of us has a crystal ball, but the future isn’t always that hard to predict; you just have to be a careful observer.

  • What are the future needs/demands of your clients?
  • Will your current behaviors/habits continue to drive your desired results?
  • How can you separate yourself from your competition?
  • What knowledge and skills will it take to be successful?

Regardless of your industry or position within the industry, there are going to be real challenges – challenges that will pose real threats to your desired future, as well as exciting opportunities. The key is how you respond.

When you predict your future in these areas, does your immediate vision make you excited for your future, or does it cause you stress? Do you become momentarily blinded by the challenges only to slowly shift your focus to the positives or maybe the easy-to-deal-with issues?

If you only focus on the positives and choose to ignore those threats because they represent an inconvenient future for you, you are only dealing with one part of your future.

As I told my daughter, find confidence from those things you are doing well and find motivation to change those things you don’t do so well. You, and your actions are what will determine your future.

 

Content provided by Q4intelligence 

Photo by bialasiewicz