“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head.”
Proverbs 20:29 (KJV)
When people say the future is now, we probably pass it off as a usual comment and put no effort into understanding what it means in-depth. A valid breakdown would be this; what becomes of your future is built as an upshot of what you make of your present moment. Your future solely hinges on how you live this early part of your life. Plan for your future now and enjoy later. What are you doing with your life now?
Planning for your Future
Interestingly, your early life matters to fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. You cannot afford to be careless about this stage of your life. The youthful stage is the formative stage of your destiny. Various passages in the Bible speak of our “Youth” as a time we can mostly offer our service to God, master a skill or craft and become whatever we desire to be in life. The youthful stage is the time your strength is at its peak. Hence, the best time to invest in your future.
It is shameful that youths of this generation would rather have their hands folded and legs crossed as they await a ‘microwave success’ that does not last for less than a short period, not to talk of a lifetime. They barely understand the art and act of planning and determined positive actions while they are young. They have been misguided by the thoughts of later achievements and success.
The God-Factor in Planning a Successful Future
Truthfully, the future is an uncertain thing to bank on, but when you have envisioned God in all that you plan for, there is no limit to what you can attain. As a result of the future waves, it must be known that planning for the future is not a piece of cake. It is not something you just say or write on your bucket list and stay back without a concrete plan, concise actions and no involvement of God. You need God in your future as much as you need to work for it.
To get to the future you desire, you have to start now. This is the best time to make fixable mistakes. It is the best time to discover your potential. Now is the best time to use all your strength and willpower to go after your dreams and future plans with everything you have in you.
Get this; no great man that ever existed became great overnight. It took years of focused planning and strategizing to get them to where they are. So when you admire them and wish to be like them, recall that they worked hard to earn what the world knows them for. We are the future, but how can we make this to reality when we are not having a concrete guide or plans to take us through the right path?
The Myth of Failing to Plan for the Future
If you’re still in the school of thought that you’re too young to start planning your future, then you have mixed it up somewhere. To correct that, let’s take a few Biblical and contemporary world samples.
Let’s start with Josiah, the boy who became the King of Judah. He instituted major religious reforms in Judah starting from the moment he became King. He did not wait till he was ‘old enough,’ neither did he wait for someone to dictate how he would make those reforms. He had a plan for a greater future of not just himself but also for the people of Judah and we can see how far his reforms took the people of Judah.
King David you read about in the Bible was once a young boy who took out Goliath, a mighty giant that troubled the whole of Israel for a long time. His young age didn’t discourage him from facing an old giant, nor did it stop him from seeing the freedom of the people of Israel. If David had not stepped in, who knows what would have been the future of the Israelites?
Jesus Christ, our solid rock, was a youth when He began His work and mission on earth. He had a vision plan of redemption for the future of the world. He didn’t refuse because He was young and the whole salvation work was an arduous task. Instead, he started and went ahead with the plan of redemption of men.
Of course, we have Mark Zuckerberg, Catherine Cook, David Karp, Aliko Dangote, Akomolafe Henrich Bankole and the list continues. All these people, in various ways, started planning for their bright future early. They didn’t take life for just the fun of it. They gave meaning to themselves and their existence, which was why they were deliberate in their plans and actions to succeed. So, I ask you now, what makes you think you are too young with the few examples that have been cited?
Plan for your Future: Tips for Young Professionals
Don’t you know that the glory of you as a youth lies in your strength and energy? Now is the time to plan and use the vigorous strength and forte in you because, unfortunately, that strength you have to fight and push through would not be there forever. Start a business now with the Australia Lending network. They have a variety of lending options for young, small and medium-scale businesses like yours.
At a point, you will grow old and weary and there is not so much one can do when the old-time comes. Your old age is to enjoy what you have labored hard for a while you were still young. You don’t expect a person who has toiled to make plans as a youth to suffer in their old age. They have worked when they should work and so, when the time of abundance and reaping comes, they will enjoy it to the fullest.
This much emphasis on your youthful time to plan is not just made for you as an individual alone, but for the whole world in general. In one way or the other, even with ones you can’t perceive, you are saving the world by the effort of plans and actions you put to whatever you vision.
Now, it is one thing to plan; it is another to take action. The plan you make now is not the end of it all. As a matter of fact, it is the very beginning of the journey to the future.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 says, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”
Remember that as Christians, whatever we do is not of our own strength alone, but by the grace of God in us to do that which we desire according to His will. In essence, reckon God now in the days of your youth. Always have God in your plans because a plan without God is futile, have this understanding, and exist in it with caution. Also, apply it to your daily endeavors and you will see how God works miraculously.
Like it or not, tough times will come. They’d be so difficult that you might lose track of yourself and time and then when you have failed to start planning earlier, you will end up on the late train. So, the earlier the better. Remember the saying that the ‘early birds eat the juiciest worms.’
It is time you ask yourself, “What do I want for my future and for the future of the world? How can I start making conscious planning and actions to attain and achieve?”
Now that you are young, you can make decisions for yourself without pressure from anyone or the influence of friends and people. You are still yet at the stage where you can quickly retrace your steps and set it right because there is hardly a chance of making substantial changes at old age.
Start planning now when you are young to avoid regrets of the later times.
