Alternate Perceptions Magazine, October 2025
Planning For the Future
By Stan Prachniak, MBA
Preparing for future moments is a way to control what you control at any given time. What you do today can affect what will happen tomorrow and beyond. It’s important to understand that there are unexpected situations that happen in life that you can be avoided. You might be asking yourself right now, “If they are unexpected, then how can I avoid them?” One answer is that you can prepare for some unexpected events in life by forming responsible habits.
In Freedom To Change, one of the things we talk about is controlling what you do and how you act at any given moment in time. You can’t change the past and you can’t control the future. What you can do is learn from the past and prepare for the future. You might not be able to control the future, but you do have the ability to plan for it. Not planning for future moments or events can add stress to your life and lead to being faced with many less-than-desirable situations. Understanding what the future may hold is a key component of your ability to control some of the things that you control in your life.
There are many different things that happen in life that you have the opportunity to prepare for—to control what you can control before they happen. Consider your vehicle for a moment. There are a number of things that can happen with an automobile that create an immediate emergency situation. And some of these things can be prepared for. I am talking specifically about the maintenance of your car. Things like keeping gas in the tank, getting the oil changed regularly, changing wiper blades when they are worn out, and replacing burned out lights. All of the things I just mentioned have the potential, if not properly maintained, to create future emergency situations.
Let’s examine what type of future emergency not changing your oil regularly (something you control) might create. Over time engine oil breaks down and loses its ability to properly lubricate the components of your engine, which leads to increased friction and higher engine temperatures. There is also a “sludge” that begins to build up in the engine the longer oil is used without being changed. If not taken care of, this can lead to complete engine failure.
Imagine you have decided to take a spur-of-the-moment road trip with a couple of your friends and you have volunteered to drive, but you have not properly maintained your car since you bought it. You pick up your friends and hit the road. After several hours and hundreds of miles of driving, your car begins making strange noises and is running rough. It is dark out and you are on a long stretch of deserted highway with no cities or towns around for miles. Then, you hear a loud noise and your engine stops. Your car is dead and your emergency situation begins. Now, you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and have to figure out what to do. Where will you have your car towed? How much will it cost to get fixed? What about the trip? These questions and many more would likely begin swirling in your head. Could you have controlled anything about this situation? Chances are, if you had properly maintained your vehicle (formed a responsible habit/plan for maintenance), this situation would not have occurred.
It is important in all aspects of your life to identify what you can do right now that can help you in the future. Have you prepared for future possibilities by controlling what you can do right now? This concept can be applied to work, diet, exercise, school, relationships, and many other areas of life. Proper maintenance now will help avoid future emergencies.
Freedom To Change offers a way for you to learn responsible ways to plan for your future and control the things that you can control. For more information on the Freedom2Change materials, visit www.freedom2change.org.
