What will you wish you had if disaster strikes? Why don’t you have it now?
It’s too easy, in our current era, to believe that things will somehow continue to improve, yet history tells us that there is no evidence that this theory of constant advancement is true.
In fact, history is filled with examples that reveal that our own era of advancement may have reached its peak and that a long era of decline may be what lies ahead. The irony of that observation is that it is in the fertile soil of the decline of one era that the seeds of the rise of the next are sown.
What separates those who are swept away by decline from those who survive it and prosper is the mindset of readiness for whatever comes next. In the dark days of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was the astute wisdom of farmers and former soldiers who chose to band together for common purpose and security that sowed the seeds of the Renaissance. In the turbulent era of the stranglehold of tyrannical monarchy on Europe, it was the waves of colonists willing to venture into uncharted lands that sowed the seeds for democracy and liberty. In the troubled times of the Depression, it was the people who accepted what had happened and learned to rely on themselves and live within their means that sowed the seeds of the unprecedented prosperity that marked the last half of the 20th century.
In every example history provides us, the people who weathered eras of decline were the ones with enough forethought and wisdom to glance at the future’s horizon and see the storm clouds gathering. These people were the ones who bothered to gather the kinds of resources they knew they would need in the hard times they knew were coming and who learned to rely on themselves for their wellbeing. It was from the determination and resolve of these kinds of people that the next eras were born, and this time around will be no different.
So, what will you wish you had if disaster strikes? Why don’t you have it now?
Take a look at the future’s horizon and ask yourself those questions again.
Now, ask yourself what you are going to do about it.
DLH
