What the Future Holds: How to Find Out & Create Your Own Future

Last Updated on 7 months by Anoob P T

In this post, we are going to discuss how to find what the future holds, how you can create your own future even if you don’t know what the future holds. 

Often in life, you wonder what the future holds.

It is more so if you are like me coming from a middle-class background and the feeling (read anxiety) is even more if you grew up in a dysfunctional family.

Years back when I had a very wealthy ex-girlfriend who was from an old money family, I often used to notice that she never bothered what was her future because she did not have to worry about common life problems such as getting a job or making money.

On the other hand, I was constantly worried about the future thinking how will I ever get out of this mess.

In many ways, I have been fortunate. After leaving a career in the airline industry, I somehow got involved in the hyper-growth startup scene and have seen many companies grow big and go bust.

What the Future Holds: How to Find Out & Create Your Own Future

What the future holds 

If you asked me 10 years ago what the future holds, I would have responded, “Not much.”

I had graduated in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering during the peak of recession with no job prospects, no money and absolutely no employable skills that could make me any money. 

On top of this, I grew up in a dysfunctional family with an abusive father who went out of his way to ensure that I had no money and I would be daily getting a dose of “Get out of my House!” three times a day. 

At this point, my future did not look so good and I left home with $400 in savings I had saved from working at random jobs such as data entry, freelance writing and working at a call center. 

I stayed in a small one room- one bathroom accommodation to try to survive the next few months/years with as little money as possible. 

As I lay in bed looking skyward, I remember clicking a picture with a cookie in the background because I had nothing else to do.

This was a time when I was jobless, penniless and had just broken up with my girlfriend because she thought it was the “best” thing for “us”. 

I never understood that logic from girls. 

Due to lack of money, I was eating one time in a day and trying really hard to find some work.

This was the early stages of the internet and there were not many online jobs that were reliable (or maybe I was too ignorant to know them). 

So over the course of the next 10 years, I worked at several full time jobs, handled digital marketing for Series C funded startups and got fired from the startup I started after raising $2 Million in funding. 

This is a picture from my bedroom, I clicked recently. 

When I look back, 10 years seems to have gone by very quickly. 

Early in my career, I was driven by ambition to become one of those CEOs of funded-startups not giving a damn about anything or anyone but focus only on one thing–Growth. 

Growth comes at a price and sometimes it comes at the price of your physical and mental health. 

For four years, I slaved away trying to grow the company and after I got funding, the owners of the startup incubator that provided seed investment decided that it was better if I left the company as they wanted to showcase more “Qualified” founders. 

It was a little different ending than what I had thought when I started my startup journey. 

At this point, I can assure you that its not worth going above and beyond your duties to think that people will find you hardworking and reward you. 

Companies, management and even your immediate bosses are selfish (to the core) and they will replace you in a heartbeat if they can find someone cheaper and better. 

The catch is that they will keep dangling the carrot in front of you as long as possible and when they know they can find a better donkey– your time is up and time for the new donkey to take over. 

So does it mean that you should not put in hard work and give your 100%?

No!

Anytime I have put full effort into something has always come back to pay me later in some other weird way. 

The payment usually does not come from the person or company I worked hard for but the payment comes in the form of opportunities, side projects or even just confidence. 

If you are early in your career, you should put in hard work to learn your craft but as you gain experience, you should also be smart enough to see when people are using you. 

Years back, when I was working for an e-learning startup, I used to go to the office at 7 AM in the morning (to meet the Australian Sales Team) and leave the office by 8 PM (after my meetings with the U.S Sales team). 

The only break I took was a 30 minute lunch break and then after a year they gave me a 2% hike on my salary with the feedback that, while I was good, there were a lot more things I could do. 

I didn’t complain and I did not look for a different job but worked harder for another year thinking that after one more year someone will take notice of my hard work. 

After a year, they again gave me a 2% hike and I quit. 

Looking back, I would never have in my wildest dreams thought that the hard work back then would pay me in the form of side-hustles payout years later. 

Was it all worth it? 

I don’t know, maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. 

There is no way you can know what the future holds looking from your current vantage point. 

The only thing you can do is have blind faith and just try to go with the flow. 

What the Future Holds Steps

In case you did not know, there is a studio album by the name What the Future Holds by the British group Steps released by the record label BMG on 27 November 2020.

What The Future Holds Quotes

I have a habit of collecting quotes in a notepad.

I have also collected few What The Future Holds Quotes which I thought was pretty good.

Here are some What The Future Holds Quotes from my collection

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

I believe that the future can be bright for us.
— John F. Kennedy

“If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.”
― Roy T. Bennett

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
-Mike Murdock

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
-Steve Jobs

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
-Jean de La Fontaine

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
-Abraham Lincoln

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
-Graham Greene

Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.
-Mattie Stepanek

The one thing we know about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
-Jeff Rich

Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.
-Henri Frederic Amiel

I don’t know what the future holds

If you are constantly struggling with anxiety thinking I don’t know what the future holds, then you needn’t worry.

When your situation looks hopeless, always know that when you hit rock bottom, you can only go up from there.

When I was working in an airline as an maintenance technician intern, my future was very uncertain.

In my home, things were not that good and even my younger brother had started to poke me saying that I will never get anywhere as all the airlines were shutting down and finding a job was very difficult.

To top it off, at work, I had an airport van driver who would constantly make fun of me saying that my life is over and I would never get any job.

He was an un-educated guy who somehow got into an airline 20 years back as a driver and he found great pleasure in proclaiming to the world that this guy would never get anywhere.

These are the kind of people who want to see others always in a lower status and they never want others to do well.

Last I checked, he is still working as a driver in the airport.

I have no desire to meet him and show him that I did get somewhere as I don’t even want to waste my time with such useless people.

I like the musician Kieth Urban and I think his Golden Road record was his best work.

Many years ago in an interview I remember him saying, “When I stopping fighting, life ceased to be a war.”

I’m somewhat there right now where I have stopped fighting to I have lost the desire to run a funded startup, build a massive online business or try to become rich quickly.

I just want to work on this website, grow it slowly and let’s see where it goes.

How to Find Out What the Future Holds

I’ve been thinking about how to find out what the future holds and I have also closely observed people who are enjoying what they do for a living.

I found a pattern there.

In most cases, I found out that people who are enjoying what they do for a living are doing things they were interested in as a kid or something related to their hobby.

For example, if you took successful sports professionals, authors, YouTubers-they all used to like the process of playing the sport, writing or being in front of a camera and they still do it.

If you took my example, I was never good at anything in school except writing.

But I never thought I would be writing for a living and thousands of people would be reading what I write.

I enjoy writing and that is the reason why I keep this website going even if it is not making any money.

I enjoy the process and to find out what your future holds, think how you can turn any of your passions into a side-project.

If you can figure that out, you have already won half the battle.

Create Your Own Future

I have read somewhere that we create our own future.

Actually that is wrong, the choices we make create our future.

This includes the little choices such as diet, excercise, starting a small side project.

When I was thinking about starting this website many people told me that blogging was dead and there is no point doing something like starting a blog.

I started anyways and 2 years later, I am glad that I did.

I see working on this website for many years into the future because its fun, I like writing and my experience is unique to me.

As this website grows I am sure I will figure out how to make money using this but for the time being, I am creating my own future.

Cant wait to see what the future holds for you 

Ever since I started this website, I have had many people writing to me and saying that my story has inspired them and they also will start an online business and hopefully it will change their lives.

For all those people, I just want to say that I cant wait to see what the future holds for you and I wish you the best with all my heart.

Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and often we overlook the simple things in life to run after the gold pot at the end of the rainbow.

When I grew up and even early on in my career, I was a hardcore pessimist.

I always thought that the worst will happen to me and it was inevitable.

Slowly as I became older, my outlook towards life became more neutral than negative and now I look at future with curiosity.

Everyday, I am trying to find excitement in my life and some days its very hard.

Nonetheless, if you are reading this post and thinking about starting some kind of online business, I am rooting for you and I cant wait to see what the future holds for you.

Who knows what the future holds 

There is an American author by the name Eric Metaxas and he is quoted to have said, “No one knows what the future holds, except the One Who holds the future.”

Is it really possible to know what the future holds? I don’t think so. The best we can do is make educative guesses that can possibly become true.

There is an old saying back where I come from that the easiest way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans.

I had a friend of mine who had started his own company and one evening he was smoking a cigarette standing at a street corner.

Another young guy came up to him and asked for a light.

They both started talking and he asked what do you do? My friend responded I just started a company and what do you do?

The other guy also responded, I too just started a food delivery company my office is in that apartment. What a coincidence!

At the time my friend’s start up was doing really well and he was on track to raise Series A funding.

Unfortunately for him, the deal did not go through and after a few months his company had to be shut down.

The other guy’s startup went on to raise $3.7 billion in funding and the company’s name was Swiggy.

So as you can see two people’s lives were on the same track, they even met at a common place but then it went on to completely different results.

The point of the story is that nobody knows what the future holds so even if you are not doing well right now, just keep pushing and hope that someday your stars will align.

Excited to see what the future holds

Like I mentioned in one of my other posts, not many things excite me now.

But to be honest I am a little excited to see what the future holds.

After getting involved in relationships with Doctors, career-driven ladies, now I’m in a relationship with a girl who is very simple, not-so-bright type.

Once I dated a girl who was in my team in the same office (I know, big mistake) and she had asked me out for date.

After few weeks she told me, “I really thought you were rich because you never gave a shit to anyone in office including our Director.”

I asked her, “So what are you saying?”

She said, “Nothing, you are not like whom I thought you were.”

I just smiled and few weeks later we broke up.

The reason why I mentioned this story is because this is a time I am little excited to see what the future holds for my current girlfriend.

She is simple and her world is very small. I’m learning things from her that I never thought I would learn from someone like her.

Prophecy What the Future Holds for You

If you like reading books on Spirituality or predicting the future, you can consider a book by the name Prophecy What the Future Holds for You written by New York Times–bestselling author and famous psychic Sylvia Browne.

The book explores contradictory predictions made by some famous historical and contemporary figures which include prophets from Biblical times, Nostradamus, President George Washington and even NASA scientists.

During her career, Browne had claimed to have seen Heaven and angels.

She had also claimed that she had ability to contact and speak to a spirit guide named “Francine”.

Sylvia Browne was often criticised for making many predictions that were later found to be false.

You should also know that Sylvia Browne was a convicted criminal and she had faced theft charges in 1992.

She passed away in 2013 at age 77 and she had a big following till her

You can buy Prophecy What the Future Holds for You book here:

Buy Prophecy What the Future Holds for You Book

What the future holds for me

I want to close off this post with what I think the future holds for me.

Over the past many years, life has thrown many curveballs and I am trying to prepare myself for whatever the future holds.

As my desires have reduced, I don’t need much money now and I don’t have a point to prove to anyone anymore.

I have enough savings to last few years and I’m thinking of getting into a little bit of farming.

When I was broke I wanted my future self to have plenty of money so that I never have to go back to eating only once in a day.

I also chased success because I was tired of listening to people saying that I would never become anything in life.

I sacrificed a lot of my time, may be even 14 hours a day working to make money and now when I look back, I don’t think it was worth it.

But, may be it is something that I had to go through to arrive where I am today.

Your future might be better or worse than what it is right now, but you owe to yourself to enjoy this day, this moment because life does not wait.

The day slips by whether you are rich or poor so try to enjoy life with what’s in your control and go on with hope that your future is better than what it was yesterday.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

If you like this post, I would love to hear your dreams and aspirations about your future. Let me know using this form.

Talk to you soon!

Anoob