Ignorance and confidence

When we set our sights far in the future the world looks nice and rosy. Imagine that new pair of speakers gracing your living room, the new amplifier, the rebuilt room. According to Mark Twain imagining the future takes a combination of things.

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. The secret of getting ahead is getting started. All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."

Ignorance is a sure bet because we cannot know what the future will hold. I imagine most of us go into future endeavors with a touch of confidence and likely a healthy dose of fear or at least trepidation. That's alright because we're just being human. The trick, as Twain writes, is getting started. Sometimes we get stuck with the fear. When it comes to imagining the new I get more excited than fearful, and would rather move forward than sit and worry about being wrong, but I know that's more me: the ever starry-eyed optimist willing to ignore possible perils that might get in the way of my vision. Not everyone's the same. But here's the thing. Regardless of where you find yourself on the scale of ignorance, confidence, and worry, when it comes to imagining the future it's our dreams of how much better our world might be if only…that enables us to move in a forward direction. My advice is simple. When dreaming of the future feel free to imagine as big and bold and wonderful as you can envision. Once reality creeps in and your old buddy fear sidles up next to you, go ahead and scale it back to something a bit less outlandish but for heaven's sake don't get stuck. It's all about movement (even in the wrong direction). Our futures are likely brighter if we start big and dial it back to reality without getting off the bus before it leaves the station.