Future Perfect

The only thing certain about future is that it is not certain. We cannot predict how we are going to live our tomorrow. If we can't do it for ourselves, how can we be sure about the future of our kids? In a way, we can be. The best way to be sure about their future is to take care of their present & prepare them for the future. 

One big challenge before us is the speed of change that we are witnessing today & it is not going to get any slower. The world that we witness today was not imagined by any of us. No one had predicted that a phenomenon like Google will be born & will so fast become a verb or we will play with concepts like iphone & You Tube. So, our parents were preparing us for a different future;in fact a much obsolete future than we are into today. But most of us got ready for this future before it arrived. How come? The genesis of this adaptation lies in our upbringing. 

The best way to train our children for future is to give them some attributes that will not change under any circumstances. Instead of giving them road map or a clock, give them a compass as it will always head North. While the clock tells us what to do in a given time frame, compass represents basic values & principles. If we can teach these basic principles to our children in order to have following endowments, we would secure their future.

First endowment is self-awareness. A child should be made aware about his present so that he is clear about his future. He should be taught to be responsible for his own environment. It can be done by giving him responsibilities that he carries out on his own. It will develop his self-esteem which will work as a support system in challenging situations.

Second endowment is a pure conscience. The fact is that a child has the purest of conscience & we cannot add anything to it. If we can protect his conscience & not pollute it, we would have done a great favor to him.

Third endowment is an independent will. If we can give the child a will do be independent; to take his decisions in most trying situations, we would succeed in our endeavor to give him a safe future.

"The mother child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent." - Erich Fromm

And the last attribute that we can gift our children is creative imagination. He should know how to create his own world & how to build his own future. He should learn that imagination is more important than knowledge. The knowledge that he gathers may not be useful in his future but the imagination that he will build will create his own world.

If we could gift these attributes to our children, we would definitely prepare them for a bright future.