2026 October 20 Viewing your future

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website about reimagining your life. Thanks for joining me today to talk about how we view the future. So, let's get started.

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This week, we're going to be talking about self-care again, but from a different perspective. This week is really going to be about the Mind pillar, one of the five pillars of life and aging that we've talked about. Mind is actually what's controlling the whole show. So this one is really about how you elect to see the world. Or, in this particular case, not the world in general, but how we decide to view the future. It really is a decision, because we have many ways that we can choose to see things as we go along.

So, it's self-care again, like we talked about last week, but from a different perspective. When we actually take care of ourselves, and this is why self-care is so important, and when we live life aligned with our vision, consistent with how we view our lives, that change in perspective reduces our stress. And reducing our stress helps our health in general, and it's especially important to our mind.

You may remember that two weekends ago was my college reunion. Yay, RPI! I had the pleasure of not only seeing many of my friends and classmates, but also many students and faculty. This past weekend, I was in Vermont for my Wilderness First Responder recertification. It was a small group setting, and it was also in the snow. Yes, winter really is coming. But what both events had in common was spending quite a bit of time talking and interacting with young people, primarily people under 30 years old.

One group picked a known, challenging school, RPI, while the other group picked a career path that would likely put them in high-responsibility situations, where they would find themselves responsible for other people's welfare and perhaps even survival. So, this isn't meant to be a well-designed, broad-based survey of any sort, but rather a core cohort of a lot of young people who have chosen specific paths in life despite the challenges those paths might present to them.

I mentioned the RPI students a few weeks ago. Every one of them was positive. They were forward-looking and excited about the future. And they were just groups of kids from the various clubs at RPI. It wasn't like they were handpicked people, and some were doing work projects as part of their tuition. It really was a mix of students I was talking to. That isn't to say that they thought the whole world was perfect, but they chose to focus on the opportunities and use that as a starting point for their view of the world.

Now, my WFR classmates. It's WFR, Wilderness First Responder, pronounced "woofer," if you haven't heard it before. My woofer classmates, all but one of them, are outdoor expedition leaders, and they work as part of a team to essentially take untrained adults, including a number of older adults, on backcountry camping expeditions. The one person who did something different, it's kind of the same general genre, except she took untrained volunteers, including many, if not mostly, older adults, out for extended trail clearing and repair in wilderness areas where no motorized equipment was allowed, so they were using hand tools the whole time. And just to make it perfectly clear, those were people in our age group going out into the woods with just a couple of leaders to learn how to work and survive in the wilderness.

All the outdoor folks were, again, totally upbeat and thinking about the life opportunities that they had. None of the groups were bemoaning the lack of jobs, or the doom of AI, or the rate of inflation, or all the other headline stories. Yes, they might mention it in passing, but their focus was on moving ahead and making the world a better place. As the saying goes, where your focus goes, energy flows. They were all moving ahead in their areas of focus to become better at what they did, to improve the world in areas where they had influence, and, if need be, to move into different areas where they could be more effective at influencing the outcome.

Compare that to these two stories. Maybe more, actually. I've come across a bunch of stories recently in the Wall Street Journal, and remember, that's basically a business publication. One is the head of a pioneering electric vehicle manufacturer. We won't mention names. But very recently, I think it was in today's or yesterday's paper, he said people should stop trying to compete with the Chinese in making cars, because clearly they're going to be unstoppable. Another new story I read was someone criticizing President Trump, saying it's pointless to try to bring manufacturing back to the US, because clearly no one could beat Foxconn at manufacturing.

Both of these things always amaze me, as if God came down from the heavens and appointed Foxconn the world's manufacturer, and appointed China the world's electric car manufacturer. I have more to say on it, and there have been a lot more of these, but those are two that really stuck in my head. In both cases, the speaker started off assuming that we would be unable to accomplish something, anything, and then gave all the reasons that they were right. They focused on failure and put their energy into proving that failure was the only possible outcome.

Imagine if instead they had focused on what would be needed to succeed. Not that it would be easy, but rather, what would success look like? What would the next step be that could take us toward a successful outcome? That should sound familiar, because it's the same method we use when we envision our desired future and plan the next activity to move us closer to that vision.

So, imagine what your life might look like, and feel like, if instead of starting each day thinking about all the things you can't do, you focused on all the things that you could do. Do you think that would be more exciting, more empowering, more energizing, imagining all the things that could possibly go right in the day? What if you started thinking about one or more things that were good about today, or good things that might happen today, instead of all the things that are, or might be, bad today?

Think of all those young people I met in the past few weeks. They could just as easily have been in different places, doing nothing, basically, and thinking about how life sucks because, and fill in whatever reason you want to fill in. But instead, they put themselves in situations where they had the possibility to actually make changes in the world, so the world might be more like how they wanted to envision a good life.

Just as importantly, how you think and feel will influence how you act. If you look at the future as nothing but downsides, that's how you'll act, and that's how you will also tend to influence other people and appear to other people. Instead, if you celebrate all the good things, and there are many good things, and focus on the resolution of the things you don't agree with, instead of complaining, take that positive energy and use it to influence the people and the possible outcomes around you.

I was actually with my woofer classmates for only about 16 hours, not a long time. But from our first scenario, our little practice sessions, through our last, we all knew what the goal was, and we all worked as a team, whether it was two or three or five people, because we all had a common desired outcome together. It was the patient, and the final rescue, and all those things. When somebody said, "We have to fix them," there was no doubt in our heads what was coming next. I was the patient for the final rescue, and the other five were working together to diagnose me and treat my injuries and medical things, and all the things that were supposed to be going on. All I can say is, if I'm ever actually injured in the backcountry, I hope my real rescuers can work with that level of focus and intensity, and with that just amazing amount of teamwork. That's what having a clear goal and focus does for you.

I spoke with one club at RPI, and I'll be looking at potentially becoming an alumni member to help them focus on even bigger goals than the really great goals they have already. And hopefully, I can get other schools within RPI to join in on that team and show the groups how a common, high-level goal can be stretched across many disciplines, as well as helping and inspiring the local community.

None of what I've talked about is difficult. It simply requires a choice. Do you choose to look at where you are in your life today and think that's defining you? Or do you choose to see all the possibilities that still exist, and go for them?

Certainly, when I was young, one of the talents of older people, people like grandparents, was that they were not only sources of wisdom and experience, but people we could just go to and get a perspective on things that never occurred to us. There's no reason that has to change. That change has to happen by pulling people together, not by trying to push or force them together. I created a vision for that group of students I was talking to, and it appealed to them. I didn't try to tell them what to do. As a matter of fact, I specifically told them, "I'm not telling you what to do, but does this sound interesting to you?" It had to be their decision.

Similarly, I can't tell anyone the best way to live their life as they age. Everyone's life is different. But I can describe how things have worked out for me as I've lived it. And sure, there are pitfalls, but there are immense upsides to be discovered. I could very easily rationalize that I'm too old to renew my woofer and just let it expire. No one would blame me. No one would criticize me. But I would be choosing to create a different and more limiting future for myself, and by extension, for the people who know me. There are a lot of things I could cut out of my life, and again, probably no one would blame or criticize me, except my inner self, because there's no reason I have to stop doing these things. It would just be a choice to stop, for no good reason. And that's how I suggest you look at the things you want to do in your life as you age.

If you always wanted to go to the Rocky Mountains, or hike the Pacific Coast, or clear trails in pristine forests, shoot me a message. I know at least five people I can put you in touch with, and they'll have other adults around, just like you, who made the same choice. I suggest that you don't look at all the things that might go wrong, but rather at all the opportunities and experiences that might go right and be unforgettable.

I also encourage you to think about something that you thought you'd want to do when you retired, but now you're having second thoughts. If you want, join our group and post it there, along with the reason you're changing your mind. That would be great, because there are people there, and we'll chime in and give our opinions or help you work through it. And if you're shy, just drop me an email with the same information: What did you think you were going to want to do in retirement, and why are you rethinking it now? Because once you actually write something down and can see it in front of you, you'll often realize that the fear you thought was there really isn't that fearful at all.

Two quick quotes on fear. The first one is, "Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear." That's George Addair. The second is, "Fear is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn't do. More often than not, it shows you exactly what you should do." That's from Tim Ferriss. And okay, I have a third one. It's actually from 300 BC: "He who has overcome his fears will truly be free." That's from Aristotle.

So, it's not a new problem. It's not a new challenge, and people have been dealing with it forever. But we've been taught to be fearful of old age, and things that shouldn't even barely be a concern are being blown up into something to instill fear in you. Learn to look past that fear and work through it. Be enthusiastic. Be positive. Life will go on whether you're positive or whether you're not, but one of those paths is a lot more interesting and a lot more fulfilling.

So that's it for the evening. As always, we have our free course at 7EveryMinute.com/five-pillars-freebie. There's a free course you can download that goes into this in more depth. It's kind of interesting, and I think it's actually really fascinating. It goes into how those pillars that make up our whole personality interact with each other, and how, as we age, the importance of one versus the other changes a little bit. It's a good way to take a look at that and get a better idea of how it might be affecting how you're looking at life, because you might be looking at it with a slightly different view than what's serving you well. So, check it out at 7EveryMinute.com/five-pillars-freebie.

Remember, one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others, and we have two links that we always promote. UKR7.com is a link to the people that can help the people of Ukraine, which is particularly important right now. And World Central Kitchen, who works internationally, WCK.org. They go into disaster areas, usually the first group in, to get the real basic essentials of survival going for people who've been affected by things like hurricanes and such. So, those are two great places. But remember, one of the best ways to get involved is with anything that helps the people around you, and that includes things like local charities. They can always use a helping hand. Even something as simple as a smile can change someone else's day for the better.

So, as always, thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting and useful, please pass it along. Please subscribe, hit that like button, and send us a message. Have a great week.

Remember to live the life that you dreamed of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week on 7EveryMinute.com and 7EveryMinute.