The Promise Of Today; The Reality Of Tomorrow

By Anthony Oluyinka Adesile | Feb 21 2025

What can you do today, or not do, that would have significant impact on your future? Everyday provides us with two options and these options are determinant factors in tomorrow’s realities. Each day provides us with the opportunity to either do or not do anything. It opens up myriads of opportunities to either spend or invest in the future because whatever we do today is our investment options for tomorrow. Recognising this great potential and opportunity enables us to decide on what we invest and how we invest. This is where the doing or not doing something comes to effect.

To Do Or Not To Do
Let’s first clarify what we mean by doing or not doing anything. This is because whatever we choose to not? do is in itself an act of doing something. Choosing to sleep all day is an activity in providing the body with restful indulgence. It can be a positive investment if we clarify the reason for choosing to sleep at the time and the benefit it provides in building up strength to achieve future outcomes. On the other hand, when sleep becomes an everyday indulgence that steals away valuable time to build something, it becomes an activity in doing nothing.

To do or not to do something is about what we do or not do that impacts on our realities tomorrow. It is the activities we commit to in building something tangible; something that makes the future we see become a reality.

 The Future We See
You must have heard about the well-known gentleman who set out on a journey. As the train journeyed through landscapes and towns, the ticket man moved from coach to coach, checking passengers’ ticket. On reaching the gentleman, the ticket man greeted him with recognition and waited to check his ticket. As the gentleman unsuccessfully looked for his ticket, the ticket man asked him not to worry since he was sure he purchased a ticket. That was when the gentleman told the ticket man that he was not in any way worried about not being able to show the ticket, but was more worried because the ticket held the key to his destination. Without the ticket, he was lost to where he should get off the train.

You see, the day is like the train that is taking us on that journey where every occupant has a destination. The ticket man is only there to affirm that we are really on that journey and probably qualify us for the journey. But while some may be like the gentleman who did not know where he was going, many do actually have a destination in mind. These are the visionaries.

 Defining Vision
Vision is the ability to see the future, plan the future and walk the future. Seeing the future enables us to enter each day with clarity of purpose, without which we navigate blindly and without cause. It’s about conceiving specific outcomes, clarifying them in terms of deliverables and actioning them as each day unravels. That’s when the day becomes an opportunity for the attainment of purpose or for lost opportunity when not planned for. As it were, the principle of visioning is that ‘whatever the mind can conceive, the man can achieve’. The determining factor between conceiving and achieving outcomes, however, is in the opportunity each day provides to execute planned actions.

Time Value
Just as each day opens up opportunities to explore and exploit, we are also provided with 24 hours to use to do whatever we want. I chose the word, ‘use’ to highlight the value of activity rather than frivolous spending of time allotted for the day. Why waste time on frivolities when it can be invested with achievable outcomes in mind? The value we place on our time is dependent on the magnitude of our tomorrow’s outcome and our personal drive and commitment to make it happen. Each hour becomes priceless and counts towards the fulfilment of purpose. Whether we sleep, eat, think, exercise, read, plan; whatever we do in the hour and in the day counts towards the fulfilment of purpose.

 Now Is The Time
It’s never too late to start something. Every missed opportunity opens up potential to access other opportunities. That’s the beauty of the day. It provides the opportunity to start anything at any time. If you have not yet woken up to the realities of the limitless opportunities each day allows us, you can start now by following these steps: 

1. Wake up to the realities of diverse opportunities available to you
2. Take a step back to conceive or see a future you desire for yourself
3. Plan out how you can achieve that future
4. identify and eliminate distractions that could impede on your plan
5. integrate your plan into specific time slots for each day
6. Make each day count with conscious investment of time
7. Don’t rule out the place of rest as an investment that provides a good return of good health, sound mind and a man that is ready to take on the world
8. Start now; not tomorrow