Assessing Your Prospects

Here is a little exercise you can use to evaluate where you are in terms of optimism/pessimism, faith/despair. First, get a piece of paper on which you can make a chart. Draw a line across the top and put a zero (0) on the left end and ten (10) on the right end. Next put a dot in the middle of the line and put a five (5) above the dot.

Under the 0, put the following words, listing them down the page: “Physical,” “Emotional,” “Moral,” “Social,” “Sexual,” “Economic.”

You now have a chart with six rows where you can rank yourself. “0” represents complete pessimism and despair. “10” represents complete optimism and faith in a positive future. Using the “physical” row, look down the road for yourself and judge how things will be for you “physically” five years from now. Using the scale, put a dot showing how you look at your “physical” prospects, whether you expect a positive or negative outcome. Repeat the process for the other five rows in the chart and then think about where you have put the dots. How does the future look for you?

Charles Sawyer said, “Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so indispensable, none so powerful, as hope. Without hope people are only half alive. With hope they dream and think and work.” How hopeful are you; how do you assess your future prospects?

As you contemplate your prospects, Lillian Smith’s perspective may prove helpful, “Faith and doubt both are needed - not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.” Daniel L. Reardon likely captured the only insight you will need to make the journey, “In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.”