This past week I heard a speech by Steven Kinzer of the NY Times where he noted that, "It doesn't take a lot of intelligence to determine that countries that spend a lot of time thinking about the future are going to have better futures than those countries that don't." While his comments were focused on the importance of governments formulating long-term economic strategies, I couldn't help but think that this holds true for businesses, organizations, and state and local governments too.
Success in the future will come to those who take the time to plan for it. If you don't take the time to look out into to the future, get clear about where you want to be, and then develop a plan to get there, you will be stuck doing nothing more than reacting to forces that are beyond your control.
Take control of the future by planning for it and shaping your own destiny.