When you’re caught up in the day-to-day grind, it can be tricky to look ahead. Everyday life is so consuming that you feel you’re constantly just “being”, knowing that the future is coming but feeling powerless to prepare for it. Life events cruise by and you know that you should look into the future more often, but with the present being so dominant, you just don’t have the time.
Nevertheless, the future is coming – and it’s changing more than it ever has in any period of human history. You may have heard the term “future-proofing”, which is a concept designed to ensure that your life is able to continue as normally as possible even through the rigorous changes that life throws at us.
The term is most often used to refer to technology, but this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting yourself ready for what’s to come. In fact, with a little application, you can prepare your life for the future you keep forgetting is going to happen – and therefore ensure the smoothest transition possible.
Future-proof Your… Income
While the oddities of financial markets and finances are always subject to change that is often unpredictable, it’s worth looking at your money making and how it might alter.
Certain jobs are being put under threat by the relentless pace of change. Manufacturing is switching from being done by human hands to being completed by robotic production lines. Call centers may soon become a thing of the past. If you work in an industry that might suffer from these changes, then it’s worth looking ahead at how you might adapt.
You could consider futuristic-sounding options like learn to develop apps, degrees in Information Security or how to code a website. All useful skills that won’t be outdated until long after your time!
Future-proof Your… Home
The idea of home security tends to revolve around security cameras and keeping burglars out, but modern home security is very different. Have you, for example, changed your Wifi password from the default given to you by your provider? Do you have sufficient antivirus protection for your home devices? Not just your computer, but your smartphones too?
While the old methods of home security still have their merits, the more we rely on technology, the more vulnerable we become to hacking.
Future-proof Your… Memories
Remember floppy discs? They were all the rage for years, the best way of storing documents, photos, and anything else you wanted to keep hold of.
Now have a look at your current computer. Can you load a floppy disc with it? You cannot.
The same might happen with modern storage devices like USB sticks. If a document or photo is truly important to you, nothing is going to beat having a hard copy of it. The cloud is extremely useful for storage, but what happens if it vanishes overnight? Or your files – photos of your children, cherished diary entries – are compromised?
Backing up to a hard copy and storing boxes in the attic might seem old-fashioned, but it’s actually one of the soundest ways of future-proofing that you can conceive of. We can still read books printed in the 16th century, but we can’t access floppy disc files from the 1990s – sometimes, the old ways are the best.