Leadership story: When predicting the future be aware of your next step

Not too long ago, in a quiet little village, there lived a man who believed he could read the future in the stars. Every night, when the world was fast asleep, he would gaze up at the night sky, carefully studying the positions of the stars and planets. He believed that by doing so, he could uncover great secrets, for example, if the village would have a good harvest, when storms would come, or even what fortunes and misfortunes lay ahead for the people. The villagers admired his knowledge and often came to him with questions about their futures. “Will I be wealthy one day?” some would ask. “Will my children have good lives?” others wondered. The astrologer would study the sky and give his predictions, and the villagers would listen intently, believing that the stars held all the answers. But the astrologer was always lost in his thoughts. He spent so much time thinking about what was to come that he hardly paid attention to the life happening around him. He rarely noticed the changing seasons, the laughter of children, or even the simple beauty of the world right in front of him. His mind was always somewhere else, somewhere in the distant, uncertain future.

One evening, as the astrologer walked along the open road outside the village, he lifted his eyes to the sky. The stars were shining brightly, and he was deep in thought. He believed he saw a pattern in the heavens that meant something terrible was going to happen, perhaps the end of the world. His mind raced with possibilities. What could it mean? Would the rivers dry up? Would the mountains crumble? Would darkness cover the land? As he walked, he became more and more lost in his thoughts. His eyes never left the sky, and he did not notice the uneven ground beneath his feet. Step after step, he wandered blindly, too focused on what might happen to see what was happening. Then, in an instant, his foot slipped, and SPLASH! The astrologer tumbled down into a deep, muddy ditch. Thick, wet mud covered his clothes, and cold water soaked through his skin. The more he struggled to climb out, the more he sank. His hands grasped desperately at the slippery sides of the hole, but they gave no support. Panic set in as he realized he was stuck. With fear in his voice, he shouted, “Help! Someone, help me!”

His cries soon reached the village, and people rushed to the scene. When they arrived, they found the astrologer flailing in the mud, struggling to escape. The villagers quickly formed a chain, reaching down to pull him up. As they dragged him out, one of the villagers shook his head and said, “You spend all your time trying to read the future in the stars, and yet you failed to see what was right at your feet!” Another villager added, “What use is it to predict the future if you don’t even notice what’s happening here and now?” The astrologer, covered in mud and shivering in the night air, finally understood his mistake. He had spent his life chasing after what might happen, ignoring what was already happening around him. If he had just watched where he was going, he could have avoided falling into the ditch. That day, the astrologer learned an important lesson that no matter how much one thinks about the future, it is the present that truly matters.