---
title: "Daily Inspiration: “Assumptions are but dangerous illusions that provide a mirage of future predictability!”"
canonical: https://jimcarroll.com/2022/10/daily-inspiration-assumptions-are-but-dangerous-illusions-that-provide-a-mirage-of-future-predictability/
updated: 2022-10-11T09:25:15+00:00
---

# Daily Inspiration: “Assumptions are but dangerous illusions that provide a mirage of future predictability!”

*“Assumptions are but dangerous illusions that provide a mirage of future predictability!”* – Futurist Jim Carroll

![](https://jimcarroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/AssumptionsAreDangerousIllusions.jpg)

The future is ultimately wildly unpredictable.

That’s quite the statement coming from someone whose very job is to predict the future for a wide range of clients, industries, and professions. And yet, often in my guidance, I’ll paint a picture of unpredictability by sharing my key rules about how to understand the volatility of what comes next. Key rule? *“Volatility is the new normal!”*

But here are 10 more things to understand about the future:

- It’s faster than you think

- It’s bigger than you think

- It involves trends you aren’t yet aware of

- It’s going to challenge every single assumption you have

- It will happen, but sometimes, only eventually, because timing any trend is a massive challenge

- In that context, it usually starts out slow, and is then, suddenly instant

- Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, it will immediately change

- It often will involve surprises and twists and turns you hadn’t thought of

- It will go in a direction that will blow your mind

- It will eventually make the impossible, possible.

- *Spinal Tap bonus*: It will cause you to regularly think, “*why didn’t I think of that*?”

What is the impact of this reality? Prepare for anything, always have a flexible plan, and make ‘agility’ your middle name! Nothing is cast in stone – the world around you has become so volatile and unpredictable that you need to always be ready to do the unexpected – quickly. That’s the mindset you need for the world of business today. Our future is being marked by higher levels of economic uncertainty, much of it driven by new political realities; extreme trend volatility and unpredictability; and the acceleration of all trends. What you really need is the ability to thrive on uncertainty – build up your reserves of ‘contingency innovation.’

Most companies and leaders aren’t very good at this type of thinking. They’ve got lots of strategic planning in place, often based on a certain path forward. They’re rigid and inflexible – their structure binds them to a path of uncertainty. And yet it’s when that path is shifted, twisted, and torn that things go wrong. Planning goes out the window – survival takes over. Yet there is a better way – a continuous structure of contingency alternatives!

Structure for volatility! Align to surprise! Be ready for the unexpected!

Because it’s the unknown that will often define you!