Be it career choices, planning finances or making healthy choices, the key thing is to prepare for it and work hard to achieve it.

For international motivational speaker Reverend Albert Ocran, the process of preparation makes the difference.

Rev. Ocran said the concept of preparation was so painful, boring and annoying that people sometimes gave up on making use of it.

He was speaking on the A — Z of preparing for the future at the Springboard Road Show in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

According to him, preparation meant that when others were asleep, the person preparing would be awake going over one more time to make sure it was right.

"Preparation is repetitive, demanding, costly and it is often boring," he said.

Anticipation
Rev. Ocran said the forum focused on four thematic areas: career or professional development, finances and investment, property acquisition and healthy living.

The need for preparation is, thus, to ensure that people have an advantage in all the four areas.

The first step to the preparation phase is anticipation. It is at this stage that people should look out for new opportunities and how they will use it to their advantage.

"To anticipate is to be able to tell where the new doors will be open, what the future will be like and what the next doors that will be opened career-wise are, among others," he said.

Boundary-less
As part of the preparations for the future, Rev. Ocran noted that it was important for people to consider best practices elsewhere and apply to their situation by focusing on boundary-less learning and adoption of concepts.

He said "best practice is best practice. If you get a good idea from Hong Kong or from Wuhan, use it. Or from Australia, use it. It means that in your research, it should not only be about Kumasi or Accra".

He reiterated the need to find out what other people were doing in other parts of the world and learnt from it beyond the local borders.

Competition
Rev. Ocran noted that the world currently was very competitive than what people thought.

"Whether you like it or not, we live in a very competitive world. That thing that you currently have is actually wanted by someone else," he said.

Using a search for job as a case study, he said several people would be vying for the same job and it was, thus, important for people to have the competitive mindset to be able to outdo those they were in competition with.

Following the standard alphabetical order, Rev. Ocran said in preparing for the future, it was important to allow a level of flexibility, that is being able to be agile and adapt to change in situations.

The G in the process, he noted, stood for growth in various aspects. He said it was necessary for people to have command of language, appreciate technological interventions and develop one's personal brand through reading and self-education.

Honesty in the preparation process was also very key as that helped one build a high level of reputational equity and help get positive references for future needs, he stated.

Information flow, judgement and critical thinking, knowledge, leveraging and measurement were also very critical in preparing for one's future.

Rev. Ocran also highlighted the power of networks and opportunity as being key components of the preparation process.

Opportunity, presentation skills, questions, responsibility, SHEBA (refreshing experience), technology, ubuntu, vital functions theory, warmth, X factor, yearning and Zest were all key things that people must consider while preparing for the future, he added.