Traditions look like they will be tossed out as no longer relevant. But we must hold on to our values as lasting qualities for sailing along the often troubled waters of our lives. We need to try and figure things out as we lose many of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. They held things together. Now, it is our turn.
Conversations over coffee…
“The world and the way it works are rapidly changing,” I said this somewhat off-handedly as if looking for some hope, perhaps to understand it all.
“Duhhh… you think?” My friend and I were chatting over a cup of coffee. We were musing about how our lives have changed completely.
Fortunately, working from home means we need to find ways to have more balance, have time with friends, and leave the computer screens now and then. Hence, I recently spent an afternoon with my friend, who was getting caught up with me in a cafe over coffee and muffins.
We mused about many things, including how youth in general and our children will find new ways to make a living. AI is growing, and somehow, we need to be able to inform ourselves and our children what this will mean. Our lives are now amazingly different from those of our mothers, not just in work but in everything! And the lives of our children are already entirely different from ours. How do we guide them?
Depending on their age group, some of our children are struggling to find meaning in their lives. They wonder how they will make a living, buy a home, and more. “Will their work have meaning?” Even university degrees don’t guarantee a particular career any longer. We all know those who started down one path only to end up on another. Sometimes, the paths we end up on are more meaningful to us. This is hard to explain to someone just entering the workforce.
Discovering what is relevant in your life leads to finding meaning.
Life has always had a way of tweaking us as we butt up against circumstances. Finding what is “relevant in the moment” can lead to finding new meaning.
Perhaps we don’t have the right answers for our children’s lives. Perhaps the best advice is to encourage them to dig deep into their psyche, be free, have courage, and step out into life. To take the first step and start doing it, then the next step and another will appear. We learn by doing.
Let them know they can find answers that are different from ours. We all come out okay in the end.
It is about leaving room for the serendipitous.
Neither Computers nor AI can do that!
Fortunately, humans live in several dimensions simultaneously. We live mostly in a mundane world, where sometimes everything looks like it is full of problems. But we have to remember Flow. It is “an intrinsic something else” that makes us tick. Flow offers up new possibilities.
You’ve probably heard what happens when an athlete enters the Flow State. Or the references to “Swing” in rowing? We work, we strive, and we keep going. We gather strength in cooperation with others. Then, all at once, we get an idea, or something appears that we have never noticed before. Something serendipitously wonderful takes place. Suddenly, we’re transported to a new and better state. Flow is a brief moment that changes everything. But without the courage to go for it, that Flow never happens.
Sleep, Re-Start or Shut Down
We are all familiar with these computer commands. In computer terms, Sleep means you can wake up at a moment’s notice and pick up where you left off. Re-start means you are being stripped of all previous code, shutting down, and re-initializing with new information. When you start up again, you are starting from a new place. Shut Down is turning off with back-end memory still untouched. The parameters are the same as when you shut down. You have not changed.
Each Process has its Purpose.
Because of current circumstances like inflation and such, many people are finding themselves, post-pandemic, in the same boat as some of our children. We found ourselves “temporarily” working from home. The new reality is that some of us can never go back. But work we must.
In a way, we now have choices. There is so much about what used to be that is good, relevant, and worthy. We need new information, growth, and learning, but stripping out or deprecating all that was relevant and beautiful about our past is not the answer. We need to take all that was good and carry it forward while at the same time learning and developing new skills.
Most of us are trying to re-invent ourselves. As we share our lives with each other, we’re trying to sound like we have things in hand, but we’re actually treading water and somehow trying to juggle our new lives. Finding new ways to fit into these changing times is not easy. It seems we are working double-time to learn and keep up with new technologies and ways of doing things.
There are a lot of proponents who favor just dropping the past entirely and re-starting or re-setting everything. But that would leave us with no foundation to stand on.
Everything is fortunately not bleak. I look at what many youths are focusing on. When you see a group of young people talking excitedly about what they are doing, that means there is hope for all of us. I have noticed two areas that don’t dwell on gloom and doom but capture the imagination. One is the Crypto and Bitcoin markets, and the other is Content Creation. For instance, an Adobe Study called “The Future of Creativity is insightful, inspiring, and hopeful. (from news.adobe.com)
There is an old “Round” or Song we used to sing as children. It needs singing again now.
“Make new friends,
But, keep the old…
One is silver, and the other gold!”
It could be re-worked these days to say this,
Learn new things
But, keep the old…
One is truly told,
And the other gives you wings!
Keeping and building from the good and relevant in the past is comforting and adds stability to our lives. New ideas have a place to take off from. Flying on to new vistas is more assured from a solid foundation.
The Future Needs Every Old Wisdom… As It Soars To New Heights
- Hold fast to the Values we must keep.
- Keep things that have worked. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
- Find new innovative solutions to problems.
- Use new technologies together with traditional wisdom.
- Learn from those who actually have experience doing things.
- Learn to cultivate rather than tear down.
- Appreciate our connection with nature.
- Be more people-oriented.
- Be kind.
- Realize the potential of individuals.
- Encourage each other.
- Listen more.
- Strive for more balance and Win-Win scenarios.
- Be encouraging to team members.
- Change continually for the better, but work for the long term.
An Old Story About Building for Long-term Success.
A woman who had been in the business of marketing and selling products had built up a large following. She treated her staff well; together, they weathered some difficult times but also enjoyed the fruits of their labors together in the good times. They adapted to the times, always coming up with new solutions to problems.
A younger woman asked the woman if she would mentor her. The young woman very much wanted to “make it.” She wanted to impress her mentor by any means possible. She wanted to be a financial success. She began making deals that were not as beneficial to the others in the company. She portrayed some ideas as her own when they were not. Just as detrimental, she was sometimes flippant and deceitful with customers. Things seemed to go fine until, one day, her mentor watched as her protege handled things.
The mentor saw that the young woman needed some sage advice and gave her a one-hundred-dollar bill. “This is your profit,” she said, “See if it will feed you tomorrow?”
The young woman replied, “Oh yes, I will make another hundred tomorrow.”
“Okay now,” continued the Mentor, “The customer you deceived will never come back, and the team member whose idea you stole is leaving the company. That is the last one hundred dollars you will be making.”
“Who will be there for you tomorrow? Who will watch your back? Who will stand up for you during hard times? Who will buy your goods? Money comes and goes; it is people you need!”
Remember Faith Popcorn, who coined the word “Cocooning.” I think Cocooning might get a bit lonely, especially since we’ve lived through the pandemic. As social beings, we have to reach out and “touch someone.”
We can evolve to an entirely new mindset when we think of others.
There have been too many dystopian futures written about. We don’t have to have a dystopian future with individuals working to further our communities. Caring about each other, the future will be awesome!
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