I know, “exponentialism” is not a word, but maybe it should be.
We have entered a time in history that will be looked back upon as a great time of upheaval and transformation. It is a time of exponential growth in technology that is making obsolete entire industries at a pace that is mind-boggling.
But for every displaced industry, and every lost job, there are new opportunities as well. Not just a few, but many more than ever before. The challenge before us is just to see them.
You see, our minds are programmed to think in an incremental, progressive, and linear fashion, and the world no longer works that way. For some the angst of being left behind causes enormous stress, fear, and frustration, while for others these same conditions create new excitement. The difference between the two is the ability to open the mind and embrace a totally new paradigm.
You see, we want to “append” our existing paradigm and have that as a sufficient goal. But that can no longer work. We have reached the point — in fact passed i — where a complete paradigm shift is in order to make sense of the world as it now is. Our old thinking is broken, ineffective, and possibly even dangerous.
Many of the world’s challenges that our “old paradigm” embraces, will be solved completely by those who have made the “shift.”
The “shift” we now face is no longer how to get from one perspective to the next, but is now to embrace a perspective of ever increasing and accelerating change. A combination of infinite possibility combined with an assured accelerated obsolescence.The attempt to “hold on” to the past is painful, frustrating, and futile. The past is gone. Those who cling to the past, sadly will be left behind, and will echo mantras of the “way it used to be.” But we are not going back. In fact, it is impossible now to return as the old thinking will only increase pain, poverty, and violence.
But this is not a message of dispair, but a message of hope. The “shift” begins with a change of mind and that takes but a moment of time. Yes, new skills will be required and you may say, “it’s too late for me,” but we have all heard stories of men and women of advanced age, returning to college, or revitalizing their lives to create a personal renaissance, and enter a refreshed era of growth and excitement. That is what is needed now.
The difference is, before it was an option for those who wanted to renew life, vitality, and relevance. But not it is a necessity for survival itself. In fact, most people under the age of 65 to 70, living on this planet, have to ability and benefit to make the commitment to to embrace this change.
Change can be hard, but it does not have to be. You see what makes it hard is the attachment to, and nostalgic love of our past. The fact is, as great as it may have been, there are greater things ahead.
Long ago I embraced a life of youthful thinking and constant change. I have lived in an “unsettled” fashion to prevent attachments to points in time that are becoming irrelevant at an increasingly rapid pace. It is a great way to live. And until a future period of balance and stabilization arises, it may be the path to survival.
The solutions to tomorrow’s problems will not be solved by the same thinking that created them. It will be fresh minds and new ideas.
We are creatures of amazing resourcefulness, and creatures of survival. Fresh minds will build solutions even as many stand by and proclaim doom.
There will always be opposition, negativity, and stagnant thinking, but the future will not be built upon these. It will be built upon creativity, ingenuity, resourcefulness, advancing technology, and open minds that embrace accelerating and continual change as normal.
I am excited about tomorrow. I hope you are too and will join me in building it.
