This is a guest post by Louise Armstrong. Read more about Louise here.
With an eye to the future the only thing we can be sure of is change. We are living in a world of flux and often, without us even realising, this alters the way we lead our lives.
I’m excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, but at times it feels like everything I once knew and expected, and the assumptions I had about how my life would play out, are gradually being erased.
I’ve accepted that I probably won’t have a job for life, or a retirement. I’m in awe of the technology I use every day to talk to people the world over, yet at times I’m hopelessly distracted by social media scrolling, and annoyed that the first thing I touch each day is my smart phone. And shopping for fun is a vice that no longer works for me. I’m genuinely not interested in, or satisfied by, the idea of consuming more ‘stuff’.
I’ve even starting rationing the amount of TV and news I watch. So much of it is depressing and disheartening that it’s easy to feel scared – of going out, of talking to new people, and of life in general. I don’t want to buy into a culture that is breading fear, egos and power. I believe humans are inherently good after all.
It can all be a bit unnerving – and that’s before we even look at the bigger picture!
Wider trends only go to confirm the reality: that our world is facing some complex challenges too. For one, the global population is expected to grow to around 9 billion people by 2050 (we’re around 7 billion now). Over the coming decades that means we will need to double the amount of food we produce and develop viable and cost effective renewable energy resources to ensure we can keep our lights on, and stay warm, in the way we are used to.
It’s common knowledge that the earth’s resources are finite and dwindling, yet European lifestyles see us using around three times the amount of resources than the planet can handle and replenish. Which raises the question; can we successfully tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges based on the assumption that economic growth will happen?
Given all of this, it is no surprise that we can all feel confused, tired and worn down by our changing reality. Feeling that the future is out of our control is daunting and worrying.
But it really isn’t all doom and gloom! The future doesn’t just have to be something that ‘happens’ to us. We all have the power, and the ability to shape it. And that starts by not being afraid to look ahead and face it head on.
We’re seeing some amazing things emerge from the chaos of 21st Century life. Our changing reality is opening up opportunities all over the place – and they are all there to be grasped by anyone who is willing to take them.
“The Future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” – William Gibson
And lucky for us, there are a whole bunch of trends and signals in our favour too; things that put power into all our hands and enable us all to flourish as a result.
“Don’t give up, don’t settle for outworn concepts and conventional understandings. We do not have to be overwhelmed by the complexity and messiness of the times. Instead we can grow through it, and in the process live fulfilled lives. We can rise to the occasion.” – Maureen O’Hara
Technology
Love it or loathe it, the devices we have in our pockets and on our desks mean that we have access to as much technology as was used to send man to the moon. That’s pretty amazing!
You can’t deny the awesome things it’s helping people to do. Things like allowing us to communicate the world over in real time, or have a global community co-create an ever-evolving encyclopaedia that’s available to all in Wikipedia.
The fact that kids (and grown ups!) can teach themselves to code using sites Code Academy or use these revolutionary credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computers is opening up all sorts of new opportunities for people.
Then there are amazing sites like iFixit, which you can use to repair your broken goods, or citizen science initiatives like Patients Like Me, where people with similar health conditions can come together to support each other, share data and further research.
Yes granted, technology can be a big distraction too, but ultimately you have a choice about how you manage your relationship with it. Check out fellow guest blogger Frances Booth’s book The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World or a little project I worked on called Look Up, which set out some principles for how to get the most out of technology.
Focus on getting the most out of technology without all the distractions [Image credit: Look Up]
Collaboration
The complex nature of our world means that we are facing challenges that no one person or organisation can solve alone. But rather than there being an unwillingness for people to collaborate and share – quite the opposite is happening.
We’re seeing local communities come together for all sorts of reasons, from growing projects like Guerrilla Gardening and Brooklyn’s Rooftop Urban Farm to reclaiming and co-developing local parks like New York’s High Line and Liverpool’s own version, The Flyover.
We’re seeing communities form online as well. Just look at how sites like 38degress have brought together people with shared interests to create positive change. Or the way online communities have challenged powerful political regimes enabling the Arab Spring to happen.
My work at Forum for the Future shows me that it’s not just communities coming together to affect the future; businesses, governments and NGOs are also working together to create positive change.
Working with others allows you to do things you can’t even imagine yet. It’s not always easy, but as the proverb goes: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
New lifestyle choices
It’s clearer than ever that there are many people questioning the current status quo and designing their lives differently in response to the changes they’re seeing around them.
We’re seeing everything from Transition Town movements creating their own local currencies, to the birth of new communities like unMonestery, to the continued rise of digital nomads.
There’s a new found honesty and openness when it comes to asking big questions about what it means to be human in the 21st century, be that through this very website, Do What You Love, and those like Wisdom Hackers, or at events like Alive in Berlin or corporate conferences like Wisdom 2.0. Last year at the World Economic Forum some of the most powerful people in the world even took part in a meditation session.
All these things are opening up opportunities for people to reimagine their own lifestyles.
Human Resources
Finally, let’s not forget our own human resources. And now I don’t mean this in the sense of an HR department in an office. But unlike our world’s physical resources, our human capacities aren’t in short supply. Human characteristics of empathy, compassion, love, learning – can be found in abundance.
“Empathy, sympathy and love are limitless resources, energies that never deplete and at this time of dwindling fuels we should cherish and explore these inexhaustible inner resources more than ever.” – Russell Brand, Revolution
We just need to find ways to unlock and connect with these innate capacities.
So, if the only certainty we know about the future is that it’s going to change, it means that whatever direction it takes in, we need to be open to adopting new approaches to the way we live, work and connect with each other. My next blog will explore the skills and approaches we’ll need to home in on in order to navigate our way through this time of flux.
I certainly don’t have all the answers so if you have thoughts about what you think it takes, then please do leave a comment.
Useful resources:
- A hopeful look at the future – The World We Made by Jonathon Porritt
- The Future – and how to be ready for it – a one-day workshop on personal strategies for success in an uncertain world (without any ‘self-help’ nonsense)
- Revolution by Russell Brand
- Dancing at the Edge by Maureen O’Hara
