Each and every day we awake, we dip our toe into a brand new world. Change and the speed of change can overwhelm us and cause us, out of fear, to procrastinate embracing the new world as it is.
As our country ages and the workforce ages, one of our greatest dangers is that all of our mind, brain, and emotional willpower will become obsolete. If you want to join that sad army, waddling off to retirement in a high-rise condo, only to be blown away by a Florida hurricane, here are the five things you can do to become obsolete.
- Refuse to change. I am not talking about changing with a fad or changing with every whim of emotion. I’m not talking about buying Apple’s newest product. I am talking about fundamental, basic change of attitudes, strategies, and actions that allow you to not just compete in the world as it is, but to excel.
- Live in the past. Constantly rehearse the way things used to be: how customers used to be loyal, or employees used to be counted on.
- Find someone to blame. The biggest target, obviously, is the Government. But your mama, your daddy, your step-mother, your step-father, your college professor, your last boss; anyone will do. Because when you blame, you shift the responsibility to take action from you to someone on the outside of you. And if you constantly live in inactivity, pointing the finger at other people, you’ll surely wake up one day, obsolete.
- Recycle old habits. You’ve heard the old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t break it.” There is wisdom in that but sometimes you’ve got to break it before it gets broke. Reading, hanging around other people who are growing, attending conventions, seminars, and learning best practices from those around us will help us stay current with all the new, fascinating tools that are available to us today.
- Reminisce about the good old days. This is the attitude that the future is bleak, black, and dark, that we’re all going to be hunched over computer screens, working from our homes, in little, disjointed communities. Longing for the good old days, days that really weren’t all that good, will get recreated in our minds as another way to absolutely guarantee you’ll be obsolete.
So here it is. If you want to be left behind on the sidelines, if you want to be making less and less in annual income and make a smaller impact on the world, just refuse to change, live in the past, find someone to blame, recycle your old habits and attitudes, and reminisce about the good old days and you’ll stay there.
Here is the good news. If you don’t want to be obsolete and passed over, do the exact opposite. You can figure it out. Talk this through with your team or your group and see how each one of these negatives can be turned into a positive. Like number one – refuse to change – can be turned into “take action based upon the new knowledge and the opportunities facing us in the new economy.”