How to future-proof your life and career?
Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash
The world is changing as we speak, and things are moving forward all the time. Change is the theme of today and tomorrow. And no, we cannot be like that ostrich with its head in the sand denying reality and saying it won’t affect us
Because it will.
We form a solid part of this world whether we like it or not, and not one of us can remain in our armchair saying to ourselves and to the world at large this is not my problem. I am fine with what is happening in my life.
With Covid and all its implications; lockdowns, working from home and everything else, we now all realise that we live and depend on technology and soon this technology is moving onwards towards a more digitalised era. That in itself is enough to force us to future-proof our life, our choices, and indeed our careers.
So, how to future-proof successfully?
For a start, we need to change our mindset on things. But to do that we have to be thoroughly honest and stand back a bit and allow ourselves the space and freedom to analyse and understand the particular mindset and mindsets that we have cultivated along the way. We must garner the courage to let go of mindsets that hinder our growth and don’t help us allow us to flow easily into the next river or torrent.
Map out the future
We can’t allow ourselves to not to think about the future and say everything is ‘grand’. For instance, we may be sitting in our big house with our family having left the nest, and perhaps we know that soon we will need to downsize the house. And even see in that downsizing, we may have to think about the possibilities for disability access in the future.
Recently, I met a friend who has decided to take early retirement this year because she wants to organise her life and activities before her husband retires in another year or so. She wants to future-proof her choices in order to develop a plan of life that enables her to develop her independence while remaining a faithful wife.
Embrace starting from zero
No one likes having to start from zero, from a point of nothingness. As King Lear said, ‘nothing will come of nothing.’ But starting from zero means can also mean that we don’t carry the same baggage with us. Baggage such as set mindsets about things or fixed modes of operating.
Starting from zero can mean there is a readiness to open out to what is new and fresh and different from our usual modus operandi. It can mean more openness to possibilities and more readiness to take on new adventures that can bring us forward in an exciting and dynamic way.
This may be an extreme example, but I often think about the Ukrainian refugees that are suddenly catapulted into another world, another culture with absolutely nothing but emptiness and trauma. And yet when they meet with community efforts that are focussed on future-proofing their lives the results are powerful. I see this at present in my local parish where a group of families have bonded with the community and are now interacting in a deeply satisfying way.
A close friend of mine has begun to offer her services by driving the children to school and various activities. She told me that she arrives tired after a day’s work, but the smiles of joy on the children’s faces that greet her make it all worthwhile.
Be open and ready
In conclusion, future-proofing your life is all about bonding and bridging. It’s about being open and being ready to snatch up opportunities when they come. But it’s also very much about creating those opportunities so that we can launch forth in the next direction with the right set of skills needed. This requires an openness and detachment from our current mindset, a readiness to learn from unexpected mentors, and, above all, we must enjoy and value the process along the way!
