Future Here Now: Building the Future Ready Mind
Why is is it that, when we try to change something, most of the time it doesn’t work? New Year’s Resolutions, “Change Initiatives” at work, new programs, new organizations, new initiatives? We try and try, but within a week, a month, we have shifted back to our old habits. Individually, in our teams and organizations, and in our communities.
We do that because our minds are wired to repeat the thing we’ve done before without thinking about it.
Developing mental shortcuts was good for our ancestors, trying to learn what plants to eat and which animals to avoid in order to survive. Minimizing the energy drain created by thinking of new ideas, of doing active problem solving, meant that you had more energy for your legs and lungs and arms, which gave you better odds of getting away from the thing that wants to eat or stomp or gore you.
Our brains are set up to escape mastodon and scrape together enough food to feed the family, not to improve, or iterate, or do systematic realignment, whatever that is. So it’s no surprise that our efforts to change, any change, so often fall apart.
It would be easy to shrug and just go along with how things are, and a lot of our parents, grandparents - and ourselves - have done just that.
But that isn’t working. We live today in a period of massive, top-to-bottom change that is upending our assumptions nearly every day. All demanding that we find a Better Way to Do It.
That means that we have to work around our Mastodon-era brains. Before we can change our communities, or our businesses, or our teams – or ourselves – we have to cultivate a mindset of change. And the older you are, the less naturally that will come.
But it can come, and it will. Just like building any other muscle, we have to work at it.
This month we will deep dive on how a Future Ready Mind differs from what most of us have — and how we can learn to work around our prehistoric brain to become Future Ready.
This issue will shape most of what you hear from me this month, across all of my platforms. And I’d encourage you to participate any where you find it. I’d especially welcome you all to the LinkedIn Live sessions that I am doing every Thursday at 12:00 noon Eastern Time. Just check my profile on LinkedIn and you’ll find all of them. And stay tuned for special guests on the edition of the Future Ready LinkedIn Live that happen on my birthday, January 23!
Our businesses, our teams, our organizations and our selves are struggling to cope with the unprecedented changing landscape we are living in. But we can rewire our brains to take a more Future Ready stance. We just have to do it.
Because I think this is such an important issue to start the year, I’m offering you a special opportunity to upgrade to a full Future Here Now subscription for 25% off the list cost. I am also offering 25% off group subscriptions - ideal for your team, department, or business partners. Click the buttons below to learn more.
Thanks for coming along. You will see a range of new content, new connections, new resources and new opportunities this year, as we continue to walk into a future that looks nothing like our past.
Looking forward to it!