The entire universe is expanding and growing, everything is steadily in movement, including our lives. It is an illusion to think that we have, at a
certain point, reached the peak of our development or that we can lean back and stop trying. Of course, it is our free choice but but when we stop growing, learning and expanding, this energy finds a way to break through in a different, much more
unpleasant form.
Just imagine a dam holding back a massive water body – as the water pressure rises and rises, the tension rises until it eventually bursts and creates vast destruction. will be more and more under tension until, when the pressure rises. We can relate this to our own lives, can’t we?
When our relationships don’t work anymore (and haven’t for a long time), things will and have to go down in flames. We might get fired from a job we have been stuck in for too long or receive another broad hint which reminds us that life is evolution and that we as humans are not supposed to settle into standing still.
Humanity would be better accepting that everything is always in motion – adapting and accepting the changes rather than trying to resist the flow.
Just look at where we as a civilization stood a hundred years ago and where we stand now. A hundred years ago the first cars were introduced. Today, we have developed self-driving vehicles, have created artificial intelligence and can call with a device that recognizes our face. To top it off, we (or let’s better say Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX) have developed self-landing rockets and space shuttles which will most likely send astronauts to Mars in the next decade. Our species, so typically creative and curious has created all these new inventions, driven by our constant yearning for improvement and our desire to exceed the limitations of the past.
Why is it that the number of those who actively shape our future is so little?
Interestingly, those who actively shape the future are few in numbers. The majority has at some point decided that they have done enough development, that now it is time to get comfortable in what is familiar to them. Surely, this is a way of life that has worked pefectly for many thousands of years, society slowly evolving at its own pace. But in the past two hundred years things have speeded up significantly. When I was born in 1993, the internet was just happening and with incredible speed we moved from an anaolg to a digital society.
Evenwhile you are reading this article, new radical technologies are being developed which will further revolutionise all areas of our lives.
Why is it that the number of those who actively shape our future is so little? What is blocking all those others adapting to the changes or even better, pro-actively participating in shaping the world with their own dedicated vision?
I believe it all comes down to an ego-driven issue. Assuming our knowledge and our skills are ‘us’ and taking them as the basis for our own self-worth, makes us very resistant to accepting that most of these particular skills and we have learnt about the world, will become obsolete at one point or another.
They fear the feeling of being ‘no-one’ and having to start off at almost zero once again is very challenging.
Some people refuse to let go of old, obsolete knowledge and to adapt to a new reality because it feels like giving up all they have ever accomplished. Questions like ‘Who am I when my skills are obsolete? Who am I when it turns out that much of what I have learnt about life has become outdated?’ can make people very unsettled.
Society is shifting faster and faster, innovations becoming more radical and people will not be able to afford standing still or refusing to adapt to the changes.
I believe in the next two decades the societal gap will grow bringing a profound connotation: It will not be just a quest of rich and poor but also of being in or out of the flow of life.
We have to learn to deal with the idea that our knowledge and our skills, which are valuable now, will most likely, eventually become irrelevant.
Technological advancement will force a decision on everyone: Do I want to be a pro-active future-shaper or will I hold on to my old way of thinking and stick to my limitations?
The ‘new age’ is forcing us to evolve and to accept that life is a constant flow and a constant evolution. We have to deal with it.
Intention and Reconnection
I believe this personal and socio-economic challenge is to draw our sense of self-worth from a source deeper and more profound than just the level of skills, behaviors or beliefs – a spiritual connection that looks not to a God or an outer power but acknowledges we ourselves are precious, no matter what we do. With a well-established belief we could once again take down the guards and allow life to surprise us We could learn to trust again, childlike in our quest for the unknown, full of curiosity and awe. All it needs is the intention to reconnect and the attention to sit still and focus on the inner experience rather than the outside world.
Simply, what humanity needs is to shift the attention back to ourselves and to remember that beauty is not just on the outside but can be deeply found within us too.
By Kristin Bienia
