Relearn 21st century knowledge, skills and lifeset (7 of 8)
Why am I using the word ‘relearn’? Because much of the knowledge, like the 4 P’s of marketing or material science that we know is fast becoming obsolete. Continuously we have to relearn and keep ourselves up to date. The amount of information that is created is growing exponentially, and it will even grow faster as billions of people will come online soon. Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12hours.
So, if we don’t relearn (knowledge and skills) continuously we run the risk of becoming obsolete ourselves, and that may happen in months rather than years. While at the same time we need to move away from a fitting in lifeset to a flying out lifeset. I studied law, but never worked in law. However, some of the skills that I learned while studying law are quite useful, like communication skills (oral and written), having a helicopter view, and learning about many different topics (from social law, to tax law to European law). In the study those skills were a kind of spin off. It was not the primary goal to learn these skills. However, those skills have proven most valuable in my career. That is why I could easily perform in many different commercial jobs, as they all required good communication skills, and learning continuously. It is worrying that schools and universities are still focused on teaching knowledge. In addition to mental intelligence (IQ), we can differentiate ourselves from automated systems by also working on spiritual intelligence (SQ, includes consciousness, self-reflection and contemplation) and emotional intelligence (EQ, includes self-awareness, connecting with others).
Grit is crucial for relearning, whether knowledge, skills and/or lifeset. However, if we are listening to the (internal and external) voices that keeps on saying that we are not good enough we tend to stop certain activities as soon as the results are disappointing. I have started many ventures, but maybe I have quit some of them too soon, because I listened to my voice saying that it was not good enough. For the last years I have adopted another attitude. I check why things are not working as planned, what is missing, or what is the feedback from customers. That attitude allowed me to constantly improve my offering. I would have never reached the content as I am describing here in this book if I would not have learned from what worked and what didn’t work, and thought about the why things were not working out as planned. While at the same time having the mindset that I am good enough already. My last breakthrough was understanding that many people are in the cage and somehow addicted. That part was not addressed in previous offerings and that meant that some customers preferred to stay in the cage, rather than change. By revealing the cage and by enabling recovery, it becomes more feasible to fly out. I am very happy that I showed the grit to continue, as I am convinced that I am on the right track now. Grit and timing are crucial for any venture. If you can survive long enough, and you are constantly iterating, experimenting, and improving your business, then eventually the timing will be right! It really is all about grit. What is grit? Grit is refusing to give up. It's persistence. It's making your own luck (Peter Diamandis 2 August 2015).
If you don’t know where to start, I would suggest to work on an open mind, open heart and open will, as suggested by Otto Scharmer. To do that you need three critical capacities: listening and curiosity (an openmind), empathy and compassion (an open heart), as well as confidence and courage (an open will). If you face a moment of disruption and you lack these critical capacities, you are easily thrown into the space of absencing- that is, into a self-reinforcing dynamic of separation and destruction.
Relearn 21st century knowledge, skills and lifeset
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World of work
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Keep up with knowledge
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High Tech & High Touch
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Strengthen skills
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Cherish creativity
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Revalue rest
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Liberate your lifeset
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Care for what you control
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From a very young age I was very curious and I loved to learn. My slogan ‘Nurtured by Newness’ is a signpost of that. I was wondering why I am so interested in newness. I think that the main driver is my dissatisfaction with the status quo as well as the lack of excitement from things that are always the same. Eating the same soup for dinner every day gets boring and makes me dislike the soup. There is so much to explore in the world, why should we stick to old-fashioned patterns? This urge for newness is a combination of seeing situations that can be improved, mainly making them more human-centered, and at the other end my innate joy in exploring. That exploration doesn’t mean that I need to discover unknown parts of Antarctica or the Amazon rainforest. I can be just as happy when I discover a new vegan snack or a new book about the art of living. The flipside of curiosity is learning, they go hand in hand.
Most people who are conditioned to fit in, don’t like change. They want to remain in their comfort zone. I think that is unnatural. Change is an imminent part of life.
“Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?
What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?
And canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? And
canst thou be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can
anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost
thou not see then that for thyself also to change is just the same,
and equally necessary for the universal nature?” ~ Marcus Aurelius
According to Anthony de Mello “there is only one thing and one thing only that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment.” As Epictetus realized some two thousand years before de Mello, our attachments are what make it so hard to accept change. Once we have them, we don’t want to let go. We become slaves to maintaining the status quo (Daily Stoic November 23rd).
We have not learned to deal with change at all, especially not with exponential change and convergence of various changes (technology/environment/society). Traditional schooling, focused on subordination, exists since 1852. The focus is on maintaining the status quo.
A crucial decision to take is whether you want to be the same as your parents or not. It is very likely that you will be the same as your father or mother, if you don’t make a conscious decision. If you are on the autopilot, you will copy most of their behavior. Family Constellations show this by attempts to reveal a previously unrecognized systemic dynamic that spans multiple generations in a given family and to resolve the deleterious effects of that dynamic by encouraging the subject to encounter representatives of the past and accept the factual reality of the past. I did make a conscious decision not to have children, as my family showed that having children was no fun at all (actually terrible). I am pretty sure that if I had had children I would have copied the behavior of my father. That would not have been beneficial, both to the children and to myself. So, don’t blindly copy your parents and try to meet their expectations for having grandchildren. Change is a choice. You are living your life and not theirs. Constellations prove that we copy behaviors from others, across generations. Generational patterns are very influential (in the respective families of my father and mother there was also no love). We are copycats.
If you choose to change, it is the process, the journey that counts. The process of learning, growing and failing. That is change. Many people love the different seasons, they love the change in foliage and temperature. It is natural to love change. Start (and end) with changing yourself, as that is only under your control.
It is also crucial to change our environments as well (in addition to changing ourselves). Benjamin Hardy has researched this area and explains why your environment is more crucial than willpower: “No matter how much internal resolve you have, you will fail to change your life if you don’t change your environment. This is where the willpower approach fails. The willpower approach doesn’t focus on changing the environment, but instead, on increasing personal efforts to overcome the current environment. What ends up happening? Eventually you succumb to your environment despite your greatest efforts to resist. The environment is more powerful than your internal resolve. As a human being, you always take on the form of the environments you continually place yourself in.
Consequently, the best use of your choices is consciously designing environments that facilitate your commitments. Actually, if you’re really committed to something, this is exactly what you’ll do. If you’re trying to stop drinking alcohol, you must stop being 1) around people that drink alcohol and 2) at places that serve alcohol. Your willpower will fail if you don’t. You need to truly decide you’re done, to commit, and then to create an environment to make the success of your commitment inevitable.
If you want to become a professional rock-climber, you need to surround yourself with professional rock-climbers and orient your whole lifestyle to that goal. This is how evolution works. We adapt to our environments. Thus, conscious evolution involves purposefully choosing or creating environments that mold us into the person we want to become. “
He also says:” Your environment - including the people you surround yourself with - is the clearest indicator of who you are and who you’re becoming.”
Surat Singh says: When you do not upset yourself thinking about how others must change and instead you concentrate on your own change, good things start to happen. First, you will feel better about yourself. Second, you will start to have positive feelings towards others and start to understand them. Third, others start having a more positive attitude towards you. There are many hidden benefits in personal change. Change doesn’t imply that you must be perfect and that you have to compare yourself to others. No. just be the best possible version of yourself.
Tim Ferriss writes in Tools of Titans:
“The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, elite athletes, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized one or two strengths. Humans are imperfect creatures. You don’t “succeed” because you have no weaknesses; you succeed because you find your unique strengths and focus on developing habits around them. Everyone is fighting a battle [and has fought battles] you know nothing about. The heroes in this book are no different. Everyone struggles.”
It doesn’t help to compare yourself with these heroes, or to want to change into a clone of those heroes. They are flawed, just like you and me. For everyone there is room for improvement, for change. Just focus on being the best version of yourself. Nobody is perfect. Change is fun; make it your way of life.
Love life, love learning.
