It has been a while since my last post in August of 2020. In fact, you probably already noticed that I only posted three times last year and that this is my first post of 2021. The main reason for my absence since August of 2020 is the fact that I, like everyone else on the planet, was thrown into the raging Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge (the Covid-19 Pandemic) and forced to focus my navigational energies on my family to help guide us through its perilous rapids:
El Primero Rapid (III)
El Segundo Rapid (III)
Pumphouse Rapid (III)
Sunshine Falls Rapid (IV-V)
Sledgehammer Rapid (IV-V)
The Narrows Rapid (IV-V)
Wall Slammer Rapid (IV-V)
Boat Eater Rapid (IV-V)
You see, the pandemic of 2020 threw a monkey wrench into my whole life, disrupting all 8 areas at the same time. Spiritual, Fitness & Health, Self-Improvement, Relationships, Vocation, Financial, Lifestyle, and Re-Creation were all materially impacted. Not a single area escaped massive disruption.
The pandemic reduced us all to the bottom layers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – Physiological and Safety – (reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs). Translated, like white water rafting the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge (which I have done a couple of times) my focus has been on coming out alive!
This was the first time in my life that all 8 areas were simultaneously disrupted. And I am pretty sure I was not alone. I lost a lot. But in the crisis response that was necessitated to navigate through in one piece, I also learned a lot, grew a lot, and gained a lot too!
While we are not through this global challenge yet, we are beginning to emerge into a new global normal. As it has been written, what goes down goes up. So up and to the right is the direction we are headed. But our exit from the pandemic will not be local, it will be global. We can already see signs of that. We are exiting to a new global world order.
The pandemic has forced and accelerated digital transformation, resulting in entirely new business and social models for every segment of our society around our digitally-connected world. It has also exposed strengths and weakness associated with globalization and a globally interdependent supply chain. But make no mistake, globalization isn’t dead, it is just morphing into something new and different…
According to an August 3rd article in Fortune Magazine - …Fortune released its 2021 Global 500, a list of the world's biggest companies. Along with the rankings, we published two must-read articles explaining how "globalization" is morphing into something new and different in the wake of the pandemic.
The first of those articles is this analysis of the new Global 500 by Geoff Colvin. He writes: "Despite dire predictions, globalization didn't die. It evolved. Onshoring, nearshoring, and reshoring have become imperatives for businesses...whose supply chains snapped in 2020." - https://fortune.com/2021/08/03/globalization-future-covid-global-500-companies-supply-chains/
As life begins to settle into the new normal my vision has lifted to focus on life beyond the pandemic, to a fundamental rethinking of my long-term, strategic, life-transforming goals. Goals enabled by new flexibilities, technologies, and capabilities that didn’t even exist pre-pandemic! This is very exciting…
As of September 1, 2021, my focus has been on 2022 and beyond. In fact, my sights are set on the year 2030 in every area of life. I have started to reimagine the form that I want my life experience to take as I exit this decade! I have begun restructuring my deadline-driven, strategic, long-term goals in every area of life to manifest that vision. Once this task is complete, I will develop a detailed roadmap for their achievement then get busy transmuting them into my new reality.
Just for the record I am thinking big!
You know why? Because there is Urgency! This year I turned 63, and in 2030 I will be 72. This decade is bringing on a tsunami of growth and expansion that many believe may rival the explosive growth and transformation of the post-pandemic 1920s (roaring 20s as the period is often referred to) a short 100 years ago. But one thing is for sure, it will be global. Are you prepared to capitalize on that move?
The digital transformation that is upon us, framed by a shift in the balance of power between employer and employee, has ushered in the ability to work, shop, be seen by a doctor, learn, date, and play digitally and globally, untethering home-base from a single physical address, just as work and home phones were untethered from physical addresses during the last decade in favor of virtual ones. Now, the ability to live and work globally as well has enabled unlimited new possibilities, unthinkable as recently as 2019. These possibilities will be seized by those who dare to think big, build a plan, and act now, both on the professional and personal levels.
Here’s another excerpt from Fortune:
Global Trade’s New Playbook
Despite gloomy predictions to the contrary, the pandemic hasn’t killed globalization. But the radical changes it has wrought will have long-term implications for businesses worldwide. Here are three key takeaways.
By GEOFF COLVIN – Fortune Magazine
…Tumultuous times produce big winners and big losers in business, research finds. It’s happening again. In the new Global 500, 45 new companies pushed incumbents off the list versus just 26 replacements a year ago. We’ve entered a new world with new rules—a rich opportunity for the bold…
I am on a journey. Would you like to join me?
If you have a constructive discontent with things the way they are, and would like to begin re-imagining your 2030 reality, join me for an updated “Breaking Out of Your Box” webinar where I will introduce you to balanced-life goal setting and achievement! Just click the Events menu above and select the date that best fits your schedule and register. Its free!
In closing, let me leave you with this thought… The only true limit you face in life is the length of your life itself - your era. To find out what that is start with your birth year and add 100. This will tell you the year by which you have a 99.8% probability of dying.
For an even healthier dose of reality, subtract 20 from that year. This yields the year in which you will turn 80.
For one more insightful piece of data, add 65 to your birth year to find out the year that you will turn 65, and most likely retire…
Then ask yourself this question, do I want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to create the life I desire to live? If the answer is no, then balanced-life goal setting and achievement is the new knowledge you need! Register and attend an upcoming event to get started!