Chapter 10

Conclusion— Lessons in Change

In This Chapter

• your key lessons
• future turbulent change
• looking out for change

The greatest lesson change teaches is pretty simple: It really isn’t such a bad thing after all. Change gives you opportunities to begin again. You need to learn from the mistakes you made in the past and grow from these experiences. It would be ludicrous to continue making the same mistakes over and over instead of learning the lessons from your previous falls.

Change can be positive if you welcome it and take the lessons to heart. It can even be refreshing. Like learning to ride a bike, the worst part of the process is the bruises you get acquiring the skills. Once you have mastered the skills, the rest of the learning experience can even be fun.

Your Key Lessons

Whether you are a change initiator, implementer, or one of the intended, the principles presented in this book are invaluable. Change can be a very emotional experience. It alters people, their lives, and their sense and order of the world. Change is serious business, but you shouldn’t let it become bigger than life itself. You need to keep it in its proper perspective. Of all the skills you can acquire during your lifetime, the ability to cope with change may be one of the most important to your future success and happiness.

Change is really nothing more than a matter of perception. It is how you look at change that really matters. Think of change as a second chance to get it right. How it affects you depends to a great extent on you. Just don’t let those emotional trolls chase you off the bridges leading to your success in the future.

The Top 10 Lessons Exercise

What are the top 10 lessons you’ve learned from change? List them here:

How can these lessons help you deal more effectively with change in the future?

Future Turbulent Change

So what do you think will happen in the future? Short of hiring a soothsayer, it’s all educated guesses. But you can do yourself a favor by paying attention to both short- and long-term developments, including technological trends and socioeconomic ones as well. The following are just a few of the possibilities to consider. These are just ideas, so vet them yourself and consider your own.

• Handwriting will become a lost art form. Keyboard skills will be taught to toddlers instead of penmanship. We will have to go to museums (virtual of course) to see handwriting examples like we do with Egyptian hieroglyphics.
• Redefining the personal computer. Computers will be even more personal because they will be customized to complement your strengths, weaknesses, and personality. Personal computers will become the future personal assistants. They will truly make you a more effective person. People will be judged less on their own personal strengths and weaknesses, but they will be judged on those of their personal computer. Promotions in the future will involve getting more powerful personal computer assistants that are programmed to succeed. They will give you restricted access to advice on how to get ahead.
• Our homes will become so technically sophisticated, they will provide for all our personal needs.
• If you do have to leave your home for some reason, an Automated Response Tracking (ART) system will control the drive in your Hydrogen Powered Transport Unit (HPTU). Traffic accidents will be programmed out of existence. Our future cars will become smarter than we are. “Didn’t you mean to take a left at that light?” ART will inquire as you try to head for the golf course instead of going to work.
• Virtual hazardous data waste sites will be monitored by government agencies. They will regulate data storage in the future for viruses and other dangerous infectious traits that could corrupt other systems.
• Websites will have specific costs associated with them similar to hotels and resorts today. Higher level positions in these mega-corporations will have access to the most expensive and exclusive ones. The less privileged you are, the less access you have and the class system cycle continues. Poverty in the future will be redefined by what sites you have access to. It will be more of an intellectual definition of a class system than physical or material.
• There will be no physical money, just money cards programmed wirelessly. Everything will be a swipe of a card. There will be charges for using the information superhighway, like toll charges.
• The government may regulate which services will be provided online and which will still be performed in person. You may need a work permit to leave your home. This will cut down on both air and traffic pollution. This will save billions in road maintenance and other infrastructure costs, but will create other problems, such as congestion on websites and social media.
• Longer lives will lead to longer working careers. This career longevity will be made even more possible by advances in medicine as well as the ability to work from home. Normal retirement ages will get later and later. Someday the normal retirement age could be as old as 95 and as early as 92.

Looking Out for Change

The future always seems to come before we are ready for its arrival. You need to open your mind to new possibilities. You need to anticipate change. The ability to learn and adapt will continue to be the most important skill in the future. What will career development mean to you in the future? What form will it take? You will have no choice but to adapt to change in the future.

How are you positioned for these possible changes? Are you ready? If not, what can you do about it today? You need to open your mind to new possibilities. Thinking about the future in this way can help make it less turbulent for you, plus, it’s fun! Good luck in the future, and may you always welcome the next change coming.