The Journal of 2020 Foresight

Reports from the Knowledge Labs about our recent findings, research topics, and interviews with lifestyle leaders who are creating their own futures.

How to stimulate your own powers of foresight. Consider the following thought provokers. Ask yourself, in these categories what are the brand new trends and forces? Which are the ones growing in importance? Which current forces are loosing their steam? Which have peaked or are reversing themselves? Which are the "wildcards" about to disrupt us in the future? POLITICAL AND TECHNICAL thought for food: Electronics, Materials, Energy, Fossil, Nuclear, Alternative, Other, Manufacturing (techniques), Agriculture, Machinery and Equipment, Distribution, Transportation (Urban, Mass, Personal, Surface, Sea, Subsurface, Space), Communication (Printed, Spoken, Interactive, Media), Computers (Information, Knowledge, Storage & Retrieval, Design, Network Resources), Post-Cold War, Third World, Conflict (Local, Regional, Global), Arms Limitation, Undeclared Wars, Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Governments (More/Less Power and Larger or Smaller Scale), Taxes, Isms: Nationalism, Regionalism, Protectionism, Populism, Cartels, Multinational Corporations, Balance of Trade, Third Party Payments, Regulations (OSHA, etc.) Environmental Impact, U.S. Prestige Abroad. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC Food for thought: Labor Movements, Unemployment / Employment Cycles, Recession, Employment Patterns, Work Hours / Schedules, Fringe Benefits, Management Approaches, Accounting Policies, Productivity, Energy Costs, Balance of Payments, Inflation, Taxes, Rates of Real Growth, Distribution of Wealth, Capital Availability and Costs, Reliability of Forecasts, Raw Materials, Availability and Costs, Global versus National Economy, Market versus Planned Economies, Generations: Y, X, Boomers, Elderly, Urban vs. Rural Lifestyles, Affluent vs. Poor, Neighborhoods and Communities, Planned or Organic Growth. Got Knowledge?

Archives
<< current

Sunday, July 07, 2002

New Beginnings Entry

Chapter One: Basecamp

By Steve Howard, CKO
The Knowledge Labs

Table of Contents
Chapter One: Basecamp
Chapter Two: The Ridge
Chapter Three: The Outpost
Chapter Four: The Tribal Territories

I see by the continuing entries in this journal, that someone else is a Joseph Campbell fan. The day’s diary opens with this quote.

The Morning After, Ships Log 9:30 a.m.

"Different teachers may suggest exercises, but they may not be the ones to work for you. All a teacher can do is suggest. He is like a lighthouse that says, 'There are rocks over her, steer clear. There is a channel, however, out there.... (I)f you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."

Joseph Campbell, in "Myth of the Hero"

New Beginnings
I guess we all encounter those passages in our lives. Those rocky, uncertain, uncomfortable transitions between what we've been and what we will become. These are times of flux, stress, and anxiety.

Not so much those times when changing circumstances can be swallowed in small bites allowing us to make adjustments and to move on – none the worse for ware.

Those circumstances are more like a shift in the wind prompting you to tact a few degrees off your course until the wind shifts again and your regain you direction. Like most people, I tact back and forth every day assimilating those kinds of changes.

But transitions require us to change our way of doing things. They force us to accommodate them. Those are the changes which disorient us, which knock us off kilter. Transitions leave us direction less, as if we're at the helm of a sailboat in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle and our compass dial is spinning chaotically.

Like last night.

I have to admit I was freaked out still, even when we put down anchor in this cove to get out of the high winds. Now, in the morning light I could see the sandy beach. A wave of relaxation calmed me. Maybe there's something of a vacation aura broadcast by beaches. The sun. The sand. The seagulls yakking to each other overhead.

In my mind's eye, we have many possibilities. But we can't live more than one life. It's all we've got. Each of us faces the darkness alone. Each of us is unique. Any gift we were to give to the world must come out of our own experience. Out of our own fulfillment - not from anybody else.

While walking aimlessly down the beach, as I reflect on the inner circle in the heart of the chart – “me, lifecycle, spiritual” and extend my thoughts out to “multi-universes, planet, and environment,” I’m struck by the thought, “Time's running out.” I’m reminded how temporary this life can be. As temporary as my footprints in the sand of time.

Got Knowledge?
Copyright ©2002 - 2006 Aarnaes Howard Associates. All rights reserved worldwide.

1:55 PM