personal purpose | The Fourth Revolution Blog

Choosing one’s destiny is like deciding to exit a train

I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become – Carl Jung.

As I was about to write this post about destiny and choice I immediately thought about putting a very conventional picture like this

the choice of roads — which road do you choose?

Which is just a nice way to express this choice problem, basically expressed by the following powerpoint – management presentation type drawing:

But after some thought, I realized that this is not how it happens in life. It is not like you wake up some day and face a decision, which you have to take in any case. It is far more like being carried away on a train and deciding whether or not we should go down at the next station to start something anew, like this

contemplative man on the train — will you go out at the next station?

I like the metaphor because obviously you don’t want to jump out of the train just at this moment where the train is on the bridge. Yet if you want to decide on your destiny you need to decide when and how you’ll disembark from the train of life you’ve taken a few years ago. Beware, if you don’t decide, where it could bring you. This man seems to be resigned to where he is being carried away. Don’t be like him!

Think about it. Will you choose to exit your train at the next convenient point? Will you force yourself to go against the comfortable train trip to discover new horizons?

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch

WOW. That’s really an inspirational quote, and a pretty strong statement at that.

So, how often are you living? How often do you let yourself bring beyond the end of your comfort zone? How often do you progress?

No often enough? Get help to make sure you’re safe, and just do it! Jump!

[I just jumped outside my comfort zone… more on this in the next post!!]

10 personal practices to thrive through the Fourth Revolution

I have been asked to summarize the main practices of the successful K.E.E.N.

So, here are 10 basic practices to be successful through the Fourth Revolution, into the Collaborative Age:

Practice regular, holistic exercise (not just the body, but also the emotions/ mind exercises)
Lean into the Collaborative Age. Become literate in social networks: use them – even only at a basic level. You’ll progress soon enough;
Be open to new ideas by following some leading blogs and publications;
At the same time, make sure spare sufficient quality time every day to focus on activities that are important for you;
Practice overcoming Resistance more often by practicing dedicated Creative Work time
Establish your clear purpose – what can you do better than everybody else, and how can you contribute to the world through this talent? (on that one in particular you might need external help)
Write your purpose and 1 year goal on a paper and post it on your bathroom mirror to watch them morning and evenings
Practice and enhance your connection and giving skills
Practice being fully present, controlling your inner chatter, filters and impulses;
Be flexible – master your ego – remember the law of requisite variety: the most flexible prevails at the end.

More of it and more details in the Fourth Revolution book!

6 key practices to leverage the value of Fourth Revolution communities

In the previous blog about “How the Fourth Revolution dramatically increases humankind problem-solving ability”, we’ve observed a great case-study of how leveraging the Fourth Revolution contribution capabilities led to a quick and effective solution to an unsolved problem.

What can we learn from this example on the conditions for this to happen?

Here are 6 key conditions:

have a large enough community because the percentage of people that are going to involve themselves deeply is small (the minimum size of the community depends on their initial level of engagement, but is at least a few thousand members). That might take some time to build up, which means giving out for some time as an investment; and any pre-existing network is clearly an asset;
make sure the community has an emotional engagement into the topic (due to personal or family history, the particular topic, or make the medium addictive in itself), and that the topic has a lot of meaning to them – aligned with their self-purpose;
allow the community members to communicate with each other transversely;
offer recognition to great community members contributions (not only external recognition: internal recognition inside the community is also appropriate); even better, allow community people to rate each other’s contributions;
interact with the community by responding in a reactive manner to issues and questions so as not to lest unwanted issues fester;
provide regularly challenging, unconventional problems that tie with the sense of meaning of the community.

Do the community network that you hope to leverage follow these 6 guidelines? What can you do today to improve the health of your network and benefit from the Fourth Revolution value?

You can only be flexible if you have choices: multiply your possible choices!

“You can only be flexible if you have choices“. That’s a simple and deep thruth.

And we know, through the law of requisite variety, that flexibility and adaptability means success.

So it all hangs on our choices. Sounds easy?

The point is, having choices or no is always subjective.

We often feel stuck, without choices, constrained.

That’s just a perception, a cognitive bias. More and more, choices are there, around us, multiple. They have been multiplied through the Fourth Revolution: for example, stay-at-home moms can create thriving businesses from their home through the internet!

We often can’t see our choices. But they are there. Do the exercise. Think out of the box, find 5 choices for your life you did not think about.

PS: on the photo, which way do you go? Myself, I won’t go left or right. Maybe straight in the middle. Or turn at a right angle from the trodden path. See. There are more choices than it seems!

Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared

I read this sentence in one of the long lists of principles sent by Robin Sharma from time to time. I’m not a great fan of Robin Sharma (in particular of his marketing strategy and the way he puts himself in the spotlight), but for once one of his sentences stuck.

Let’s read it once more:

Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared

When you think about it, this is so true. Often critics are people who would not dare to do what you are doing (or attempting). People who have been scared so many times, or had bad experiences trying to do things out of the box.

Nasty critics are those who have grown frustrated so much that their entire life is just filled with frustration and bitterness.

I don’t want to end up like a nasty critic of others. So, the best way is to overcome fear and do unconventional things. And understand what it takes.

Because be certain that fear will be there as soon as you try to deviate from the well-worn path of normality. Deep, moving, gut-wrenching fear.

What’s the solution? Ask yourself the question: What is the worst that could happen to me if it goes wrong?

Often, the risk is minimal (beyond the risk to appear ridiculous to others). Leaning into the fear, overcoming fear can be practiced. Lean into the fear and jump!

Wait – we can also help the nasty critics. Should they have the occasion to overcome their fear, once, to do something that matters, their life could be transformed. Ask them: What is the worst thing that could happen to you if you follow your dreams? And help them to follow through. That would be the greatest gift for them. And the world.

Be consistent with what you want to be

I am always amazed at how people sometimes act inconsistently with what they want to be. And thus, with what they are – deep within. That is particularly visible in my practice of coaching.

I do also fall into this trap too often. And I regret when that happens.

Because I know that it is only by being consistent with what I want to be, that I’ll become what I want to be. But my behavior is not always consistent!

So, what can we do? Probably the best solution is to keep in mind what we want to be, what is our goal and purpose, and repeat it inside us over and over again like a mantra throughout the day.

Repeat it, in particular when times are tough and stressful and we tend to come back to our old natural self.

But don’t say it because if your behavior is inconsistent with what you say, that’s even worse!

The day where somebody will tell you that he or she feels like you really are like what you want to be, you’ll know you are on the right way.

When do you start monitoring how consistent you are with what you want to be? What do you do to improve this consistency?

Talent is overrated

I just read a great book: Talent is overrated, by Geoff Colvin.

It explains where the greatest achievers find the source of their talent. And that’s not from some innate capability or just sheer hard work.

Geoff Colvin identifies the concept of deliberate practice as the key to sustained excellence. Deliberate practice is hard work, because it is still required to go through thousand of hours of practice. But it is more than that:

deliberate practice follows a program specifically designed to improve performance by working on what is difficult
deliberate practice is repeated a lot
feedback on the results is continuously available
it is demanding mentally and is not much fun

So it is not just the hours of practice that count. It is also how practice is focused on improvement, it requires feedback to be constantly available. It generally requires somebody else to design the practice program and give the feedback.

coaching in action — Even great sportspeople need a coach for deliberate practice

It is quite straightforward to understand this in the field of sports. What about the field of leadership in an organization? How often do you stretch yourself, repeat difficult actions, and do you get continuous feedback? Do you have a coach to design and force you through the process?

Yet without these elements, excellence will be impossible to reach.

Think about it. Design a deliberate practice program to become the best in what you want to do. That’s worth it.

Get out of the personal commodity trap

In the Industrial Age, people were a commodity. They had a tag given by their diploma, were part of a category and were just inter-changeable.
That started changing with the emergence of the Knowledge Worker, one of the precursors of the Fourth Revolution. Still there were broad categories of Knowledge Workers.

Beyond the Fourth Revolution, the K.E.E.N will absolutely need to avoid becoming a commodity.

As the excellent illustration says – make sure not a lot of ordinary people understand what you are doing. Invent a fancy job title, an unexpected tag line to describe what you are doing.

Develop a unique personal brand. And market yourself.

Commodities are easily replaced. Commodities’ price gets down with competition from low cost countries.

Above all, don’t stay a commodity. Get out of the commodity trap. Start now to build your identity, your brand, and to market yourself.

Change the way you see yourself

Every so often I bump into Anais Nin famous quote, and every time I find it inspiring anew, and so true.

Let us quote it in its full extent here:
“The way you see yourself shapes your life. How you define life determines your destiny. Your perspective will influence how you invest your time, spend your money, use your talents and value your relationships.

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin

Take 5 mins. Meditate that sentence. The easiest way to find whether we have a strong perspective which excessively distorts our view of reality is to get an external feedback. Get someone you trust, if possible living a very different life. Ask whether they believe your view reality is distorted. And then investigate why. And change. And get free.

The picture is from Dan Mountford, great photos to be discovered on Flicker

Bonus: how to market oneself in the Collaborative Age

Now that we’ve ascertained that personal marketing is necessary for the K.E.E.N. in the Collaborative Age, this great post from Mitch Joel about “Personal branding is not an option – it is the recipe to success” is a good place to start to know how to market oneself on the Internet.

Enjoy your first personal marketing steps!

Not a lot of people know how to market themselves

Knowing how to market oneself is a great differentiator. It can mean orders of magnitude of differences in influence, revenue. It makes the difference between the competent-knowledgeable, and the successful achievers.

What prevents us from developing this important skill?

as we saw in the previous blog post, developing a personal unique brand is against Industrial Age mindset and is rejected by our social environment;

marketing oneself is scary, because it means standing up and getting rejected more often than accepted;

successful marketing involves developing an emotional connection with prospective buyers, and this is not something we have been educated to develop and enhance

Still, self-marketing it is a key skill that differentiates successful achievers in any field.

How can we develop this skill? Beyond developing one’s brand, expose yourself! Find your unique selling proposition, stand up and start marketing it. Persist, get feedback, and you’ll get there.

So, when do you start marketing yourself?

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