What happened to yesterday?

28th November 2016

Time is moving so swiftly that one is not able to tell the days apart. At least that is what it seems! It just seems like 2016 had just turned the corner, and here we all are, at the doorstep of 2017. I look at kids I had seen a few years ago and think Oh my, how much they have grown. Its not the kids who grew up, dumpkof, it is you too! You have become as much older as the kids! Only their physical appearance underwent a change for the better while yours turned for the worse!

Change is welcome but nowadays its pace is also frightening. What used to take days weeks or months is now taking hours. That is what technology has done. Hailing cab back in the old days used to be chore. Nowadays you know with precision how many minutes the cab will show up at your doorstep! Change used to be slow and incremental in the past and most of us were equipped to handle it. But nowadays it is rapid, radical and even unpredictable and many of us are finding it difficult to handle it. The young are taking to it much faster of course, because it is now part of their life and hence nothing out of the ordinary. But for those who have been weaned on a somewhat slower progress of change, the sudden accelerations may be tough. Could this mean that all the thinks that we learnt earlier- like skills and knowledge- may become irrelevant in the future? This is one of the scariest parts about the present and the future. No wonder, even someone like Uday Kotak said that he lies awake at night wondering what is the next disruption along the way! If he can worry then I have plenty more to worry!

Knowledge is power and skill is a trump card. That will not go away. But unless the skill and knowledge is kept updated it may fade away. Hence the mantra for all of us for the future is Adaptability. If we cannot adapt our current knowledge and skill to the fast changing world around us, we wont be able to stay on top of new situations and new circumstances. We need to develop new insights that can give us fresh perspective before the change happens. That is the key. This requires us to be on our feet at all times, alert and vigilant about what is going on. It doesn’t matter what field you are in- there is change everywhere. The world, as we knew it yesterday, is gone. Truly, we can state in these times, It is a new day tomorrow!
It is at times that I remember what the good old books said about how to lead life- Sravan, Manan, Nidhi Dhyasan. Meaning, Listen, Introspect. Practice. We already have the formula for dealing with life, howsoever it may change. What we need to do is to stick to our ancient roots. They got it right way back then. It is amazing that it is still good advice in 2016-stepping-into 2017. Listen more. Introspect more on what you listened to. Practice more of what is good for you. If we can do that, change should not be too hard to handle!

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