Daily Inspiration: “Your choice is simple: will you fight the future – or will you make it happen?”

“Your choice is simple: will you fight the future – or will you make it happen?” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Imagine going into work each day knowing that at least a third of the people you interact will absolutely hate the work that you do!

As a futurist on stage around the world, that’s my reality!

When I go in front of a crowd, I *know* that there is a percentage who will hate my message – because it involves change, the future, challenges and disruption. Twenty five years of experience has taught me that the number can range up to a 1/3 of the audience

I see it in the evaluations; I witness it in the reactions from the stage ; I hear it in the buzz post keynote.

Why is this?

It’s my job. I need to take them on a rocket ride tour of the future, & help them to understand that we will see more change in the next 5-10 years than we have seen in the last 100.

My goal is to motivate them to wake up, get moving, start acting, begin changing – to ensure they turn the future into an opportunity, and not a threat!

It doesn’t work with some folks. I know that! “I didn’t like the guy. He made me feel uncomfortable. Why can’t everything just stay the same?”

The best reaction? “I don’t think that what he predicted is going to happen.” (Hint: it will. Before you know it.)

It’s a weird job: I am shaking people out of their slumber, interrupting their complacency, and challenging them to adapt to what comes next.

And I know that a certain percentage of them would just prefer to go back to sleep. They are the ones that will wake up years from now, and wonder to themselves : “What happened?” There is a real danger in being oblivious to the trends that will disrupt your world and challenge your future, because you won’t do anything to prepare for it.

You’ll end up falling behind, and find yourself in the trap of wishing that things were “great again”, without any real plan as to how to get there.

With that – what’s your choice?

Are you an active participant in defining your future? Or are you just a spectator on the sidelines?