A point brought up in one of the newsletters I read this past week was that success, in the current era, is brought about by being curious, by trying new things. Of course, as a species this is what has us evolving, what has us moving forward instead of dying out. But as a culture, for a long time being 'successful' in life was all about fitting in, about doing what your parents had done and what their parents had done before them. Change came about slow, and it wasn't always rewarded.
If you look back at history, we have vacillated between times of great change and times of stability. Both have their values. If we embraced nothing but change, we wouldn't stick with any one thing enough to see if it had value, we would just constantly be swapping to the next new thing, even if it wasn't actually better. We also wouldn't have masters, people who are so good at something because they have done it a million times.
But if we never tried new things, we would be stuck, and the problems we had would never be solved. It's like the old saying goes, if you do things the same way, you will get the same results. If we want new results, we have to try new things.
The balance comes in trying a bunch of new stuff, then picking the ones that look the most promising and running with them for a while. And once things start to feel stuck again, then we try a bunch of new things.
I'm actually excited to be in a time of newness. I think there is a lot in our world right now that is broken and stuck and that we need to shake things up and find new ways. Like with most change, this will bring a time of discomfort. New stuff is scary and it feels weird until it gets broken in and becomes familiar.
The best way to overcome this is to be intensely curious about what is going on. If something is new to you, that means by it's very definition, that you don't know much about it. Instead of closing your eyes and plugging your ears and thinking about how the darkness and the unknown is scary and building up all these horrible images of what could be....go out and see for yourself. Wonder about what could be, ask questions, and find out what's actually going on.
This is a bit of scientific method here. You have to try stuff, and see what happens....you have to observe the different outcomes, write down what you have experienced and look for the patterns. There will be issues along the way, like I said earlier, you don't get good at something without making a bunch of mistakes. But you have to do the thing to make the mistakes to get better and refine what you are doing. You literally have to do it wrong a bunch of times to figure out what the right way is.
I feel we are in the 'doing it wrong' part in a lot of areas in life. And many people are trying to pull back. They are pointing at the things we have tried and going 'look, this new thing we are trying is crazy, look at how badly it turned out, let's just go back to doing what we have always done'. But what they refuse to see is that they weren't even giving the new thing a proper go. They went through the motions, but the whole time they were sure it was going to go poorly, they were resisting it all the way, and thus of course it failed. And they were (and continue to) ignore all the ways in which the old way was broken (often because it worked for them, and they just chose to believe that everyone who said it wasn't working was mistaken).
Luckily for us (as both a species and a society), change is like a pile of sand. You keep putting 'one more grain' on top, and eventually it just can't handle the weight and starts spilling down. Time marches on, and we keep seeing these things happen that are just 'one more' instance of a stuck system...and eventually the whole thing will explode!
The best way to be able to navigate the changes is to start familiarizing yourself with what is coming. If I know I am taking a trip to a foreign country, where they speak a whole different language, I have a few options. I can ignore the language differences, hoping that I can find people who speak my language or trusting that I can point and grunt my way to understanding. Or, I can start learning phrases and words that I know I will help me out. Even a few phrases can make a huge difference, and when the time for the trip comes, the person who has made an effort to learn a little will find it much easier to get around than the person who refused to consider the language barrier.
Learning a language isn't easy, and you will make mistakes. You will mess up your words, and end up saying something horribly embarrassing at least once, but people who see you trying will normally be happy to help you (and correct you!) and rarely get mad if you are honestly trying. And this same thing happens when you are giving a proper effort to explore any new territory...the people there are infinitely more likely to be helpful and forgiving if you are open and earnest instead of simply trying to prove to them that the way YOU do things is right (and thus they are obviously wrong).
We often think of the fool as being a simpleton, as not being aware of what is going on around them. But historically a fool (or jester) was the one who had a firm grasp on the political situation, and who was often the only one who could navigate the political waters and speak the truth (even if they did it in a way that appeared humorous).
A fool also has the ability to mock themselves, to see their own flaws (or strengths) in an inverted way. They can twist things about and challenge their own viewpoint....and even if they end up sticking with their perspective, they have seen the world as different, for a moment, and that lets them better understand how other people might see things.
Change is coming, it is the one constant, and I firmly believe we are poised on the precipice of big changes. The more we start exploring new concepts with curiosity instead of closed minds and fear, the better we will face these changes, and the less upset our lives will be as things progress. Evolution and change are a part of life, the choice is adapt or be replaced....the choice is yours.
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