Agile Living
Every era has it’s own challenges and opportunities, and in many ways we have life easier than any generation before us, but there are some unique realities we’re dealing with now, which generations before didn’t have to deal with. Consider this…
- Americans have access to over 65 000 iphone apps, over 10 500 radio stations, over 5 500 magazines and over 200 cable TV networks. And each of those networks in turn grants you access to millions and millions of choices or products and experiences.
- We will produce more new information this year than all of the previous 5,000 years worth of information put together.
- The average worker holds nine jobs by the time he or she reaches age 32.
Technological advances, globalization and abundance of information and choices have made our work and lifestyles fast-paced, highly interconnected, complex and competitive, burdened with too information, choices and change, and pressured by relentless performance expectations and uncertainty. To try to resist these changes or to try to increase our control over our work and life is already quite futile, and will become even more so.
In fact the word “control” is key here.
Technology and globalization are rapidly introducing factors that decrease our sense of control over our environment, and as the world becomes more interconnected, the traditional control strategies we’ve been taught to use aren’t working so well, and we’re dealing with more and more uncertainty as a result. All of this makes for a lifestyle with the potential for very high levels of stress and fear – a lifestyle that demands Agile Living Strategies.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “Agile” as:
…marked by ready ability to move with quick, easy grace, as in an “agile dancer”
…having a quick, resourceful and adaptable character, as in “an agile mind”
What if we could enjoy dancing with life?
Like an agile dancer that moves and changes easily, to create something beautiful, Agile Living is about having a mind and lifestyle that’s flexible and strong and moves and changes easily to create something beautiful. In Agile Living we’re constantly finding the stiff parts where we’re not dancing well with life, the parts where we’re rigid or constricted or weak, and stretching, strengthening and limbering them up again, and returning to our naturally agile, resourceful, multi-dimensional state, where we loosen up, relax and begin to move easily through and with life, and of course enjoy the dance along the way.
Embrace variety, change and uncertainty
Agile Living is about giving up your belief in the validity and importance of social labels, rules and restrictions and certainty, leaving behind the boxes and ladders and welcoming variety, change and uncertainty into your life. It’s about creating a multi-dimensional, flexible and resourceful mindset and lifestyle and becoming and creating more of the unique shapes and patterns that you love.
We’re living in an incredibly interesting and dynamic time. The opportunities far outweigh the challenges and offer us greater freedom than ever before. This may well be the greatest time to be alive – if you’re willing to develop the Agile Living Strategies that will enable you to overcome the challenges, take up the opportunities and thrive.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” ~Charles Darwin
If you’d like to become more able to adapt quickly, gracefully and resourcefully in your work or other areas of your life so that you can experience, create and be more of what you love, then:
- Start with reading this short story I wrote and illustrated, about Agile Living.
- Read the free articles on the blog and listen to the free teleseminars I’ve made available.
- Find out more about Resource Mining Sessions, where I can work with you one-to-one to help you become more agile in a particular area of your life or work.
- Find out more about The Bottom-line Bookclub, where I help people to learn and change more easily by sharing the best ideas and change tools for Agile Living from the top personal development books.
