Introduction: Mindshift: Your Ctrl+Alt+Delete Opportunity

Your calling in life is not a goal to be achieved, but a gift to be received. This is your time.

We are living through volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) times. While disruption has been constant throughout history, it's arguably accelerating today, driven by a confluence of new technologies, political and social upheaval, and a series of black swan events that keep piling up.

Thriving through this disruption, and all future disruptions, all comes down to your mindset: how quickly you're able to shift and get ahead of the next disruption event.

Your mindset shapes how you see the world-how you perceive the things that happen to and around you and the stories you tell yourself to help make sense of them. Your mindset determines how you process information and events, accept things to be true or false, and react to situations. How you visualize tomorrow is also part of your mindset, and your mindset very much defines the role you play in reinforcing the status quo or shaping the future.

According to psychologist Shawn Achor, "It's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality."1 How you react to challenges is really a matter of perspective. "We don't see the world as it is, we see the world as we are," Anaïs Nin wrote in her 1961 work Seduction of a Minotaur.2 Our mindset can prevent us from seeing the world for what it could truly be, because it's human nature to see the world, the course of events, and the potential of disruptions as defined by our own life experiences. In times of great change, we tend to yearn for what we've become familiar with, and we lean on our survival instincts, often trying to beat back the transformations underway. But we can choose to embrace the change by changing our minds.

If we want to seize the day with disruption, to capitalize on a wealth of opportunities it offers, we need to change our mindset.

We need a mindshift.

What does mindshift mean? It's the opening of your mind and heart. It's your ability to see something new or differently; to learn and unlearn; to react creatively in times of change.

It's rewiring your inputs, expanding your horizons, rekindling your purpose, abandoning your comfort zone, and reimagining outcomes. It's exploring the art of the possible.

Over time, mindshifting becomes a discipline, a way of life. Mindshifting isn't a matter of just having a big aha realization. It takes intention and a set of practices for opening our minds and stretching our vision. The good news is, those practices are a lot of fun, and the results you'll see will be more than worth the effort. We are in a period of great opportunity.

Welcome to the Novel Economy: If There Ever Was a Time for a Mindshift.

During times of disruption, we often don't see how profoundly our world is being shaken up. What lies underneath appears like life as usual, but is actually an altered slate of human expectations, behaviors, and aspirations.

I began using the term the Novel Economy in 2020, as a way to jolt people's awareness about the degree of disruption and transformation we were seeing at the time. Through my work tracking disruptive technology trends, I had detected that we were reaching a tipping point of some kind, with so much roiling our lives: wars, disinformation and psyops, societal division, a global pandemic, climate change.

"A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels."

-Albert Einstein

This new economy necessitates invention, innovation, and imagination. And it's a time when leaning on past assumptions, processes, and playbooks will only impede our ability to rise to the unique opportunities presented.

This Is Our Ctrl+Alt+Delete Moment

It's understandable that during times of disruption, many desire a return to normal. But we shouldn't be looking for normal or even a "new normal" or the future "next normal." Normal was the problem to begin with. Normal is striving for mediocrity, settling for the status quo. It's preserving the sacred cows.

If we instead embrace the new, we can achieve the extraordinary. We don't have to settle for the same old ways of living and working. Instead, we can seize this Ctrl+Alt+Del moment and reboot for a better future. This requires new leaders who can light our way through these uncharted paths.

If Not You, Then Who?

Have you ever hoped for, visualized, or even prayed for a desired outcome?

"Leaders are fascinated by the future, restless for change, and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. They are never satisfied with the present, because in their head they can see a better future, and the friction between what is and what could be burns them, propels them forward."

-Steve Jobs

Have you helped loved ones, friends, or colleagues, not just because you felt sympathetic but because you genuinely believed that you could?

Have you ever read, seen, or heard something that made you think differently or choose another course of action?

If so, you have what it takes to be a leader in creating a better future, maybe much more so than you may think.

Now ask yourself: have you ever not pursued an idea because you felt like an imposter or that you weren't creative enough? If this is also true, congratulations; you're human. You're also still a leader and still very much the person who is needed for this moment.

Since 2020, disruption has left a deep mark on all of our lives-permanently linking our memories to visceral, emotional experiences. So many of us lost loved ones due to COVID-19. All of us have stories of struggle, learning, and triumph to tell. As we find our way forward, there is a unique opportunity to draw on these experiences to help shape a better future. The past is undoubtedly eroding. Many are looking around and saying, rightfully, "WTF!?" Some are fighting back; others are not paying attention or are doing their best to ignore the disruption. What about you?

You can either wait for someone to tell you what to do or believe in something and decide to go make it happen. It's up to you.

There are so many roles to play in reimagining the world. It may seem daunting, but the great thing is you don't need all the answers; curiosity is more than enough to get started. Every mindshift begins with a spark of curiosity. It could be as small as a "what if. ?" or a "why haven't we.?" or a "why couldn't we.?" As the saying goes, "If you want a better answer, ask a better question."

The spark ignites when you accept that you are not a victim of circumstances but are instead in control of what you do about them. You become convinced that you can help, that you can contribute, in some way, to an outcome you believe in. Of course, some things you can control, and others you can't. You can't control a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. You can't control climate change. You can't control exponential technologies. You can, however, control how you attach meaning to these things and how you feel about and react to them. You can control what matters to you. You can control the intentional steps you take toward something different, better.

Your Destiny Isn't a Matter of Chance, but a Matter of Choice

I love the movie Mr. Destiny. Released in 1990, it stars Michael Caine and Jim Belushi. Its tagline asks the audience, "Would you give up everything you have for everything you've ever wanted?"

Belushi's character, Larry Burrows, lives what looks to be a normal, happy life. He married his childhood sweetheart and holds a seemingly good job as a sporting goods executive. At the same time, he's consumed by a painful memory: striking out in the last at-bat of his high school baseball championships. "What if I just hit that ball?" he constantly asks himself. He thinks his life might have been so much better.

On the eve of his 35th birthday, Larry's battered old station wagon breaks down in a dark alley, for which, of course, he blames not having hit that ball. He heads to a bar around the corner, where he chats with the bartender, Mike, played by Caine. Larry unloads about all of the problems in his life and how they're due to that infamous strikeout. Leaving the bar, Larry sees that his car has been towed, and he has to walk home. Shockingly, he sees that people other than his family are living in his house. Just then bartender Mike arrives-this time as a cab driver-and offers to take Larry to his new home. Mike is Mr. Destiny, and he's decided to turn back the tape on Larry's life.

The new house is a mansion. Larry also learns he's now president of his company, he owns a collection of classic automobiles, and he is married to Cindy Jo, the beauty queen of his high school. In this new version of his life, Larry not only connected with that baseball, but he hit it so hard that it shattered...