Being a prophet of the future is simple:

Just look at our own history and see where we are in the cycle.

Replace history’s leaders, plagues, issues, trends, wars and moments with the names today and you’ll come across as a master clairvoyant.

But we have a moment right now to finally break the cycle. The world is in disorder—that much is clear. There’s chaos, uncertainty and yet, a tremendous number of strands of hope everywhere.

Let’s pull on those trends of hope… the great things we’ve done… the progress we’ve made… and yank at them until they become our reality.

This could be the time we do something right.

Am I too much of an optimist?

To that, I say, we’ve seen what the world looks like in the hands of realists and pessimists, but we’ve never seen it in the hands of optimists.

Why not start now?

Nora Roberts had some tremendous advice during a Q&A session when someone asked how she manages to juggle her career and her kids.

She explained the key to juggling is to know some balls are plastic and others are glass. The key is to catch the glass ones before they hit the floor.

Considering the climate of today and the endless demands put upon us, both in our personal and our work lives, this is some sound advice to reflect on.

On any given day, balls are going to drop.

I know for myself, when I look at what needs to get done, the first question I always ask is what can be ignored for now. Then I ask what battles am I really willing to fight today because, frankly, some aren’t worth it.

It’s finding out what are the glass balls that will shatter if they hit the floor, and which are the plastic ones that will bounce… maybe even roll away…and can be picked up later.

Not everything is made of glass and it’s a relief to be reminded of that.

The joy of being in a democratic nation is the ability to influence the outcome of the country through a single vote. While you hope your candidate, and the party they represent, will fair the best they can—one should never hold their breath.

My own history of voting was marked under the care of my parents, who openly supported the Liberal party. Who they vote for today is uncertain to me, although in the last election I recall my mother asking the polling station whether “None of the Above” was an option.

Since leaving the home and taking it upon myself to be informed, I have voted widely across the political spectrum in elections. My focus is always on my local candidate and who I feel would best represent the issues of my area, as opposed to the partisan politics many hold onto.

Let’s be clear: politics has, is, and will always, be a game for power.

And power has always been abused.

Lately, however, the game has become more overt… more front and centre… and certainly more manipulative.

The word ‘scandal’ has flooded the media so much, it doesn’t even register a reaction anymore. Parties aren’t even trying to create a vision for the future because they’re so busy pointing fingers at the past.

I can’t tell whether they want me to be jaded with the whole process that I merely give up, or randomly vote for anybody because it really won’t matter at the end of the day.

Right now, I would love to see a vision for the future.

Because all I see are people creating romanticized visions of the past.

I look at my keyboard and see layers of dust and dirt, compounded upon itself from a complete neglect of cleaning it the past year. It’s actually kind of disgusting.

Fingerprints.
Smudges.
Traces of cat hair.
Chip dust that worked its way in-between the homerow keys.

I see a black backdrop with white letter taunting me to write something new today. Something original.

The company lettering on the top right, a red to white transition, reminding me I paid dearly for this piece of hardware. Better hope it doesn’t break anytime soon.

These are the things that grab my attention.

But what I fail to see, and to remember, is this is the keyboard where several books have been written… scores of blog posts… emails that opened opportunities… and has been the conduit for my writing solace.

It’s not what it is, but what it has done and what it is capable of doing.

We’re so eager to look at what’s in front of us right now, we forget to see past the flaws and the supposed perfections.

Look at your hands right now.

Think of all the things your hands have done…
people they’ve held,
shoulders they’ve comforted,
textures they’ve felt

and ask, how many people really know their history?

What we fail to see is what actually makes us human. It’s the stories beyond our senses and we should do well to remember them.

According to the latest research in cosmology, our universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.

While we can argue about its origins, its expansion, its end and all matters of existence (and the existential crisis to go along with it), there’s something very practical we can envision.

A billion years is a LONG time to imagine.

To give context, a million seconds is 11 days.
A billion seconds… is 32 years.

Almost 14 billion years takes a stretch of the imagination and even then, it’s still hard to fathom.

However, let’s go on a thought experiment.

Imagine a painted line along one of the walls inside of your home. It doesn’t matter what room or what wall, we just want the image.

Now pretend that line is the timeline of the universe from its origins until now. Again, that line encompasses 13.8 billion years, so measure accordingly and figure out how long every millimeter (or inch) represents.

Next comes the fun part.

Think of everything you’re worried about—and I mean life-altering, the world is going to end type of worry.

How much of a mark will it register on that line?

Would it even show up?

You see, long after you and I are gone, that line will continue moving… continue being painted… because we are but a breath in the cosmos.

We are privileged to even look upon it.
To reflect on it.
To be a part of it.
Even for a brief moment.

Thinking upon it underscores our responsibility to share that message with others and appreciate we are all participants in the story of the universe.

Even if we played a minor role, we still played our part.

Three words that bring pain to my heart and soul, yet heard so often.

Alternate versions of this include,
“I don’t like reading.”
“I don’t read.”
“I’m not much of a reader.”

However, beneath the surface of the statement is something much deeper to evoke that response. To use the word hate on an action that has literally transformed society, pulling us into the Enlightenment Era, seems strange.

And yet, I get it.

With decreased attention spans and classrooms that prioritize standardized evaluations over discovery and joy, reading is a chore.

To make matters worse, we’ve created a hierarchy of what qualifies as “good” reading. We’ve absconded “real” books to the judgment of academics and literary critics who have cast aside the marvels of genre writers, graphic novels and children’s books (Ursula K. Le Guin had a lot to say on that matter).

We’ve also punished students by telling them what books they should be reading and forcing their compliance through… you guessed it… more testing, instead of letting them discover literature for themselves while challenging them along the way.

It’s no wonder why reading is met with such response from people. They find it frustrating, difficult and are made to feel stupid by it.

This is incredibly unfortunate with the multitude of outstanding books, authors and mediums in which to access them today.

Let’s be clear, there never was a golden era where everybody sat down and read.

But, we can usher in a new era where more people are willing to find solace in the written word. All it takes is a bit of encouragement and invitation to see what’s out there.

Just imagine for a moment, you woke up this morning and realized it was the second time you were living this day.

Forget the absurdity and hilarity of “Groundhog Day” for a moment and put yourself in a position to pretend it was real.

You get to live this day over again.

But there’s a small catch–the day still goes exactly as before and you still go through it in the same way.

Knowing you’ve done this before, what would you pay attention to this time?

How would you react to situations?

Would the way you see the world be any different?

What details did you miss from the first time around?

Time can be a great thief as we get older because we ignore the routine. The days meld together because we stop paying attention to our autopilot nature.

Knowing you get a chance to claim that time back, what would you do?

More importantly…

What details are you going to pay attention to today?

We’re doing a lot of talking,
a lot of shouting,
a lot of arguing.

We have a lot to say.

We have platforms to say it on.

We all have voices we’re choosing to use,
whether they’d be useful or not.

We all have an opinion.
We have an answer.
We cast judgement.

We want to be heard.

And yet…

We’re doing this without asking the obvious question:

Who is actually listening?

We would do well to just stop.
And listen.
Without response.

It’s the deepest voice inside of us. The one that calls out in whispers if we’re so inclined to attune ourselves to hear it.

Every day, it asks us to pay attention. To seek what is going on within ourselves and pushes us to be the truest version of who we were meant to be.

The first time we hear its faint beckoning becomes a life shattering moment.

Our initial response is fear. We know what it’s asking, but we cannot fathom actually following through on its request.

We demand more information.
More clarity.

We ask it to speak a bit louder and be a bit clearer, but when it doesn’t, we take the most logical next step and ignore it.

But the message has already infiltrated your mind, rooted itself and spread through your system so it cannot be forgotten. Since ignoring it becomes difficult, running from it becomes preferable.

We deafen ourselves to the call, run the opposite way and hope to find something better. Even if a new path is forged, filled with great things, there will always be the nagging pull of unfulfillment.

Until you are able to reconnect again with that call… that voice… that tiny whisper… you will never know what you were truly made to be. There will never be satisfaction.

However, once the acceptance comes into place and you are ready to listen, the challenge truly begins.

When you connect to who you are, working towards who you were called to be, a new force enters to stop you. Religious language calls this the devil (or demons), Steven Pressfield calls this ‘The Resistance,’ Kabbalists refer to it as Yetzer hara and many cultures and religions have other terms, but they’re all meant to describe one idea:

Being fully and truly who you are and what you are called to be is the most difficult, lifelong task a person can commit to because it will change the world.

The world doesn’t need another Howard Roark or John Galt treading on already worn down paths.

It needs great people. And great people only come when they are willing to choose the difficult path of connecting to who they were meant to be.

It needs soul… and it needs it here… and now.

Because we are capable of doing more than just holding onto them for a lifetime.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

It’s a quote I first read in a fortune cookie as a teenager and was confused by it. The meaning flew over my head and the person who tried explaining it to me couldn’t bring the clarity I needed.

After many well intended thoughts of my own, life experience has made this proverb perfectly clear.

Now, more than ever, we are in a world that requires action.

Wanting to do something and thinking you should do it doesn’t actually get the job done. Committing to an action, on the other hand, without consideration of how it might be received also fails to do the job.

We are communicating in a world of half-truths, misinterpretations, poor reading skills and loss of tone over the written word.

What you want to say… what you mean to say… what you hope to get across… becomes irrelevant if the receiver interprets it wrong.

Since you can’t control the receiver, the best you can do is make sure your actions, and your message, is loud and clear.

Because that’s the only thing which you will be judged by in the end.