When I got my master's degree over twenty years ago I did some research, wrote some articles and helped my clients come to terms with the changing world of work, which at that time was just getting started with all the changes we are now facing. But in most cases my clients didn't want to address this or simply wanted to stay the same, skate through this upheaval, as best they could, and then retire when they got to retirement age.
Then I wrote a book, Second Act Soul's Calls - Your Guide for the Re-Invention of your life at Midlife and Beyond with Passion, Purpose and Possibilities - published in 2013 - which was about how your soul has a plan for you and that at midlife you could hear this call and make some changes and create a new life for yourself, but again, most people not only didn't want to hear this call, but actively remained the same, by continuing to do what they had been doing all along. But the world continues to change and we either change with it or become like the dinosaurs - those giant beasts that roamed the world several million years ago and are now extinct.
You Can Only Change What You Do - Not Who You Are
BTW, I don't believe that people can change their basic personality type or temperament, what they can do is change what they do in relation to the world around them. In fact, I would say that we all need to know and understand our basic temperament and personality type. Once we know and accept this we can begin to react to the world as it changes and do it in a way that fits who we are at a soul level. For example, I am an ENFP - an Advocate for others - on the Myers-Briggs personality scale - which also makes me an Idealist temperament. Therefore, for me to know and pay attention to how the world of work has changed radically in the last twenty years and especially since the Pandemic, and then write about this, fits who I am at a deep, soul level. It's what I do.
But What About You?
What do you do? What changes have you made to address the changes in the world of work? Or have you just put your head in the sand and tried to hang on - until retirement, as I said. But retirement is not the same either - people are living longer and they need something to do other than go on a perpetual vacation. When retirement was first developed back in the 1930,s most people only lived a few years past it and were often not particularly healthy - but the average retired person today is very healthy and can expect to live another twenty or thirty years. What have you noticed about the world of work in the last ten to fifteen years that you know is going to change that world for you and others.
Last night on PBS, there was a show on all the technological innovations that have taken over the world of work. In one, a person was getting surgery and the "surgeon'" was a robot. In this show the robot was monitored by a real surgeon - but my guess is that within a short time, the person watching the surgery will no longer be a medical doctor, but a trained technician and that he or she will be using technology to check to make sure the robot is doing it right, but that at some point, sooner rather than later, it will all be technolgy with only a limited number of technicians keeping things going for patients getting surgery.
Now What? Now What, Indeed!
What I see with this is that what the world of work is going to need in the future is a whole lot of technicians doing the work that in the old days - in 2021 - was done by educated and trained individuals who used their training and education to do the job, not a computer program, but their own brain. But with all these technological changes, the human brain may become obsolete.
Blessings
Lorraine
A Learning and Growing Resource - annlbanfield@gmail.com
"You have to see it to believe it and take action to make it real."
