This is not a Vacation, this is an Emigration into the Future

About building a new life in this new place, that once was “future”, and is now everyone’s new home.

You have probably been on vacation before. Gone somewhere new. With new colors, sounds, smells, foods, people... Maybe you chose something somewhat familiar, stayed within the cultural context of your continent, maybe you have ventured further, and even been adventurous and gone somewhere truly “foreign”.

Vacations are a great way to explore something new, to venture into the unknown, to leave your comfort zone for a moment.

But only for a moment.

When you go on vacation, there is still the safety of your home to return to.

Not when you are emigrating.

Not when you leave your home behind, dissolve what you had, let go of the known tomorrow, and move to an entirely new place.

This current situation is not a vacation.

There is no safe home to return to. Yesterday is gone.

We are witnessing a mass emigration into the future.

Emigration can be a scary experience (I experienced it a few times myself).

It’s easy to freak out. Moving to a new place is among the top 10 stressful experiences for people (so it’s key to keep calm).

In this case, even worse, most people did not want to leave the past. Did not want to leave the life they had lived in somewhat perpetual (and comfortable) continuance. It nearly feels like a involuntary exile.

The situation forced the move, forced the transformation, and it will take a moment for most, to come to a place of acceptance.

Once you have arrived there, you can begin to build your new life.

When you move to a new place, you have to get all your affairs in order.

A New “Home”

You might have gone to the same office for many years, or had the same tools you use in your work available to you. Now, we have moved — at least partially — into virtual worlds.

You will need to find yourself a new “home”. A new comfort in moving between physical and digital worlds. While eventually, we will likely be out and about again, and many will return to their offices, being virtual will be more and more common. So settle in, learn the tools, make yourself comfortable. You now get to work from a new “office”.

New Ways of Making a Living

You might have been used to income streams that were tied to an “in-person” appearance, or cash cows with a certain service or product line. Maybe it even mattered more that you had your butt in the seat (or marketplace), than it did, how you actually performed, or what quality you delivered. Maybe life and your business were comfortably on autopilot.

In even a partially virtual world, we require new ways of adding and tracking value. So how do you make a living in a virtual and planetary world? How relevant is what you did in the past in this new world in the first place? Is it still relevant? You might have to let go of what you knew how to do, and orient yourself anew — on the needs of your customers. “When in doubt, focus out”: What do people out there actually need right now? How can you or your business support them now and going forward? How can you offer new ways of bringing your skills and services to the situation? What value can you learn to provide?

New Things to Learn

In the old world, you went to school, learned your job, and then did it. There might have been some new technologies to get used to, or maybe even some advanced leadership training, but for the most part, learning was not a big part of the job.

In this new world of volatility, what you learned yesterday might already be obsolete today. In a world of uncertainty, learning is the new knowing. When things are complex, learning is the new job. Fortunately, in the world we live in, and as long as you have an internet connection, learning has never been easier — and you don’t even have to do it alone.

New Communities to Build

While much of your community still consists of the same people, they are also not the same people. We are all transforming right now. People you “knew” yesterday, might be triggered in very different ways, evolving differently than you. Maybe you even wonder who they are. Be extra kind. Nobody knows what is happening in the future, and many have a hard time with this situation, are maybe still in shock and denial.

Emigrating requires meeting new people, building new networks. New communities of learning. New communities of practice. Be open and reach out to strangers. This is a great time. Who are people out there in this new world that you would like to meet? What communities can you connect with? And who do you want to be in these new communities?

New Ways to Be You

We tend to think of our identity as relatively stable. While our cells change in every moment, our emotions change, our thoughts change, the majority of ourselves is perceived as somewhat stable. We notice jumps in the timeline in retrospect (how much different your life was at 7, 14, 21,….), but for the most part, we are somewhat static about our idea of who we are.

When you find yourself in new surroundings, your identity is constantly challenged. Who are you going to be in situations you never encountered before? Are you held back by fear, or motivated by who you could become in any moment? What values guide you? In a new world, you get to spend extra time reviewing yourself in every moment to find out what works and what doesn’t. Build or review your personal development practice — and, above all, be kind to yourself. Don’t punish yourself for who you are not, focus on who you could become.

New Visions of Tomorrow

What you imagined to be the future now looks different. What you had planned and dreamed about might no longer apply.

In new surroundings, you also get to dream anew. Spend some extra time imagining what the future could be, for you, in this new context, and even for the world. Imagination is now more important than ever. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t build it.

A new Purpose

This new world was thrust upon everyone. You might not have chosen to live in this new world. You might even still hold on to the past, maybe desperately want this vacation to end. Maybe you are angry your old familiar world was taken away, leaving you unprepared. But the context has changed already, whether you like it or not. Once you have surrendered into this new world, you now also have the opportunity to find yourself a new purpose.

New places bring new opportunities. Release yourself of what has been. Be curious about this new world. What could it look like? What future could we create as a result of this transformation? What are some of the possible scenarios of what could happen? What inspires you? What need out there is vexing you? What matters to you now?

Your New Life is Already Waiting for You

You are in the new place. We all are. There is no going back. The sooner you accept that this is not a vacation, the sooner you can let go of the tension of “waiting it out”. The sooner you realize that you are now in a new (and maybe very foreign) world, the sooner you can shift and get busy designing your new life.

This new future might seem like a stranger place than ever, but a new life is already waiting for you in this foreign land. So let’s settle in, and start creating it…

If you enjoyed these thoughts, please take a moment to clap here (you can up to 50 times) — it will give me lots of delicious dopamine, and therefore more reason to continue creating.

Resources for leaders in these times: http://luman.io/create-the-future

The future belongs to those who create it. That is why I work with change leaders and their teams to create future-ready cultures and organizations…. Through my work with LUMAN and other projects, I provide frameworks and operating metaphors to support leaders around the world in their individual evolution and in growing innovation capacity in their teams and organizations. I have worked with startups, NGOs and with global brands in a variety of industries around the world. More at http://philiphorvath.com.