Share YOUR wisdom

I was invited recently a talk and book launch of Chip Conley in New York. I am taking advantage of meeting all cool and interesting people that are around me where I can learn from them. New York is a great place where innovative individuals are gathering, meeting, and sharing. 

It was a special, rainy, dreary day in New York – a day that I would like to stay home with a nice book and a hot chocolate. But the interesting and intriguing topic kept me going. “Wisdom @work – the making of modern elder.”

Questions that are super important to all of us were addressed:

-          How long will you live and work? We all live longer, with healthy diets and being more active which then also means that we eventually will work longer. A few years ago, people around 65 would move into a retirement home rather than today the age has shifted to 85. People are more independent and the retirement age for some does not exist. We keep living and working longer.

-          How much time do you have left? In our parents’ life time, they would typically stay in one organization, being loyal, working until their retirement. Times have changed, and younger generations tend to have up to four or more different careers; let alone many different organizations they are working with. If we look at resumes with candidates with 10+ years with one organization, we question their curiosity and flexibility. With living longer, we have more time to grow and learn but also do something more meaningful to us. 

-          Are you growing old or are you growing whole? For me this is a very important aspect of my growing, learning and becoming wiser, hopefully. My mantra is lifelong learning (L3). If I do not learn, I feel I am useless. Chip certainly confirmed that; Millennials can share with us their DQ = Digital Intelligence; we can learn from them and more so learn together with them. The main ingredient is our curiosity and willingness to be open and to create an open mindset.

It was certainly an eye-opening event where my ideas and assumptions of our times were fully confirmed. Life long learning never stops. We have wise eyes and become wisdom workers providing our wisdom to younger generations. I for sure, love to work with younger generations: they are challenging me, I can learn from them, I am immersed in new technology and ideas, and I am part of the bigger good.

For me, what I certainly took away from this inspirational talk, is that I am on the right path with learning and growing and not being stagnant. It is okay to think outside of the box and be non-traditional and non-conformant. This is what we need in our ever-fast-moving time.

As an executive coach, I want to make sure that my clients are being prepared and pushed to be as curious and inquisitive as possible. We all need to have dreams we want to fulfill. Dreams can be crazy, but they are our dreams and with a little help from a coach and the universe they might become true if we believe in them and us.

In summary, sometimes, when we think, we want to stay home, we must push ourselves harder and something magical and for sure thought provoking can happen. I am very happy that I convinced myself to be out in the rainy weather. Wisdom is around us and needs to be shared.