“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place.”
Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”
Welcome to the modern world. Where technology is changing everything at an ever-increasing rate of change. Where the skills of five years ago are antiquated and your position is constantly threatened by the new blood in the organization, the ever-evolving corporate landscape, and hide-bound tradition among leadership in the ivory towers not seeing the new world until it is too late.
You are older than you have ever been.
Your body and mind and home are slowly and inevitably decaying as the entropy of the Universe ever increases.
Chaos is the natural state towards which things deteriorate, and it requires energy to counter it, to keep the darkness at bay.
Do you give in? Or do you fight it, pushing the borders of night and weakness and incompetence back?
Do you strive, or give in?
Technology creates change and disruption but also opportunity.
New skills create new ways to see the world and the opportunities presented. Half the current jobs available did not exist two generations ago.
Just because we don’t have the metabolism of a teenager does not mean we are doomed to be 400 pounds and unable to walk up the stairs.
Pushing back against the gravity that pulls us down develops strength, fighting the entropy creates pockets of order and improvement that may only last for a few decades but are beautiful to behold.
Run as fast as you can to stay in place, then run smarter to move ahead.