Slouched on the bean bag, Sindhu wonders “How will it be?” Mindlessly playing on her iPad, she looks at her bestie and says, “Harish, do you think we will be happy?” She goes on, “I mean, look at my mom and dad, they don’t like their jobs, they are constantly stressed out, teachers keep telling us that the future is so much tougher, competitive, yada yada. I can already feel the stress. I am soooo lost!” Equally clueless, Harish persuades with confidence and clarity, “Sindhu, let us cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Can it really be that simple? Can we procrastinate our future readiness with the hope that things will somehow, magically just work out for us? Is hope the best strategy we have? Being ready for the future is not the mere act of crossing the bridge when we arrive at it. It is an art to be nurtured when we are as young as our teen years (our habit-forming years).
Let us take a step back and answer a quintessential question. What does the future look like? The answer — no one knows. We can only make educated estimates of what it may look like. With the nature of jobs changing drastically, computers and software becoming our new co-workers, we will only hit a dead end with this question.
Here is an interesting perspective to explore. Instead of asking, “What careers would exist in the future?”, let us rephrase it to: “What competencies do I need to be ready for the future?”
The ‘Yellow Collar World’ or the ‘Future of work’, has smaller teams with higher accountability, a lot more technology, information overload, where everyone is an innovator kind of world. This whole new world needs five main competencies. Knowing these will help you prepare for them starting now.
General competencies
Knowing how money is created and flows in society, personal money management (starting with your pocket money). Everything is news — global, national and local updates — as long as they are authentic. Knowing how to use the digital world responsibly and handling the side-effects of the same.
Personal competencies
Developing effective habits with knowing how to create a new habit and letting go of a useless habit. Setting your own goals in a manager-less future of work, organising and working to achieve them in slimmer timelines. Personal branding will no longer be only for the celebs.
Entrepreneurial competencies
Identifying and solving problems, innovation on an almost daily basis, design thinking, understanding business strategies, sales and marketing. Whether you run a business or not, being entrepreneurial in thinking makes you ‘lit’.
Wellness competencies
Knowing to love and manage your body, uplifting self-image and maintaining it, thinking, eating and exercising right, understanding your own emotions and being able to manage them when alone and in the social scenario. Self-defence along with developing all seven multiple intelligences (Ref: Howard Gardner) is a must have.
Social competencies
Right brain intelligence like empathy, people skills, conflict management, effective communication, team synergy, looking at the big picture and the social impact of our decisions and actions.
The time to start creating a #FutureReadyMe is now. For all teenagers, the future is out there. For you. Make it the world you want it to be. Make it the world you want to live in. Know how future-ready you are today with this simple quiz: https://bit.ly/2sTjCv3.
The writer is CEO, I Love Mondays. me@malamarymartina.com
