2012 International Year of Resilience – top 10 Tips

In thinking about the year ahead I’ve decided to call it the International Year of Resilience. With everything that appears to be going on in the world there’s unlikely to be any quick fixes and so I provide for you here below, my Top 10 Tips for building more resilience into your lives. If you want to follow and contribute to the Twitter conversation, please use the following tag #2102YearofResilience. Tip 1: Be Productive, not ‘busy’ – you can’t be both.

 

From what I can tell, busy people are RARELY productive.  So stop doing all that stuff that makes no difference or even harms your productivity.

Tip 2: Understand that variations to your times-lines are likely.   This tip reminds us that what we expect might need to change because things might take longer or happen quicker than what we anticipate

Tip 3: If you haven’t thought about a preferred and realistic future outcome, you have no right to complain when you don’t like what you end up with.  Don’t think I need to explain that one further, though I know some people will complain all the same!

Tip 4: Planning is NOT execution.  But without it you might bet better off NOT executing at all.  So think and prepare is the key here because acting without thinking first might put you in a far deeper hole than you really want to be in!

Tip 5: Resilience means to have the ability to bounce back into shape.  From what?  From the ‘impact’ of unexpected outcomes and the occasional surprise.  The more you’ve thought about potential outcomes, the better prepared you are likely to be and the less need for resilience.

Tip 6: Make sure your expectations are realistic – base them on a wide array of information.  If your expectations are realistic you’ll rarely be disappointed but if not…

Tip 7: Your Future is a negotiation with yourself and with others.  It will almost NEVER arrive in a smooth & straight line Remember that there are stops and starts and diversions is every part of your life – that’s what makes your life interesting!

Tip 8: It might be frustrating but it’s probably not really a disaster.  This tip reminds us to take a breath remember tips two and seven, to then think about options and then act

Tip 9: Stuck? You can overcome your current challenges – It may need persistence and it might also require you to come up with a new plan.  Your future is about options.  People who lack resilience have often run out of options or (as is more likely) can’t think of alternatives.  Tip 10 can help here too

Tip 10: Ask for help and then ALLOW people to help you in ways that they know how.  One of the biggest hurdles we face is our belief that we have to do it alone.  For others they ask for help but then insist their ‘helpers’ do things the way they want them done.

So there’s my quick tips for 2012 International year of Resilience.  I’d love to find out your tips too so Twitter in at #rightfuture using the tag #2012YearofResilience

Can the Northern Territory beat the Drink ‘Bully Boys’?

Feb 19, 2013

Allow me to flag my bias from the outset – I’m tinged green. My shade of green recognises that my actions can contribute to a cleaner or more polluted world and that overall, I’d prefer the cleaner version. There’s a huge amount of data that shows that as a species we haven’t been looking after…

Read More >

The Future of Manufacturing is Upon us

Jan 31, 2013

The burgeoning shift in the manufacturing sector has been coming for a touch over a decade and has, I would suggest, now reached your front gate. A whole confluence of factors that include 3D printing, Crowdsourcing, home engineering and freescale Idea Generation leveraging social funding approaches means that EVERY single aspect of manufacturing as we…

Read More >

Ten Trends Shaping Government Today

Jan 24, 2013

Futurist Jack Uldrich has posted an item to his website looking at Ten Trends shaping Government today. Although each item is arguable and may be context specific depending on ‘which’ Government you’re looking at, it’s a good overall take suggesting things to do with data, the interenet, crowdsourcing and the like. However I think Jack…

Read More >

Should we really keep Politicians away from Scientists?

Jan 22, 2013

Sir Paul Nurse has ‘weight’ when it comes to science. His position is the head of The Royal Society in the United Kingdom and in an address in Melbourne he suggested that we need to keep politicians away from scientists: “It also emphasises the need to keep the science as far as is possible from…

Read More >

2013 will be the International Year of Crowdsourcing

Dec 30, 2012

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to call 2013. After saying 2011 would need to be the International Year of Resilience (much still needed) and 2012 the International Year of Problem Solving I’m thinking now that Crowdsourcing (the idea of seeking assistance beyond your own capabilities from the ‘crowd’ often through social media)…

Read More >

Five Emergent Ideas for 2013 you won’t find on any ‘Trends for 2013’ list (just yet)

Dec 19, 2012

There’s lots of talk about ‘next big things for 2013’ right now, just as there has been in past years. Rather than join the cadre of prognosticators, trend experts and (not so) disguised salespeople laying claim to knowing about what ‘will’ be for the coming 12 months, I offer an alternative approach – here’s five…

Read More >

Does the Mayan Calendar recommend opening your Christmas present early?

Dec 16, 2012

Here it comes, the 21st of December 2012 – the last known recorded date on the Mayan Calendar and for years people have wondered why the Mayans never got around to extending beyond 2012. What did the Mayans know that we didn’t and should we be thinking about opening our Christmas presents early this year?…

Read More >

Five Degrees Hotter? A quick reality check

Dec 9, 2012

As a Strategic Futurist I love a good scenario like the rest of us in the futures community. And where I choose to diverge from many in my field is in the pragmatic applications of futures and foresight thinking. Scenarios left as ‘what ifs…?’ are at best, theoretical. All of my clients and most of…

Read More >

2013 Trends – fair or fantasy?

Dec 4, 2012

Over at The Australian Strategic Planning Institute an observation has been made about the so called Top Ten Trends for 2013 and whether, with deeper consideration, the trends suggested deserve their place as new, or emerging or whether in fact, by relying upon them you might be chasing a ship that has long since sailed.…

Read More >

Open, Closed, Free or Fare?

Dec 2, 2012

Creative Commons is an approach that attempts to ensure that information in its various forms, can be shared by others for free. That is my take on it at least. And over time we’ve seen some major organisations shape the idea of ‘free’ to ‘free with conditions’ and ‘free for a fee’. The last one…

Read More >