Are you ready for the impending identity crisis? The realisation that YOU are not your job or what you do?
Suggest everyone take stock on this in the near-future, and ask yourself what you actually DO for a living. What of those things could be augmented, or better done, by a machine? Will this kind of ‘work’ still be valuable if you put your time into it? I say this because we are all about to have a lot more time on our hands, without some of the busy-ness of business as we know it today.
Unfortunately, too often our perception of identity (professional and personal) is determined by what we DO and not who we ARE.
Consider some people you have met in life with an attitude or narrative something like: “My value can be seen by the size of my office. My title tells you who I am. The authority of my rank shows my personal power. I am an executive, so I have executive presence…”
At times in our careers we slowly fall into the trap of subtly believing such things define our identity… until all that is gone and you realise you are the same person with the same fundamental strengths and weaknesses underneath. This is irrespective of what you can or cannot do, or whether another person (or AI or machine) can do it better than you.
You realise that actually none of those attributes that you thought were your ‘identity’ really matter in the long run, aside from raising eyebrows or opening doors of entitlement. This is true for retirees. It’s true for people who change profession. It’s true for those who become unemployed. It will soon be true for many people as they realise that what they can do, or have been doing, is no longer very valuable.
However, as a self-learning human algorithm you ALWAYS have untapped capability and potential.
Which begs the question: where are you putting your stock at this time in your career? Is it in your being, or in your doing?
That way of thinking — putting stock in your career and what you do — might actually be limiting you from doing the powerful work to grow as a person — as a being. To no longer rely on labels, accolades or trappings, but to develop your personal potential through a constant quest of learning.
Living is found in learning. Learning about this wonderful and awful and challenging experience on Earth. Learning about others. Learning about who you are. Learning how to be you. Learning how to be.
Never mind the machines.
‘Be.’
