8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity: Century of the City State

LinkedIn gets me. Granted, I’ve taught it’s news aggregating algorithms a thing or two about me over the last ten years. This slide deck really struck me as it was presented in the recommended news on my LinkedIn home page. You didn’t think I got my news from an old media network on TV did you?

I hadn’t heard of Sparks & Honey, the New York advertising, marketing and PR agency that “Helps brands hijack, accelerate and ultimately ignite culture, ”  but I’m following them now on Twitter and Tumblr. They produced the trend report below (that found me).

Cultural change is driving our revolution and evolution and we’re at the very beginning. 3-D printing, the city-state, morphing education systems. We are restructuring how we are spending our time. As most generations have said before me, what an amazing world my children will experience. If you’re as excited about the future as I am, you’ll appreciate this overview of trends with a detail on the “Century of The City State”…

What is driving your path to the future? How is your world changing?

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Lessons from Ronald Reagan

Doing some housekeeping in an old organizer I came across an undated page of notes.  I had titled it "Ronald Reagan – Lessons" and it had this list:

  • Never Be mean spirited 
  • Know and have convictions
  • Strive to know and do the will of God.  
  • Bigotry and prejudice are the worst things a man can be guilty of.
  • Match optimistic temperament with bold, persistent action.  
  • Never slight or embarrass others. 
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Staying Visionary

Recently I attended a luncheon and had the pleasure of sitting next to Sandy Hilton, Manager of Community and Cultural Services for the City of Folsom.  I asked Sandy about her passion and about the City’s ability to be forward thinking.  Sandy shared her ideas about what she calls, “staying visionary,” and inspiring others to keep looking forward.  Her idea is to foster creativity and encourage looking forward without constraints – like budget or politics.  She said that she always asks “What if” and “Why not?”  and encourages others to do the same.  Marminsgroup_effective_human_folsom

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Pocast Interview with Andy Forbes

I had a fun and exciting interview with Andy Forbes about entrepreneurship, vision, passion and more at www.theandyforbesfiles.com/.  Please have a listen – it’s available via podcast as well as an mp3 download. It was fun to do and I hope I get to do it again.  Andy is an entrepreneur and currently engaged in a wonderful project at Nuride.  We met at linkedin.com where I’ve had tremendous success connecting with interesting people all over the world. 

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Stitches On The Baseball: You Must Have Vision

Baseball close up, pitcher in background representing character quality of vision The top ten hitters in Major League Baseball today have batting averages between .310 and .345.  They also have to average about three times at bat per game.  That means that the best of the best players (at bat) of our National pastime are successful at bat around 30% of the time, AND, they get a hit slightly less than once per game, on average.  It’s also said that a great hitter can slow down the ball in his mind, sometimes able to see the stitching on the ball, and therefore, the ball’s rotation.  Wow! Now that’s great vision!

Acting out of principle day-to-day takes the vision to see the outcome before you get there.  Often the better road is the harder one. The best of the best are still “failing” at the plate most of the time they’re there.  You have to visualize and you have to get up to bat.

I have had a number of recent reminders about the importance of being able to visualize your future.  Seeing where you are going in your imagination, FIRST, creates the belief that you will get there.

It’s harder than it sounds isn’t it?  You have to force yourself to schedule time to do just that  – dream – create the picture in your mind and connect your dream to what you do.

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Principled Rant

My thoughts of successfully blogging about character and principles as a path to effectiveness in living have led me through the blogoshpere.  I have traveled and read to attempt to answer the question, "How do I make this valuable to you, the reader?"

In my search I found the research report:  Behaviors of the Blogosphere: Understanding the Scale, Composition and Activities of Weblog Audiences(pdf) that includes the current top 25 blogs.  Many of these are feeds that I subscribe to for news, fun or geeky stuff such as Free Republic, Drudge Report, Fark.com, slashdot.org, and Gizmodo.  And then, also rounding out the top 25 are the sex and trashy blogs like Fleshbot (#3), Gawker (advertising a roast of Pamela Anderson) (#4),and  Defamer to name a few. 

I’m all for fun, enjoy breaking news and won’t criticize the
People/Us/Seventeen Magazine crowd. Perhaps there’s just room for an
active discussion concerning how to be more effective by living a high
character existence. 

I’ve learned, through trial and error – mostly error – that the forces by which we overcome being less effective than we’d like to be are guided by principles, ethics and roots of high individual character.   And, based on the horrible number of American corporate executives led though courthouse doors with their heads hanging low, has there ever been a better time to find our roots in the good earth of character?

There are fundamental Principles, such as Vision, Harmony, Order and Purpose that work in opposition to the common things that get in our way (like interruptions, unclear values, lack of organization and fatigue).  Are these not worthy of our attention?  Have you seen the results of acting outside of good character in your own life?  I sure have. 

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