If you are like most people, you are feeling the earth shifting under your feet, unsure about your next step and whether it will land on solid ground. Having a sense of security is becoming an elusive memory. Uncertainty rules the day. Even if you are in a very secure situation, you cannot but help feel the whisper of the winds of big change. It will touch us all, in some way.

This present time is offering a new experience that makes most of us feel uncomfortable. What will tomorrow bring is a question that is on the lips of many.

No matter where you are placed, now is the time for re-evaluation. To ignore re-evaluation is to put your head in the sand and pretend that all will return to the previous place where you felt safe and certain.

The only thing we can count on right now, is the uncertainty. Imagine living with massive uncertainty as a familiar? Part of the everyday fabric of life? What adjustments would you need to make?

Life rarely goes back. The future does not look like the present. We have a confluence of events that guarantees massive change. The breakdown in the financial system is only one of the events. The extreme stress our thoughtless actions have placed on the environment is another event that cannot be ignored. Where we place our value has to change. The vast difference in rich and poor is creating fault lines that will not be placated by mere diplomacy and revised boundary lines. This has to change.

From the place of the symbolic, everything is perfect. The earth is screaming to be heard. No longer content with a whisper, her song is enraged. Humanity has for too long been raping and pillaging in a greedy frenzy. We have come far, and yet are now at the epi-centre of our rebellious teens– self-centred, narcissistic and ravenous for more stuff. It is time to grow up. To take the mantle of the adult, responsible, considerate, desiring to invest in the future. To become integrity architects in our lives and businesses.

No matter who you are, now is the time to act.

1. We must each of us start with a radical review of self. What is the truth about us now, in this moment?  What exactly is our current circumstance?

Are we healthy?

Are we vital?

Do we have any self regulation around consumption of everything-food, alcohol, shopping, TV, Social Media?

How are our finances?

What is our reputation and personal brand?

Are our relationships in order?

What mess are we ignoring in our own lives?

How do we imprint on our environment?

How educated are we? Enough? Too much?

Our career…have we adapted ourselves to the future?

Do we offer value that meets the future?

Have we branded ourselves so that people who need to know, know?

Do we have resilience built into our systems? Our selves?

Are we buried in patterns that keep up asleep at the wheel? Too much TV, Social Media, trashy magazine’s, food and alcohol?

Do we lie to ourselves and others?

What are we not telling the truth about?

Have we seen a drop in business, not too serious but going down?

Or are we in serious trouble, be it financially, health wise, in our relationships, or at work?

Are we content to stay silent or simply complain when we see injustice? Or do we act?

2. Starting with the NOW, and looking ourselves clearly in the eye, we move to consider our assets.

What are our assets – both physical and non physical? Bricks and mortar, debts. Plus our knowledge, experience and abilities? Our energy, and health?

What is our value to the world, and how do we express that uniquely?

Does our value offering meet the needs of now and the future? Are we actually redundant? Extraneous – doing work that contributes either little value or is no longer valued, or rapidly loosing value?

What assets do we have that we cannot see has value? Ask others.

What are people constantly acknowledging you for?

What if you could offer your assets to 10 times the people you do so now? 100 times? 1000 times?

How would you do this? Would your systems cope with the increase? Do you have that level of adaptability and flexibility?

How are you leveraging technology?

What changes have you made in the last 5 years? Low to medium change probably means you are likely to be left behind sooner than later.

What assets can you deploy now that ensures a healthy future beyond your own self?

3. And looking to the future. There are incredible opportunities, whole new industries about to be birthed, new tools and technology to be created, implemented and supported.

How engaged are you in the conversation of the future? Are you even looking? And if so, is your view clean and clear? Do you constantly look at the future and your current value offering and ask if one needs the other? How much time do you send with friends and colleagues discussing future scenario’s?

What opportunities are you not seeing?

Marrying your highest value offering with the needs of the future will ensure you have a vital future! That you will be sort out, and paid well.

Whether you are an employee, or self employed, you simply cannot afford to NOT look at these questions.

“Nothing happens until something moves- quoted Albert Einstein.”

Taking Intentional Action Now can look like;

*rebranding yourself in your career

*moving home to a more sustainable environment

*learning a new skill

*creating a new business product

*finding an employer who matched your values

*re-tooling your home to be more green

*selling your car for a more economical one

*getting out of debt quickly

*getting into health

*getting into community work

*using technology in a smarter way

*volunteering to causes that speak to you

*getting fully into the game

*learning what happens in the full circle of the products you buy and use, and taking responsibility for that

*researching the future trends and adapting yourself to meet the future head on

*becoming politically active and standing up for the wrongs you see, every time. You can be part of the change.

Ask yourself “Do you want to be left behind, or are you up for the future and all the opportunity it holds? Are you OK with the direction of your leaders? If not, what are you doing about it?”

No one is exempt. Change is the only constant, and right now the world needs us to act, to take action, to get into the arena of our own lives and the future possibility of the lives of our grandchildren.