Most of the times in which my grandparents lived were marked by a sense of a stable culture. This is especially true for their professional lives. The probability that they remained in one organization for all their working life was much higher than today.

Life seemed to work along the lines of perpetual progress, the centrality of control and authority, as well as given rules. It became a basic assumption that life would remain like that.

Since then change remained a constant but changed its velocity. Change has become the central force that shapes our lives and consciousness. The pandemic making this even more visible with rules that change daily and with rules that require us to define our interpretation of them.

The promise was: security, happiness, and financial security.

It seemed to be the logical consequence of abiding by the rules and following the defined linear path. It looked like a steady-state one could enter by living up to the expectations of the community one is living in.

While this promise might still be true, what isn’t true anymore, is that it comes delivered by registered mail and stays with us for a lifetime.

Now, people themselves are positive change agents. They learn to handle the process, to deal with the peaks and valleys of change. It’s like a perpetual balance mechanism that allows them to move through increasingly changing environments. They also develop an ability to make decisions by deciphering the best choices. Not the right ones. The ones that work best for them in the given environment.

Instead of being told what they need to do, people move to a space where they figure out how they can contribute to their environment.