Our Best Lives in 2009

Financial Crisis. That seems to be a household phrase nowadays – that and the word “bailout”. Before the past few months I think I’ve said those words maybe twice in my life. But, there’s something I’ve said and noticed for a long time that goes along with the situation our county is in, something very interesting to me: everyone is beginning to think about what really matters in their lives. The immaterial. I don’t necessarily think we’re heading into an Age of Aquarius expected in year 2012, but I do feel a shift in our collective consciousness, a shift where we’re all thinking about what really allows us to live our best lives.

On CNN.com, I read an article about a laid-off businessman who has resorted to wearing an sign that says “almost homeless” around his neck while standing on street corners in New York City. It seems that his qualifications are working against him because companies are shipping jobs oversees to people just like the businessman, but who do the work for much less. These jobs are normally automation-focused, jobs that require a certain formulaic and mechanical skill set, like engineering. The types of jobs that aren’t outsourced much are jobs that center around art and service, according to a chart that lists jobs with low to high risks of being shipped oversees .

Author Daniel Pink wrote a book a few years ago called “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule The Future” in which he seemed to foretell of a shift in America where our economy would be based on careers that can’t be done by a computer or a person oversees. He says in one of his Youtube videos that workers must do something that’s hard to outsource, hard to automate, and that serves a need that goes beyond the functional. He says that in our age, where people experience abundance in ways never dreamed of by preceding generations, the type of work that will have the most lasting and meaningful affect on our economy and our lives is the type of work that serves some type of greater good that gives the worker purpose and joy that affects more than just the individual worker. Those people, according to Pink, are doing quite well right now. They’re living their best lives.

So, in 2009, I’m making a promise to myself to do more of what brings joy and purpose to myself and to others. It excites me to see many people thinking about how they can really live in the best way possible for themselves and others. There’s a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that really sums up the realization we all are beginning understand. It says:

“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics and physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”

Let’s find ways we can live our best lives in 2009.

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