Do You Feel It?
Do you feel that there is something within, something a little uncomfortable, a little unknown, and perhaps even a little scary?
Do you feel that around us, everything seems to be becoming harder in some way? Physically, emotionally, financially, socially, within families, within business, within society.
I most certainly feel it.
For me, it has been a big rollercoaster of different emotions. And when I look back over the last few months, I realise that this rollercoaster has been present for quite some time now.
But perhaps that is also the nature of a rollercoaster. It moves. It rises. It drops. It shakes us. It brings fear, but also momentum.
And underneath it all, I keep feeling that what we are experiencing is linked to the end of a paradigm. The end of a way of living. The end of something we have known for a very long time, even if we do not yet know what will replace it.
Many people are scared of AI, and I understand that. It is disruptive, and it will continue to be disruptive. It is changing the way we work, the way we do business, the way we create, and perhaps even the way we understand ourselves.
For decades, and really for hundreds of years, human beings have often been used as labour. We have been trained to perform tasks, repeat processes, produce, work, earn, consume, and keep going.
But now machines can do more and more of the repetitive work. And very soon, they may be able to do much of what we thought only humans could do.
Of course, that brings fear.
Because our whole society has been built around the idea of the workforce. From the moment we are children, we are taught to go to school, learn a skill, choose a career, work for most of our lives, and then perhaps enjoy a little bit of retirement if we are lucky, and if our bodies are still well enough.
So if machines begin to replace many human skills, the question becomes:
What are we going to become?
And I think this is one of the deep underlying questions that many people can feel, even if they cannot quite put words to it.
It is not only about careers anymore. It is about purpose.
Why are we here?
What are we here to create?
What gives meaning to our lives if we are no longer defined by the work we do to survive?
I do not believe human beings are meant to be only a workforce.
We are creators.We are innovators.We are curious beings.We are here to learn, explore, imagine, connect, build, feel, discover and experience life.
There is beauty in learning new skills because we love them. There is beauty in creating something because it moves us. There is beauty in contributing from inspiration rather than from survival.
And yet, right now, so many people are in survival mode. Working harder and harder to pay the bills, the taxes, the food, the petrol, the rent, the mortgage. And often, by the end of it, there is not much left. Not much money, not much time, not much energy, and sometimes not much joy.
The system, as we have known it, seems to be struggling to hold itself together.
The way we work, the way we consume, the way we measure success, the way we organise society, the way we educate children, the way we relate to health, money, time and purpose; all of it feels like it is being questioned.
Before AI, the internet was already disruptive. It changed everything. It destroyed some industries, but it also created new possibilities.
AI feels different again, because it has the potential to replace the work of thousands and thousands of people.
But perhaps we should not only be scared of that.
Perhaps we can also ask: what if this is inviting us to remember something?
What if humans were never meant to spend their whole lives doing tasks that machines could eventually do?
What if we are being pushed, uncomfortably, toward a new understanding of what it means to be human?
Of course, it is scary. We do not yet know how to create a society where people are not valued mainly for their economic productivity. We do not yet know how this could work financially, politically or practically.
But I do believe we need to begin imagining it.
This is one of the reasons I have created The Future Within, or Stories of the Future, on my YouTube channel.
Through these explorations, I visit possible future timelines. Not as fixed predictions, but as possibilities. Probabilities. Glimpses of what could unfold.
And I choose to focus on futures that carry hope.
Because I believe that what we focus on matters.
The way we think, the way we feel, the way we imagine, the way we act and the way we behave all have an impact on the world we create.
Some people call it the law of attraction. Some call it manifestation. Some may understand it through metaphysics, consciousness, energy or simply psychology. But however we describe it, I do believe that our inner world influences our outer world.
When it is only one person imagining differently, the impact may seem small.
But when a collective begins to imagine differently, something can shift.
If more of us begin to imagine a future with hope, a future where humans
are not only surviving but creating, learning, connecting and living with greater meaning, perhaps we can help that future arrive faster.
Perhaps we can begin to imagine new ways of living, new ways of educating, new ways of working, new ways of travelling, new ways of building community, new ways of using technology, and new ways of remembering what we are really here for.
This is not about denying the challenges.
It is not about pretending everything is easy.
It is about allowing ourselves to look beyond fear.
It is about asking: what else could be possible?
If this speaks to you, I invite you to visit my YouTube channel and explore The Future Within and Stories of the Future.
Perhaps these future timelines will speak to something within you too.
Warmly,
Lilly
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