Don’t Miss the Present

Here and now, the days we’re living in will have an incredible effect on the rest of human history.

No, I’m not talking about an election or a war or a protest or even the economic collapse.

I’m talking about the regular everyday work that hard-working, possibly honest people do every day.

You go to work, you do your job, and then one day you figure out how to do it better, easier, more profitably, less costly, more sustainable…whatever. Five years from now you’ll be doing your job better, and someday between now and then you’ll make that discovery, or first in a series of discoveries that leads you to that.

Seems simple enough, but then extrapolate that times 6,000,000,000 people on earth. Better than any super-computer, the combined human efforts on this planet lead to advancements that no singular entity could have realized.

…and yet at the same time there are people who still go about their daily lives, considering themselves drones or cogs in the machine, content to drive their commute, work in their box, keep their head down, drive back home, watch reality TV on Fox all night and just watch themselves slowly decay on their own couch.

Now, I am very certain that I’m one of the laziest people I know when it comes to procrastination and under-achieving. However, the first step is getting out of your turtle shell, seeing what going on in the world around you, and march towards playing an active role. Get involved in your neighborhood, your city, your kid’s t-ball team, whatever. If every action can make a difference, what has your inaction done?

I’m sure Einstein didn’t start off thinking he’d discover so many things. He probably just realized he was a smart guy and working in a coal mine was bananas.