It was going along just great until Johannes Gutenberg changed everything.

It was 1439, the year that Gutenberg is widely believed to have invented something called moveable type. Moveable type was the foundation of the modern printing press. Gutenberg crafted individual letters and then could assemble words, then sentences, then paragraphs, then pages of information that for the first time could be mass produced. Prior to Gutenberg, calligraphers ruled the world of printed information. The only problem with calligraphers was their work could not be mass produced, thus greatly limited the distribution of information. The printing press changed the world.

Being a calligrapher in the age of the printing press was not a good thing. Suddenly your skill set is no longer as useful to the world as it used to be. I’m sure calligraphers of the day fought this technological change; after all it was a direct threat to their trade and their ability to provide for their families. Fight as they may, technology won, and changed the world.  

Technology always wins.

Sure, this happened almost 600 years ago, but it sounds like what is happening today. New technologies – primarily internet based – have changed everything. Everything. A great many of us possess many skills and talents that aren’t as useful to the world as they used to be. And if they are still useful (for now) they don’t pay as well as they used to. And never again will.  Job security? Isn’t that something that our parents used to have? Suddenly, the real world isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

So here we are.  This is our 1439 and we are calligraphers. We have a choice to make. We can fight the new technology! We can improve our calligraphy skills!  

Or, we can adapt.  

We can embrace the radical changes happening within our individual worlds. We can develop a new skill set to offer the world.  

And flourish.

TIME OF DECISIVENESS Living Half Full means embracing your natural ability to evolve and adapt. We humans have been doing the evolution and adapting thing for eons. In a world of excessively negative media that trips over itself trying to out-negative each other, it’s easy to be sucked into a state of doubt and concern. This is not a time for doubt or concern. This is a time of decisiveness. This is a time to harness the greatness within you and retool. But it all starts with understanding that your innate talents, abilities, and skills that are greater than even you know them to be. It wasn’t easy or fun back in 1439, either. But in times of uncertainty there is no uncertainty of your capacity for greatness. The world needs your greatness now more than ever.

Can we count on you?

It’s a great day to be you!