I have come to the realization that there comes a point in everybody’s life that they say “I am happy with where I am” and they just stop moving forward. The last two articles I wrote were about keeping up with change, this article is about continuing to change.
A little while ago I was speaking with a relative of mine who is in his eighties. This relative has never used the internet, he has a credit card but has never used it himself and is still stuck doing things the way he did them when he was younger. When I ask him if he wants to try something new such as learn to use the internet, his answer is that he has lived his life so far without it and he doesn’t need it. Sometimes he says “I’m too old to learn new things”. This man is retired and happy so I don’t push too hard to get him to do things he doesn’t want to do.
Everyone has their “stopping point” in life. A simple example is when it comes to school, some people stop after high school, some after college, some after a Masters degree and some people after a PHD or further. At a certain point each person says, “ok, I’ve had enough” and they are done with their schooling (except for the few people who are in school for life). On another level, you can apply this to anything. Everybody has their “stopping point” when it comes to information, technology, history and even religion. These are all categories that are never ending and no one will every know everything.
People see that these things are never ending so at a certain point they decide to stop or slow down. They get comfortable with the level that they have achieved and decide that they will live the rest of their life at that level. Some people reach a certain financial position and decide never to work again by retiring. There are certain things that it is ok for a person to decide that they have enough and stop but there are many other things that will prevent them from getting lucky.
If a person has enough money to do whatever he wants for the rest of his life, it is ok to stop and retire. If a person is running a business and decides that he has had enough with changing technology, and he decides to stop, he will be missing out on some vital luckortunity and could potentially lose his business.
In Life, it is okay to stop at a certain point but when you do stop, you must make an educated decision and make sure that if you want to get lucky, it will not decrease your luckortunity.
All of these categories in life are like climbing an escalator the wrong way. You can climb as much as you want but if you stop, you will start going backwards. This is especially true with technology. You can be at the top of your field but if you stop adapting to the changes in technology, it won’t be long before you drop.