Typically when one has hit his 500th blog post (which I did two years ago), there’s already a strong sense of accomplishment.
But why stop there, right? The next aim should be the 1,000th blog post.
While I certainly don’t plan on stopping, I think 700 is about as good a midway check point now as any to hold space and reflect.
So here’s my 700th post, in my 7th year of blogging. And it’s all about the next 7 years!
Saying Goodbye To One Work. Musing About My Next.
For some time now, I’ve been increasingly convinced that teaching, my career for over 20 years now, is something I’ll soon have to say goodbye to.
Not because I don’t believe I can’t do it anymore. Not because I wish to retire early (well, maybe a wee bit). But rather, the scene has shifted so much in the last five to 10 years that it’s become increasingly untenable for me to continue.
There are many reasons for this stand, reasons I’ll expound on in future blog posts. Suffice to say I did not arrive at this conclusion easily, and there’s much I’ll miss about teaching when I leave it.
Still, life must go on. I need to make way for a new “me” and a new way of eking out purpose and meaning for whatever time I have left on this planet.
The seed for what that new way is came about thanks to an article I read last Sunday about the threat of AI.
AI – Like 7 Deadly Sins Roll Into 1!
The threat of AI taking over pretty much everything and stifling the very authenticity and sheer creative capabilities of humans is no longer the stuff of urban legends. So much has been written to date about AI’s voracious march into nearly every facet of our lives that it’s unnecessary for me to mention it here.
Let’s just say that enough has been convincingly presented to the world to show that the threat of AI is akin to the infamous 7 Deadly Sins rolled into one!
Even the article I alluded to above didn’t offer any new insights I didn’t already know. That the urgency has never been greater for many of us to double down on who we truly are internally as humans in order to stay ahead of AI’s threat to “supplant” us in every creative process. From painting to the written word, creatives everywhere have never been more in danger of being replaced than we are in this age of Generative AI.
But the article did spark off a thought in me, like cinder to dry timber.
What if there was a way I could harness or ‘package’ what I’ve learned about myself over the past 7 years as a content creator? To help someone else unearth who they are, uncover their unique ‘voice’ and unleash them into the world as a means to assert our collective and unique humanity against the tide of copycat AI?
As I turn 55 this month, I believe it’s time to seriously hone in on who I am and what I ought to do that would give the remaining years of my life meaning, purpose and a sense of accomplishment.
This ‘package’ I just spoke of might just be it!
My Still-Emerging Plan For The Next 7 Years
In light of this, my seven year plan hereon is to focus on what I’m good at (or at least know I can/must be good at), and to work on it so I can offer it up as something of value to others.
Because this blog has been the genesis for so much of my content creation over the last 7 years, and the unpacking of who I am and what I can offer, I feel now more than ever it’s as good a starting point as any to dive into my next work after I leave teaching.
My blog’s cornerstone areas of ‘expertise’ will forever remain: Parenting, Special Needs, Writing, Community Building and Social Commentary on trends and life in general.
But the time has come to take these, which thus far have been mere musings on my ‘low-key’ blog, to the next level. That would include both offering them up as value services, as well as monetising these services on my blog to a degree as I transit out of my current gig — freelance teaching.
And how to help young and old adults to do the same.
Preliminary Ideas
Some preliminary ideas I have in this still-emerging plan include (but isn’t necessarily restricted to) the following:
- getting to know someone deeply
- paying attention
- holding attention
- considering moments to help ideate
- honing one’s own perspective
- interacting with others and the real/natural world, not screens (except as a mere tool to record these interactions, observations, reflections, etc)
- how to build a community
The key is to recognise that no one can replicate the speed and scale AI is already capable of when it comes to generating answers and content.
But we can dictate the substance, pace and depth of what we produce in ways that scream our uniqueness and authenticity as sentient beings. As humans. Traits AI can never fully replicate without looking unoriginal and fake.
With the way the world is now going, I’m confident that hunger for genuine engagements and experiences will reach famine-level in seven years (if not sooner)!
When that time comes, I will have my ‘rescue package’ ready to save humanity!
What I Can Offer Seven Years From Now
So what exactly is this rescue package? What can I offer seven years from now?
I can coach people to value and feel how a close connection with something they created on their own (from start to finish), or someone close to them or whom they desire to be close to, is more deeply rewarding and of far greater value than something they outsource to AI in seconds, which often causes that something to lose its appeal.
Upon learning from me how to, people may then pass on that learning to others.
That will be my Unique Selling Point. To coach people to live from a place of knowing who they are and are meant to be that makes them unique, authentic and able to contribute something to the world only they can do. That no AI can replace.
And my age will be my calling card, for I’ll be 62 in 7 years. A respectable silver generation flag-bearer, who will I hope garner respect just based on my age alone (if nothing else!).
As this is still an unfolding plan in my head for now, I don’t have further details to share here.
But when I’m ready, I will.
In 7 years (or, hopefully, sooner!
