The Journey: 2024 & Beyond

New Beginnings & Adaptation

"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."

-Sun-Tsu

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

-Carl Jung

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

-Seneca

“On the one hand, we’re extraordinarily capable of great change. We’re very adaptable. And on the other hand, we’re very reluctant to make change.”

-Shankar Vedantam

Did this year feel chaotic to you, too? 2023 has been a year marked by change and yes, chaos. In the midst of chaos, it’s challenging but essential to make high-quality decisions based on what’s truly valuable to one’s life, to the community, and to the world.

Oncoming change beckons us to make adaptive decisions. Since human beings are far and away the most adaptable creatures on earth, we can realistically be optimistic about our abilities. That said, we are reluctant. Fear, typically unconscious and acted out in all kinds of wiley (often destructive) ways, generally precedes opening our minds to changes required to successfully forge the most productive path to adaptation. The more conscious we are of our fears, the sooner we become aware of our options, and the sooner we can seize the day. But because most of us live largely unconsciously, we can expect all kinds of resistance to rise as the front curve of the wave of change approaches. This can get messy. To help make sense of it all, for what it’s worth, I’ve put together some insights (based on much reflection and research). Before sharing my metaphorical soul food, here's our "Out & In" list to live by as we close 2023 and prepare to embrace 2024:

The List:

Out:

1. Proselytizing

2. Sewing fear and doubt (“FUD”)

3. Isolationism

4. Righteousness

5. Judgmentalism

6. Denigrating competitors

7. Petty complaints

8. Consuming Trends

9. Fomenting anger

10. Lose a move & you’re a “loser”

In:

1. Listening & sharing knowledge

2. Adaptive decision-making

3. Community

4. Respectful dialogue

5. Constructive debate

6. Collaborating with competitors

7. Being part of the solution/team work

8. Long-term value investing

9. Realistic optimism

10. Resilience

As a real estate broker, I'm a researcher, a marketer, a salesperson, a negotiator, and a creative problem solver, among many other things. In this case, my perspective is influenced more from the lens of my first career as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. After all, our civilization consists of fallible human beings largely driven by emotion, no matter how wealthy or poor someone is, or how much real estate they own, or how high one's IQ is.

I'm a broker who straddles different markets: New York City, the Hudson Valley, and the national market, each its own complex market consisting of many micro-markets, each impacted by cultural trends, global, national, and local economies, and geopolitical head winds. It’s been an interesting year, and not an easy one, to say the least! Navigating our business, which includes providing best-in-class service to our clients, is a top priority for me, but it isn't my only priority.

A few personal facts that are catalysts of this writing:

Along with my siblings (I’m one of five), I'm a caregiver for my mother who, at 95 years old, suffers from severe dementia. The emotional reality of this fact is significant, as the meaning of mortality stares me in the face through my mother’s struggle with the tragic loss of agency and her instinctive battle with entropy near end-of-life. I’ve recently re-discovered the quality of life benefits of direct, getting-your-hands-dirty style helping people with a community of other people, which led to my current role as president of our Rotary club helping to implement Rotary International's vision: together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change - across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves. Helping people when you can is good practice, plain and simple, but it also helps (and changes) ourselves. My most significant role is being a mother to two incredibly wonderful human beings. Of course, my relationship with my grown kids is very different than when they depended on me for survival. In this phase, our relationship is incredibly rewarding and mutually beneficial in ways that I never imagined. They are my best critics, my biggest champions, and my besties, from whom I learn on a daily basis. I believe that intergenerational learning, in both directions, is of paramount importance throughout life.

All of these roles and my innate curiosity about what makes people tick inform my world view and goals. I'm driven to better understand the way things are and why (curiosity is everything in my book). I’m equally passionate about achieving my highest career potential along with mentoring others to do the same, and, in any small way possible, leaving a positive legacy. That said, in reality, sometimes I get discouraged or overwhelmed and don’t feel like doing much at all but put one proverbial foot in front of the other. If we’re more conscious than not on such days, getting to the other side endows us with more wisdom and compassion. With an open mind and the discipline to carry on despite emotional and other triggers, these times can be lightning-in-a-bottle moments that open one’s mind and heart to significant insights.

In that context, I believe that the chaos of 2023 (and before then) is due to the prolific change brewing in so many realms of our lives. When winds of change come so fast on such a vast array of fronts, people tend to freak out, and for good reason. It’s easy to lose one’s way in a world of constant infowars, life altering tech changes, economic system changes, political mayhem, war, and otherwise tremendous uncertainty. We can either become paralyzed, become active resistors (how do you think that works out?), or we can embrace change and commit to harnessing it, learning (no matter your age), and evolving through it.

Because of the constant whirling dervish-like “incoming messaging”, I think that emotional intelligence will reign supreme in this emerging cycle, beginning but not ending in 2024. New paradigms take time to crystalize. In this age of rapid paced technology, including burgeoning artificial intelligence, amidst profound uncertainty about who and what to trust, emotional intelligence represents a set of human abilities that no AI app can replace, no matter how deeply into the rabbit hole you dive with your chatbot. Emotional intelligence is required to properly harness the new tech advances without its destructive capabilities overtaking its positive potential. I believe that in the future, creative work (the arts, which give meaning to our lives and help us understand our world), rational, inspired leadership, and insightful, effective, honest communication will become ever more valuable. Experienced and authentic voices that can make sense of emotional and cultural tipping points will become highly sought after. The value of whatever is immutably authentic will grow exponentially more valuable. I won’t say too much about Bitcoin or digital currency, but I believe it's highly relevant and if you're not paying attention, you should. Digital currency will only grow more prevalent in the weight it holds in our economy and our lives for a reason. In time, I expect it to become the “gold standard” currency due to its absolute finite nature and transparency. My perspective is that the very nature of fiat currencies, backed by infinite nothingness, and the ensuing lack of trust therein, is what’s given rise to its inevitability. Digital, traceable, finite currency is to the economy what authenticity is to humanity.

This chaotic moment in time is a massive turning point. The opportunity to thrive can be seized if we don’t submit to the contortions of resistance (calling it "fate"), but rather, become aware of our resistance, reflect, and educate ourselves, a process which tends to melt away resistance. Call me crazy, but I think that it’s inevitable that the “good guys”, meaning those people vying for truth, peace, love, harmony, compassion, equity, and connection, will win out against destructionism. Why? Because it’s the way of nature and human instinct. Of course, we all have constructive and destructive instincts. But we’ve come to a pivot-point and it’s about self-preservation. Nature does nature, and we humans are still part of the natural world with an instinct to preserve our species. The stakes between evolution and entropy are high. I hope that you’ll come along with me and embrace change as we enter this new year and new cycle. This means learning new things and finding your purpose in the face of change. The world is changing on a massive scale, whether you like it or not. Finding our way to thrive is the only way forward.