I have some bad news for you: the world is changing at an ever-increasing pace and there is nothing we can do about it. Reinventing ourselves has become mandatory both in attitude and aptitude, and an opportunity to bring out the best in ourselves.
It used to be that people had a lifelong relationship with one company. They gave almost 40 years of their lives to one company, in exchange for a salary and a pension when they retired. But today there is no script to follow to the letter, and people must create their own story in an ever-evolving marketplace.
We are almost forced to live thinking "what's next?" because everything changes so fast that it is easy to stagnate. We must keep an eye on trends in order to adapt and make the necessary changes; otherwise, we are destined to slowly "die" professionally.
We have seen it happen throughout history. Think back 15 years ago, would you have imagined that for a few dollars a month, you would have something called Netflix at your disposal that would give you access to hundreds of movies and TV series? Blockbuster didn't see it coming. The story began with a small movie rental store in Dallas, which grew to three thousand stores in different parts of the world.
In 2000, Netflix founder Reed Hastings offered Blockbuster to buy his company for $50 million. However, John Antioco (Blockbuster's CEO) felt it was too small a niche market and turned down the offer. The rest is history, eventually his short-sightedness to see that the industry was transforming and his inability to adapt led him to declare bankruptcy in 2010.
Companies are not the only ones called to change and adapt, perhaps you have already felt the need to learn another language, take an online course or consider a postgraduate degree. We have reached a point where competition in the job market is so fierce that people need to become "all-rounders", with extensive knowledge and the ability to update and adapt to changing environments. You have to be versatile!
Change always produces vertigo and a bit of fear, especially when it comes to the job market, because challenging the status quo means moving away from our comfort zone. However,the good news is that human beings have the historical ability to adapt to the situations that come our way . We have always done so, otherwise we would not have survived world wars, the industrial revolution or the age of digitalization.
Some professions have already faced the clear need to evolve drastically. Decades ago journalists could not even google, something that today is almost as natural as breathing. They used to have to make constant visits to the library to gather information, wait until the next day to publish a scoop, and spend hours at the typewriter, crossing their fingers that they wouldn't make a mistake.
Would Joseph Pulitzer have imagined that communicators would have to adapt to the rise of computers, smartphones, social media and that print publications have been declared "endangered"?
The reality is that we are already feeling the pressure to start evolving and no one is exempt from change. The market is continually dictating new professional requirements, and from this comes the need to become flexible and prepare ourselves for the challenges in our careers, the success of which now depends on our willingness to learn and try new things.
Change will always be the constant in all areas of our lives. We have witnessed how in recent years women's rights have evolved, the world has globalized and technology has become involved in all areas of our lives. Situations that our great-grandparents did not imagine are happening now.
And so it will continue to happen, it is up to us to see changes as threats or as challenges that will push us forward. Resisting them can be more painful than the change itself. The solution is to allow things to flow and let the process of adaptation become growth and learning.
No one says it is easy to change, to overcome fears and uncertainty. But reinventing ourselves is not only a necessity to survive in a changing world, it is a great opportunity to discover ourselves and prove that it is always possible to go further .
So, are you ready to reinvent yourself?
