3 Ways to Break the Daily Clutter: “Can We Go to The Next Level, Please?”

There is a lot of talk about excelling and fulfilling our potential. But how does one use this potential to get ahead? One of my favorite examples of such situations are movies like ‘Back to the Future’. There was a time when our imagination exceeded our grasp. When we thought of a future, we thought of flying cars, self-fitting shoes, dynamic waiter bots, etc. Where do we stand in the line of these imaginations? We have these, but not in the exact sense of the imagined idea.

Somewhere along the line we stopped imagining ideas and transformations and started imagining features. In a consumption-driven world, our breakthroughs have the shortest life-span in history. Previously, a life of successful innovation could earn you immortality in history. But now, an equally innovative life would barely qualify you for a footnote. We are too focused on creating extravagance (read: iPhone X) rather than creating qualified and lasting applications of technology.

The day isn’t far when there would be Nobel Prizes given out for the best mobile app.

To put it in simple terms, in my view, we are stuck in mediocrity and sustenance. Even in our lives, we move day-to-day, week-to-week, and year-to-year towards a commitment of earning as much as we can spend. As a species, it’s time we regressed to simple times when we dreamed, we created, and we marveled. Not the time of now where we research, we market, we marvel, and then we create.

How does this non-sequitur rant fit in the average daily life? It’s, again, very simple.

Open Your Mind to the Possibilities of Imagination

We must inspire our minds to once again lift our imaginations beyond our grasp. User engagement, design, and interface is all fair and great, but how are we using these enhanced features to drive progress? We need to open our mind to the overarching potential of the applications of our technology. If social media and interactions are a hit, we should use it to create a discourse and train our youth. If transport aggregation is bearing fruit, then rather than setting up premium services, we should partner with global governments to assist with disaster relief. Collective networking through these aggregated cars can create a self-sensing traffic control system. We have the capacity and the technology, it’s just that we don’t know how to monetize it, and hence it’s set aside.

Daily Tip: We should search for deep insights and applications within our work. It might be a sales call, but we need to open our mind to the possibility of pushing it to a collaboration. We must actively think in terms of applications and progress.

Observe and Boost Your Perception

Get up early in the morning, meditate or exercise. Observe your surroundings. If you are home, look at the things you have around you. Your phone, your television, your table, your clock, your door, and furthermore. Have you given a thought to the functionalities of any of these simple or complex machines? How do they work? We know what to do with a phone, but do we what happens within its structure? Do we care how it’s processor functions and structures data? We are used to taking technology and utilities for granted. We assume someone will make our work easier, eventually, in some way or the other. It might be networking, or simply playing. There is always an easier way to do it. But we forget, that by taking the easier way, we are missing out on the learning the harder way gave us.

Daily Tip: Interacting with your surroundings. Ask questions. Keep learning. Keep trying to find out how things work, and why they are what they are. The more you observe, the more you absorb, the more you learn, the more you perceive, the more you aspire, and even more, do you imagine. Eventually, your imagination would exceed your daily grasp, guiding you to greatness.

Apply Whatever You Learn

There are times when we realize that we have enough information and insight about a specific topic. We all reach that stage. We consider ourselves subject matter experts, even mavericks of industries. But then what?

“Can we go to the next level, please?”

What lies beyond our knowledge and our intelligence? Application! One of my greatest fears is that when I pass on (not validating or denying heaven or hell) and reach a divine judgment, I would be questioned about my abilities. When I was so gifted, why didn’t I do anything with it? Why did I waste it? Therefore, every day I make it a point to create something new, to apply my knowledge to make something unique. Just like writing this article. If this article helps someone and makes them think, that would be a good application of my mind.

We get stuck on what’s working and what’s great ‘right now’. But the world doesn’t exist in the present, it exists in the future. You lived your present when you prepared for it in the past. Now, in the present, you are creating your future every minute. We need to raise our level and take our mind to the next level.

Daily Tip: Active Learning. Don’t just learn to learn. Learn in terms of applications. When you learn something new or think of an innovation, simultaneously think of its multiple applications. Make a mental map of everything (or every person) your thought or idea could affect. Create a plan for yourself from ideation to execution, and then push yourself to realize it.

It’s our responsibility to ensure that our children are proud of the world we leave for them. Would it merely be a world full of consumables, or would it be a world of wonderment and delight?