Want to join a revolution that’s coming? No marches or petitions necessary. All you have to do is blow out your birthday candles and start thinking about how you can live a better life.
In his latest book Drive, best-selling author Daniel Pink describes the upcoming force to be reckoned with as demographically driven.
Every 13 minutes another 100 people – members of the wealthiest and best-educated generation the world has ever known – begin reckoning with their mortality and asking deep questions about meaning, significance, and what they truly want.
One hundred people. Every thirteen minutes. Every hour. Everyday. Until 2024.
This isn’t just about a mass of people all needing bone scans at the same time. This is about the power of purpose.
We will become a purpose-driven nation of workers and within organizations – large and small – this “purpose motive” shapes the future.
Why? Because when Boomers turn 60, they begin a 3-stage process:
- First, they are surprised that they are 60. How the heck did that happen?
- Second, they look back to when they were 35 and realize the Rolling Stones were right – “you didn’t always get what you wanted.”
- Stage three begins with relief and ends with heavy introspection. Boomers look ahead (because anyone who lives to be 60 has a good chance of living until they are 80) and ask:
When am I going to do something that matters? When am I going to live my best life? When am I going to make a difference?
It is that conversation, according to Pink, occurring at an unprecedented rate in human civilization that sets up a “thunderstorm of purpose the likes of which the world has ever seen.”
And the backdrop is that Generation Y is already asking those questions and the first stirring of change is occurring in two places. First, the rise of socially responsible companies, and second, the rise of volunteerism.
This revolution will get you more of what you want including policies that allow people to pursue purpose on their own terms (i.e., a sabbatical experience). No, your company will NOT be looking to replace the “profit motive”; but they will look to set goals that use profit to reach purpose.
Don’t believe it? By this time tomorrow, more than 11,000 more people turn 60. People who you may think have checked out, but have not. People who need money but want more purpose. People who don’t intend to stop working but are ready to find a final chapter of meaning in their lives.
Why don’t you chew on it and talk to me on Friday when the crowd will be a little bigger. We’re not checking ID’s.
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[...] 2011 by Barbara Pagano By this time tomorrow, 11,000 more people will turn 60 and this blog has touted best-selling author, Daniel Pink’s declaration that a revolution is on the way – a demographic revolution changing the future of the [...]