Attention! Exit to Relevancy Ahead.
“Constant Relevance is the ability to leave the highway of what it is, and merge onto the highway of what it should be.”
As you travel from one year to the next, you have choices on how you travel. Some will travel back in time, or participate in what I call Memory Travel, some will travel to the future participating in Vision Travel, and the rest will continue cruising along in Status Quo Travel.
Of these three ways of traveling the most dangerous is cruising along in Status Quo. Status quo travelers have either refused to merge onto the road to the future or pulled over to rest on the road of the past. These status quo travelers viewed the map of the Vision Traveler and worried they might get stuck in construction traffic, they feared there might not be enough rest stops, or they might miss the detour signs and get lost. These Status quo travelers then looked at the map of the Memory Traveler, and their memories scared them. Memories of traveling through all the construction zones, they remembered the detours, the unpredictable traffic, the signs blinking slow down fines are double, the lack of rest stops, and the selfishness of the drivers who refused to let them merge into the only open lane.
These Status Quo travelers decided the comfort however temporary of the freshly paved road of Status quo was safer, more relaxing; it had many rest stops, had no construction, had no detours, and best of all their customers are traveling on the road with them. The status quo traveler believes their customers are just as satisfied traveling along in the comfort of status quo as they are. However, the reality is their customers are continuously looking for the billboard showing how many more miles before they can exit to a better experience.
The Status Quo Traveler did not recognize the commonality on the maps of the Memory and the Vision Travelers. The large orange triangle signs reading “Construction Zone,” status quo forgets that the constant creation of relevance is always under construction whether in the past, the present, or the future. Those who once built the road they travel can easily forget the noise and pain of construction when long after they spend too much time at the rest stop of complacency.
When The Status Quo Traveler refuses to accept that a new road is needed, their comfort has fooled them into thinking the tenure of complacency will last forever. The Status Quo Traveler must pay attention to the sounds of continuous explosions coming from the other side of the horizon where a new road is under construction. And on this new road, its builders will construct a brightly lit on-ramp so all those who wish can exit the off the road to nowhere and finally after signaling for miles merge onto the road to the future, where they find and welcome the better experience.
“In the distance between destruction and construction is where you find a change in attitude.”
Well, those who participate in Vision Travel understand that the road to the future is always under construction, will always have detours, will always have long distances before any rest is possible. These travelers also understand that paved roads always wear and sometimes can be resurfaced. However, the thing Visionary Travelers understand more than any other traveler. Is when to build a new exit ramp to leave the Road called Status Quo merging onto the new highway towards Constance relevance.
In this new year, it’s time to construct your exit ramp to constant relevance. Don’t wait for your customers to speed by you, and take a new on-ramp someone else constructed to the future while you linger at the rest stop called complacency on the road to nowhere or worse the road to yesterday.
“Innovation happens along the road to change just past opportunity.”
R.J. Stasieczko
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Ray Stasieczko
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