At this very moment, someone somewhere is busy inventing something that will be so common in but 10 short years that you simply won’t know how you lived without it!
— Jim Carroll
Original 2021 statement: Fifty years out, people will still write lists of ‘101 things’ because it provides a nice structure for creative thinking
What Jim has written about this
From “Daily Inspiration: “At this very moment, someone somewhere is busy inventing something that will be so common in but 10 short years that you simply won’t know how you lived without it!”” (February 2022)
It’s a long list of things I’ve jotted down over time. My thinking? Here’s a grab bag of some of my thoughts, of which today’s quote was one.
From “Daily Inspiration: “The Secret Guide to Innovation: Discover what gets you excited about tomorrow! Get excited about doing it! Do it!”” (January 2023)
I’ve found that if I am not writing this ‘thing’ first thing in the morning, I get kind of grumpy. This daily post sets the tone for my day and gets me started; it establishes my mindset of optimism and my focus on innovation and the future. It’s clearly an established weekday routine - before I start to rush off and do some things, I do this thing . It’s just me, some coffee, an image, and some thinking. It works - it’s a form of magic for me! This will be post number 1,644 since I began in early August 2016!
That’s why I started up my Big Future series yesterday, despite the fact that I just finished off my ’ 23 Trends for 2023 ’ series just under two weeks ago. I found that the process of having a framework to write to, an idea to work towards, a structure of ideas to pursue, and research to undertake, gets me excited and gets me going. That 2023 series - which ran for a month and a half - became fodder for a whole new set of Daily Inspiration posts - it was an engine for creativity. People reacted strongly - positively - to each post along the way. And I really enjoyed working on it.
What about the idea of corporate innovation? To me, that model works. But sometimes, we need a bit more structure. I had one client who was insistent that I provide them a guide -a framework - a structure - that they could use to master innovation throughout their organization. I’ve long resisted doing this but came up with my Trends & Innovation Model . I struggled when I pulled it together, because, to me, the path to innovation seems so darned simple. And so this is what I launched in 2007.
From “Daily Inspiration: “Milestones are valuable markers of progress made but also reminders of goals yet to be achieved!”” (October 2022)
It was a prolific day 20 years ago - I actually had 3 blog posts on that first day! (I was somewhat late to the party, with ‘blogs’ starting up in the late ’90s - but only with the tech I was using - see below .) So for me, milestones like this are reminders of where we’ve been, as my quote goes - because, by 2002, I had already been online for 20 years!
Between this hard-coding era and Oct 26/02, I also used for a time an early blogging service from a fellow out in PEI, Canada - Peter Rukavina - a real blogging pioneer. He realized something profound was happening online with the ability of people to quickly publish things to the Web - and so he set me up with an account on his microblogging service because I was in the news quite frequently. Peter still blogs on a regular basis today - he’s at https://ruk.ca . Visit his archives - it’s a fascinating voyage as well. Hey Peter! Hi!
I digress too much into the past, so fast forward - 20 years on, there have been thousands of blog posts that I’ve written through the years - about keynotes, trends, innovation and disruption ideas, and personal stories. As of this point in time, my site tells me I have 3,816 posts to date, so this will mark number 3,817. The blog has been instrumental to my business - many people who have booked me for a keynote have found me because of the things I wrote and the way that search engines have indexed me. It has been a creative engine, a form of therapy, and simply a way to share things I think are worth sharing. A blog is a commitment to a life well shared.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Daily Inspiration: “At this very moment, someone somewhere is busy inventing something that will be so common in but 10 short years that you simply won’t know how you lived without it!”
Daily Inspiration: “The Secret Guide to Innovation: Discover what gets you excited about tomorrow! Get excited about doing it! Do it!”
Daily Inspiration: “Milestones are valuable markers of progress made but also reminders of goals yet to be achieved!”