Familiar Words, Fresh Thoughts

The 21st century has brought a new brand of change into our lives. Today, we are not talking about small adjustments. We are facing redefinition. Our jobs are being redefined. Many of them are disappearing altogether. The economy nationally and worldwide is being redefined. Purchasing power is escaping the middle and finding its way into the hands of a privileged few. Understanding of family become problematic. What constitutes marriage and what roles husbands and wives play has been redefined, and/or reversed, for many families. Change to the extreme characterizes our culture.

Words once familiar have now been redefined, or at least, expanded in scope. Team, once a word relegated to little league, has now become the accepted description for all organized or sytemized activities. Selling, once descriptive of something done "door to door" and is now descriptive of a dynamic requiring great relational and consultative skill. Connection no longer refers to telecommunication. It now defines the quality and extent of relationship. The list goes on and on.


Of course, their are new words now taking a presumptuous role in our communication experience. Words like "google" would have meant little to people in the late 2oth century. Can you imagine your father or grandfather saying google me? How about the "Internet'? What we regard as an essential today was a mere concept once relegated to an enlightened few. Think about concepts like "leasing". Once a concept for housing or apartment situations now defines the consumer population. It dominates transportation questions, telecommunication decisions, technology purchases and on and on it goes.

So, what do we do? We embrace it. We redefine and season it with new and contemporary thought. We make contemporary application. We take the word "team" and we make personal application to our life and work. We don't wait for Webster to do it. We realize team has an enormous impact upon all we do. To me, team includes anyone I depend upon for my personal success. How do you define it?


How do you feel about "selling"? The truth is you are selling every day of your life. You are asking people do buy into who you are and what you represent whether you like it or not. How about "connection"? Have you expanded the act of communicating beyond "talking" in your life? Insuring clarity and understanding by asking, listening, and learning has taken on greater priority than any other time in the history of mankind.

I hope you get the idea. Your world and mine is being redefined. You have a choice to make. You either choose to learn the language of the times or you can quickly become an island unto yourself. Of course, you know, you were never meant to be without relationship. So, welcome to the 21st century. Learn the language. Do well, my friends.