Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change, by April Rinne, begins with a question: Who Moved My Future? I enjoyed this book and many of its memorable sayings. The Theory of Flux reveals the relationships between your old and new scripts, specifically how to transform an old script into a new script that’s fit for today’s world of constant change. This theory can be summarized in three steps:
Step 1: Open a Flux Mindset.
Step 2: Use your Flux Mindset to unlock the eight Flux Superpowers: run slower, see what’s invisible, get lost, start with trust, know your “enough,” create your portfolio career, be all the more human (and serve other humans), and let go of the future.
Step 3: Apply your Flux Superpowers to write your New Script.
The book encourages us to run slower - instead of productivity, optimize for presence (i.e., stillness practice, patience practice, technology shabbat).
See what’s invisible - the broader your vision, the more potential solutions you have at hand. The more holistic your worldview, the greater your capacity to help, to serve, to innovate and to thrive. Oftentimes, whether you see or don’t see something depends on your intention as you look. For example, whether we see people—and treat people—as consumers or citizens boils down to intention: If you want people to buy your products or click on your ads, that’s seeing them as consumers. If you want to help, create, be of service, and help others reach their potential, that’s seeing them as citizens and collaborators.
Get lost - Adapt the mindset of a traveler. Actively seek out the unfamiliar and stretch beyond your comfort zone. Getting lost doesn’t mean lacking direction or being foolish—that’s just the old script at work. Rather, it means being completely comfortable with what you don’t (and may never) know. In the landscape of change, getting lost is how you find your way.
Start with trust - When trust seems broken, assume good intent. When the world flips upside down, trust is how you anchor and right yourself. Trusted relationships help you ride the rapids of change with confidence. Mistrust surrounds you with fear and cuts you off from others. Starting with trust doesn’t mean being naive (again, this is the old script at work). Nor does it mean there aren’t bad apples in society. Treat untrustworthiness as the exception rather than the norm.
I loved the section Know Your ‘Enough.’ In today’s consumer-driven world, we are plagued by a stubborn script that proclaims “More is better” and taunts you for never doing, earning, or achieving enough. This script is old and crusty, but it remains very much alive. Among its more popular manifestations is that you will never have enough: power to make a difference; prestige to feel important; money to be rich; choice to be satisfied; new toys to outshine your peers or neighbors; success, period. As we race to acquire more stuff, we leave essential priorities on the table such as:
• What is enough equality?
• What is enough integrity?
• What is enough well-being?
With your Flux Mindset opened, you can begin to reset your metrics and write a new script. This shift—from an interminable quest for more to a clear understanding of your enough—is simple yet profound. Knowing your enough does not mean being miserly, uncharitable, or living in scarcity. Knowing your enough brings clarity about what really matters. When you know your enough, you have less anxiety and your ability to thrive expands a lot.
Consider your legacy. What do you want to be remembered for? Why do you do what you do? When you’re gone, people won’t remember whether you had “more.” They will remember how you treated them. This is about lifetime leadership and evergreen legacies, with humanity at the core. Relationships endure and sustain; deals are done and put on a shelf. Which do you want to be remembered for? Your worth comes from within.
A Flux Mindset knows that the career of the future looks more like a portfolio: a diversified professional identity, with resilient roots and customized to you. For success and satisfaction in a world in flux, treat your career as a portfolio to curate rather than a path to pursue.
Be(come) the only. Go back to Jerry Garcia. Don’t be the best; be the only. What is your only? The key to one’s “only” is that it’s not about one skill. It’s about your unique combination of skills, capabilities, interests, and dreams. This is your unique new script.
Be All the More Human (And Serve Other Humans) - boost your Digital Intelligence (DQ)
With a Flux Mindset, you turn fear and frustration about tomorrow into fuel for your purpose, potential, and inner peace today.
The New Script: 3 Shifts to Flux
Letting go of the future means reframing your relationship to the future and whatever change may come. There are three main ways this new script can be written:
1. A mindset shift: from predict to prepare. This shift recognizes that it’s impossible to predict the future, nor is any one future guaranteed to play out. Rather, a whole bunch of different futures are possible, and your best approach is to be as prepared as possible for the prospects coming your way. Resist the urge to predict what “will” happen, and invest your energy in crafting initial responses to what “could” happen instead.
2. An expectations shift: from “things will go to plan” to “plans will change.” Flipping your mental switch to treat change as the general rule, rather than the exception, improves everything: your ability to pivot, your foresight, and your compassion towards others as we all navigate today’s landscape of uncertainty.
3. A shift in focus: from known to unknown. All too often, when solving problems or navigating change, people look to be better prepared should the same thing happen again. This isn’t a bad strategy per se, but it’s incomplete. What about things that haven’t happened yet? The future is only a concept; we can never truly know what it will be. When you shift to being in awe of life’s mysteries, rather than expecting the past to repeat itself, your horizon literally and figuratively expands. Absolutely everything that you do affects how you navigate change. You get better at whatever you practice. If you practice fear, you get better at being fearful. If you practice flexibility, you become more flexible. If you practice hope, you invigorate your capacity for hope.