Dated Dinosaurs

“In today’s business environment, those who chose to learn will inherit the earth. Those who refuse will find themselves adequately equipped for a world that no longer exists.” Sean Key

            Trends and technology are outpacing the majority of us. If we don’t stay ahead of it, we will find ourselves out of touch with the people around us and the possessions we chose to keep close. When you look around your home, office, and closets, what do you see that is outdated and irrelevant to your life going forward? Clutter can creep into our lives in a blink of the eye, even when we feel we have been so diligent in our housekeeping. Clutter doesn’t just mean excessive and disorganized, it also can mean outdated.

Electronics. Cellphones were so yesterday. Today’s word is “smartphones.” We have yet to even speak the name of the phone we will use in 5 years. Google recently posted that the pace of inclusion of new words in the Webster’s dictionary has increased at a rate of 4,000 new words a year. If you have a “dumb phone,” you are quickly becoming a minority with the people sitting in the bleachers at a football game. Computers have advanced from desktops to laptops to netbooks, and now tablets. By the end of the year, who knows where your keyboard will end up.

Paper. If you have a 4-drawer filing cabinet, you might be a redneck. (Sending that one to Jeff Foxworthy!) File drawers advanced to digital folders, and today our documents are in the clouds. Insurance papers, bills, and owner’s manuals are all online. Is it time to move the filing cabinet out of the family room? Just sayin’.

Appliances. Coffee pots can now make one cup at a time so everyone in the house is happy. If everyone is expected to drink Folgers decaf, it may be time to update your appliances. Car keys are being replaced with keyless entry, and you can do away with the baby monitor—there is now an app for that.

 “A room without a trash can is like a day without sunshine.” Sounds crazy, yet imagine your world if you never purged, discarded, donated, or threw anything away. Just because something still works or has hardly been used does not make it useful to today’s world. Some believe it takes 50 years before something becomes an “antique.” Something that is a few years old, yet has no relevance, is a dinosaur, or another word that we haven’t even thought of yet. It’s that simple.

Lisa Phillips, owner of SimpleWorks

www.simpleworksmtsp.com │ lisa@simpleworksmtsp.com │ 205.981.7733

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