After she fell asleep for her final evening as a 45-year old, I snuck out of the bedroom to get to work on setting up the kitchen table for her “surprise” in the morning.

I was up quite late, and woke up extra early to get things ready, kids up and dressed, cake and treats set out, balloons and lights ready, snow shoveled outside, so when she entered the kitchen all would be perfect as planned for her special birthday.

At 7 AM we turned on the tunes, cranked to 11, playing The Beatles “Birthday”  song (“They say it’s your birthday!  It’s my birthday, too yeah!”) as the kids and I danced around while Mommy was welcomed to the kitchen & thrilled to see the “surprise” – the table set all pretty for her birthday.

Tami was shocked at how great the table looked this time.

She is the one tasked to set it for every other event around our house, because I can’t do the table quite like she can, but this is my one shot per year to go for it.  I guess I impressed her with how well I did this tradition, as I don’t think I’ve succeeded quite as well in years past.

I feel the unicorn piñata added just as much as the light sign from the photo (of course, all things found around the house).

After the reveal of the table, a few little presents to open and handmade cards to be read, she was happy and ushered back to bed as I drove kids to school, and so went our day.

There is an unspoken Promise in our home that the table will be prepped, the song will be played, the presents will be wrapped, the notes will be written, and it will all be ready for when the person wakes up on their Birthday.

I have not booked performances and events due to this tradition.  I have turned so much money away for this simple thing we do as a family, as bookers ask me what I can’t do their event for and I say, “It’s my daughter’s birthday that morning, I have to be there…”, and the booker understands.

This tradition is not essential, not life or death, nor have we written it down in stone on a tablet by our 10 Commandments poster, saying, “Thou shalt always have a celebration upon waking on thy birthday, unicorn piñata suggested, presents and cake, table set and all, or thou shalt slowly whither into a shrivel of nothingness”, and yet, that’s just how we do things.

To us it’s a very important unspoken Promise as a Family: The Birthday Promise.

There are many unspoken, powerful promises that we make and keep whether we realize it or not:

The Promise to stand, welcome, and greet your spouse or child with love when they return to the house after being gone.

The Promise to go to church every week, just because it’s what your family does.  It’s Sunday, there’s not even a discussion as to whether you will go or not.

The Promise to set your alarm, get up for work, be prompt, show up for your employer and team.

The Promise to not scroll social media while driving, or check texts or emails.

There are plenty of promises spoken and unspoken, kept and sometimes broken, but most important is to show up when you know there is an expectation by those who rely on you to keep the Promise whether it’s been articulated or not.

Many Promises are implied, suggested, subconscious, intangible.

We just assume they’ll be kept to us, such as:

SAFETY – when getting on an airplane – we put our full trust into believing the airline is keeping every promise to let us put our lives in their hands.

HEALTH – we put our trust in a restaurant to handle our food with care, wash or cook it properly, and to make sure we are happy with the result of our meal.

FAMILY – we will stick up for one another, teach the best principles, do all we can to provide in an honorable way.

COUNTRY – we will fight for freedom, lock arms with our brothers and sisters, and pledge allegiance to the flag and beliefs.

If you’ve been watching the news lately, what I’ve just written should hit home and our hearts.  I don’t want to go too far down the political road so that is all I will say, but the question is:

What Promises are spoken and unspoken that you can make and keep this day which will make all the difference?  

Liken it to The Birthday Promise from The Hewlett Home – a simple table decorated and ready for the person to be celebrated!

What are your traditions and unspoken promises? 

I want you to take a moment and ask yourself: are you afraid of change?

Many answer with a flat-out “yes,” some may answer “yes, depending on the circumstance,” and a select few answer “not really” or “not at all.”

Are those individuals who answered “no” to fearing change fearless? Not at all; everyone fears something. However, change not being one of their fears is most likely a result of them being Anticipatory as a business leader and an individual in society today.

What Causes Change Today?

Our fear of change stems from primordial survival; when our environment shifts, we feel vulnerable to danger, whatever that danger may be. If you identify that you do fear change, understanding where change comes from is a starting point in overcoming it.

Today, the most prominent force of change is digital disruptions. These disruptions have displaced jobs, products, services — nearly anything you can imagine. Anticipatory business leaders, entrepreneurs, and employees alike know this is a Hard Trend future certainty that will happen; advancements in digital technology will continue to accelerate at an exponential rate.

In the early eighties, I identified what I refer to as the Three Digital Accelerators. These include processing/computing power, bandwidth, and storage driving change in every facet of the world, all of which no one is immune to.

The Fear of Digital Disruption

Because digital disruption impacts every single industry in one way or another, those who fear change now really fear change, working tirelessly to protect and defend their status quo. Daily, they may reassure themselves that what has worked will continue to work.

This was the case for the travel and lodging industries. Not long ago, if you planned a family vacation, you stayed in a hotel. The only other option was to stay with a family member or friend, assuming they had adequate space to house you and your family or that they lived in your destination.

Seemingly no one considered connecting with complete strangers via a mobile device when family members or friends weren’t an option, permanently changing the lodging industry. However, Anticipatory Leaders did!

Airbnb burst onto the scene, allowing individuals to rent rooms in houses for much less than a hotel room. Suddenly, everyone could “stay with a friend” anywhere they planned to travel and save money on exorbitant resort fees. As a result, hotels began to suffer.

The reality is: “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” is a broken philosophy. What isn’t broken eventually will be by digital disruptions and pretending that the world is not advancing digitally is not the answer.

What Can Disrupt You?

The fear of change is prompted by uncertainty and discomfort but knowing that digital disruption in and of itself is a Hard Trend that will happen, there is no mystery.

However, I understand that does not eliminate your fears. After all, there’s no way for you to know specifically what will disrupt you, only that you can be disrupted, right?

Wrong!

You can decipher what will disrupt you by using that same Hard Trend Methodology that you’ve used to come this far in the process! Here’s how:

Education — First, accept that education is a never-ending process. We never stop developing and learning throughout our entire lives because things change! If nothing changed, innovation would cease to exist and we would still be in the stone age, or even extinct!

Always educate yourself on what’s changing inside and outside of your industry. Identify new, transformative technologies and familiarize yourself with the nuts and bolts of how they work.

Identify — Second, identify how each of those technologies affects your industry as a whole. Then, narrow them down to one that specifically will impact your business or your department at your organization.

Don’t waste too much energy worrying about how digital disruptions cause you problems; remember, your customers are what make you a business. Focus on how those digital disruptions generate solutions to problems your customers don’t realize they have yet! That is how you become a positive disruptor, rather than be disrupted.

Leverage — Finally, it’s time for you to leverage that digital disruption to your advantage. Digital disruptions are not sentient beings; they cannot and will not put themselves into action. Entrepreneurs and business leaders like yourself do the work!

Too many believe that perhaps Airbnb and Kayak somehow emerged out of thin air. They did not; an entrepreneur identified a problem customers were having and used digital technology to create a solution before anyone else.

The Human Side to Digital Technology

You are in the driver’s seat of digital disruption and change! Whether you put it into drive and hit the gas is up to you, but that doesn’t change the fact that every one of us has the opportunity to do so.

Change is the only constant; however, one constant that will never change is the need for the human touch. A human must be the one to leverage disruption; it will never leverage itself. But because of that, there is no reason to fear change.

By implementing the principles of my Anticipatory Leader System, you learn to take charge of your destiny in your industry by way of identifying Hard Trend future certainties that will happen, eliminating unexpected disruptions and evolving with them. In doing so, you use them to your advantage in exponential ways to benefit your customers and humankind.