In August I spoke to a huge audience.  It was so fun!

Viewing the footage afterward, I was quite disappointed in how I looked, even as I had been very committed to looking the part and feeling good… and so I – you guessed it – made a NEW Promise.

Since August, half a year now, I have lost a great deal of fat, gained muscle, feel and look quite different to those who haven’t seen me in a while.

Making new promises such as waking up earlier (between 4-5 AM), hitting the gym every single day, eating a certain way, sleeping more by going to bed earlier, drinking tons of water – all of the good things we are supposed to do I am doing quite religiously.  And it’s working.  It is the ultimate Health Promise for myself.

And yet, even in the success we can find ourselves needing to shake things up once in a while.

Today was one of those days for me.  Sun shining, snow on the ground, something of a rare open Saturday on the family schedule, I went for a new kind of workout: A HIKE up to the mountains!  (actually, my favorite thing)

I shared some thoughts about Changing It Up on the video included here, even when that which we are committed to is working, that we need to Promise ourselves that during the best of times, systems and processes, it is important for our own clarity and joy to change things up within that which works.

This video is of my thoughts regarding that, and don’t mind the heavy breathing as I hike.

I call it: How to BE Healthier!  Grammatical fun.

I didn’t realize I would be going for 5 miles, as I intended only to go a mile up and a mile back.  Instead, I was pleasantly surprised, after filming the video, that my body wanted to just keep going.  To the TOP of the mountain!  What a view.  It was unexpected and wonderful.

5 miles and nearly 1,000 cals burned later, mud mixed with snowy shoes, a face in the sun and a heart full of joy, I returned to my car exhilarated by the choice to change things up this day.

I Promise to do more of that.  The Promise to change it up for the good, better, or best.  It all counts, it all matters, and you can join me today!

How are you going to change it up to keep the excitement of your promises this week?

In this new year, there are great transformations taking place in many industries. With all of this transformation, innovative business opportunities are ripe for the picking, and those with an Anticipatory mindset are sure to benefit from them in some of the most exponential ways.

Five Industries That Boast Exponential Opportunity in 2022

This is just a starting point. Your ability to use my Hard Trend Methodology to think more critically about these industries and then use those future certainties to become a positive disruptor is an integral piece to the puzzle.

1. Sustainability and Shipping

The sustainability and green movement is a disruptive Hard Trend in and of itself, and it provides much opportunity for an Anticipatory entrepreneur or business leader in many different ways, especially when applying technology. 

For example, Amazon and other online retailers have already started successful drone delivery systems in certain parts of the world, and this is a growing Hard Trend that will only accelerate. Keep in mind as you look at this opportunity, and the others I share in the article, another principle I teach in my Anticipatory Organization Model: the Both/And Principle. When applied to the accelerating growth of drone delivery, you can see that the future is “both” drone delivery “and” many other delivery types as well. 

2. At-Home Fitness

There are many social benefits of going to work out with a trainer or simply around other individuals and this will grow; however, for many, home-based workouts are more appealing these days. Using Hard Trends, you can anticipate new opportunities.

An anticipatory entrepreneur might consider a business that leases at-home gym equipment, much like leasing a water softener or rent-to-own type appliances. Perhaps you set up an app and a system that allows customers to select what equipment they want and the length of the lease, and maybe this lease covers repairs for moving parts or allows you to upgrade weight as you grow in your lifting abilities. For additional revenue you could offer a health bot trainer and wellness coach that can be fully personalized by the user.

3. Travel Planning

As apps and the internet have brought us more and more ways to plan our own vacations effortlessly, the use of traditional travel agencies has been diminishing rapidly. Many did not embrace an Anticipatory mindset and instead treaded water in the shallow end, hoping that they would still have crumbs to nibble on after everything. Enter: The coronavirus pandemic, leveling all travel with restrictions and closures.

Now, everyone involved in the travel planning industry has a fresh start to leverage technology and the Hard Trend of tourist travel, which has already started to ramp up yet again. Let’s think a bit more exponentially about this for a second: People have many ways to plan a trip, but what about a personalized A.I. travel agent customized by the user that suggests other things for you to do based on your interests?

4. Remote Working

A trend that many wished would end is proving to be the exact opposite — a future certainty that isn’t going away anytime soon. Global lockdowns forced so many industries with employees who never before imagined working from home to turn their kitchen corners into a cubicle. For better or worse, office workers and teachers alike have developed virtual working systems that can be utilized at will, but will this trend expand to other workers, or will it shrink?

With the ever-accelerating spectrum of digital change happening long before the pandemic, it is safe to say that in the near future, a disruptive Anticipatory Entrepreneur might look at machine operators and other once heavily hands-on jobs in manufacturing and find a way to do them remotely. For instance, couple A.I., 5G, augmented reality and advanced mobile robots with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and suddenly you’re seeing an opportunity for work to feel quite like a video game.

5. Cybersecurity

With so many connected devices and new ways to integrate AI machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing, including smart machines, into our everyday lives, cybersecurity is becoming one of the most important topics in our world. Each new, transformative technology that connects us to information faster and each other more efficiently is a haven for hackers and cyber criminals to run rampant in.

Since the dawn of the internet, we have had antivirus software that is meant to thwart these potential attacks. However, cyber criminals are becoming smarter, and already, software upgrades will not be able to keep up. Cybersecurity is often left to the IT department of major corporations, but as an entrepreneur looking to break into the field with your own business, how can you think exponentially about where the industry is heading?

Learn to Look Ahead as an Anticipatory Leader

These aforementioned industries and opportunities are growing; however, keep this in mind: We’re already in 2022. And if you have learned anything from my Anticipatory Leader System, you likely know that an Anticipatory Leader is already looking ahead to 2023 and beyond using both Hard Trends and Soft Trends to identify game-changing opportunities!

"It's impossible said pride. It's risky said experience. It's pointless said reason. Give it a try said the heart." Unknown

Victor and Vera Vossen leaned into each other as they sat together on the swing on their front porch. It was a rare moment to relax and enjoy watching the sunset from their farmhouse in the country.   The Vossens admittedly were city folks. But their dream of being self-sustaining and making a profit living on their rural homestead took shape shortly after the pandemic. 

Victor's employer allowed him to start working from home. Vera was already running her business from home, even when they lived in the big city.  

As they sat on the porch swing, Victor and Vera reflected on the lessons learned when they left the city for life in the country. Within the first month of living in the rural farmhouse, their dream seemed to be turning into a nightmare. The Vossens were unprepared to continually evict the family of mice who kept munching on food in the pantry and other valuable items the mice chewed to shreds. They did not realize how many Do-It-Yourself skills they would need to learn when Murphy's Law moved in. They didn't want to move back to the city and admit to their friends that they had failed.   

The Vossen family didn't fail. Today Victor and Vera sipped their tea on the porch swing and reveled in the satisfaction that they conquered many trials and mistakes. They were living their dream of fresh air and living well in the country. 

Here are some of the areas of research and preparation the Vossens did before selling their condo in town and moving to the woods:

Victor and Vera used a team of professionals who were knowledgeable about rural properties. They asked about a water source, land that would perk for septic purposes. They wanted some woods and space for gardening. Vera wanted a protected area for her egg-laying chickens. Other considerations were the distance to work (when Victor had to drive to a job occasionally,) schools, grocery, church, and other services they would need.   

The realtor was familiar with values and classification, zoning, covenants, and restrictions . The Vossens wanted to know what commercial enterprises they could operate on some of the acreage to help them pay for their home. 

The Vossens chose a  lender who knew how to structure the financing on a rural property. Then, they chose a home inspector, and well and septic inspector too. 

They used a  surveyor because they had to survey several acres and separate the few acres around the house from the rest of the acreage to meet the lender guidelines. The Vossens hired a home repair contractor for to make some changes to the house. 

Victor and Vera had been researching rural living for a couple of years before moving out of the city. Mother Earth News Almanac and the Farmer's Almanac were stacked around their home and a few Foxfire books too. Even though the Vossens were living within a 30- minute drive to the city, they still wanted to learn how to be independent of modern gadgets and conveniences as much as possible. Vera watched the movie Big Little Farm, which inspired her to help her through the obstacles.

They celebrated each time they learned a new skill—like fixing the tractor, keeping the mice out of the house, and keeping the internet working in the house. 

They remembered the pros of living the rural life, and they learned to compensate for some of the cons of living outside the city. 

Pros: 

• You get to enjoy the quietness and peacefulness of living outside the noisy city. You get to hear the birds sing and smell the fresh air. 
• You get to treat yourself and your family to outdoor entertainment like bonfires and gardening, hiking, and riding three-wheelers on the trails.
• Saving money is an advantage to living outside the city if you plan it right. You don't eat out so often and aren't in town every day to spend money. Also, property taxes are lower in the country. 

Cons:

• You need to plan for trips to town to do business errands and get supplies. 
• Power outages take longer to fix.
• It takes longer to get services from contractors and other professionals. When something breaks, you need to know how to fix it.   
• It is a longer drive to hospitals, stores, and work if you don't work from home. 
• The internet can be slow, which usually happens when you need it most. 
  
  

Some of the financing programs to check out:

• USDA Rural Housing 
• Bank loans 
• Private loans

You can find more of these mortgage products in the book Choosing the Best Mortgage-The Quickest Way to the Life You Want by Jo Garner on Amazon and Barnes and Noble