Yesterday, I explained how we might learn to reframe the future from Australia Aboriginals.
Today, I’d like to offer an additional suggestion.
It comes from the Long Now Foundation which exists to foster longer-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.
One quick way the Foundation reframes the future is by adding a zero (0) to the front of the year number. Today, most of us think of this year as 2020, next year will be 2021, and the following year 2022, etc. Fair enough.
But what if we placed a zero at the beginning of each year? So that this year now reads 02020, next year is 02021, and the following year is 02022?
It is a wonderfully simple technique to get people to rethink their assumptions about time. Suddenly, 2020 is but a fraction of time into a much longer-term future, and people and organizations alike are stretched into thinking well beyond today, next quarter, next year, or even the next generation.
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