21st Century Life

Jonathan Moran

Efficiency is simplicity. Breaking things down to the least common denominator and operating with grace, easy and apparent effortlessness is a remarkable goal yet mostly an illusion. An image conjured up by a world full of pleasure.

Nothing remarkable and graceful is effortless, but it is simple. The simple is in the doing not the feeling.

What we do, not what we think or feel is what is changing our world. Maddy Dychtwald proves this in her demographic study Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, an inspiring wake-up-call that is her third book.

Fear of change is irrelevant once we understand that putting one foot in front of the other every day is doing change, and in that doing, there is nothing to fear. Sam Sparrow says it best when he opens his 21st century life by saying:

Jonathan Moran

“When I was a little boy
Living in the last century
I thought about living in the future
Then it occurred to me
I turned around the future was now
The future was all around me
Nothing like I imagined
It was totally confounding

21st century life
I got swept away
I got 21,000 things that I got to do today
21st century life
Well what can I say?
The new world got me feeling so dirty
Think I need to get down and play”

The future is now and we are influencing everything around us and why not have fun doing so! Gone are the days where we can lay in wait for a white knight or a caped super heroine to come do anything for us. We already influence others around us constantly and it’s our choice to what degree we will do it. We can stop with our family or the world, it’s up to us, our own imagination and ability. This is a much less daunting and more doable when we think about it in these immediate terms. The least common denominator is you.

Authentic Influence

Jessika Cardinahl

Open space and a limitless mindset is the framework that gains authentic influence. Virginia Woolf argued, “a woman needs a room of her own and an independent income if she is to write.” In Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, Maddy Dychtwald asserts that, “a woman needs psychological room of her own and economic independence if she is to inscribe herself on the world.

Women’s minds are certainly more free from fear of financial ruin in the 21st century than 100 years ago; this is what the data is proving. But we’re not out of the woods completely. It makes sense, as humans living on earth, that we would need this to realize our true potential and make our mark on the world.

On the other hand, we’re all influencing others all the time. The way we carry ourselves, raise our children and treat each other makes huge impacts on society. Simply opening our minds to endless possibilities and enjoying all that life is, without fear, can make this influence positive.

Jessika Cardinahl will be showing at Bleicher/Golightly Saturday, April 17, 2010. Please come join us for the opening!

We’re not alone with “Influence”

Making changes to live a life that worked for me was intuitive and seemed more a necessity than a bold choice. When my career ambitions within the traditional constructs left no room for my family or my development as a human, I opted-out of the construct. Society’s definition of what it meant for me to work in my chosen field seemed stifling. Of course, my “intuition” struck at the height of the economic downturn. Thanks to an amazing support network, no one said that I was an insane person; but I suspected I might be and I certainly felt alone.

Why had my mother and grand mother filled my head with such fantasies about career and family when the reality is almost impossible to maintain? Was I the only women in the world that felt work was a “soul crushing” experience, like someone was going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, “you’ve been found out, we know you don’t belong here?”

So you can imagine my elation when I read these exact words in Maddy Dychtwald’s Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better. It will be available May 4, 2010, but I have an advance copy because a natural series of events has led me to work with Maddy on the launch of this ground-breaking book. I say it was natural because her message is in exact proportion with how I’m choosing to earn a living today. My personal experience with Maddy is that not only is her message “bright” and true, but Maddy is true to her message.

When I finished Influence I felt a part of a whole; inspired to do my best work and empowered to be who I am while doing it. I had confirmation that others were behind me, lot’s of others, from all over the world. I was no longer moving alone but a part of a movement. Maddy Dychtwald’s research proves the countries that harness women’s economic power thrive globally and human economic success now depends on it. Once more, she asserts in the book, I have influence and I’m doing myself and this world a disservice if I don’t use it!

Influence is chock full of women’s stories detailing how they’re changing society as we know it. I guarantee you’ll find yourself in this book.

Pre-order Influence and become a part of the movement by sharing your experiences with Maddy and the rest of the world on how you are using your influence to make changes in your daily life. Join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook and the blog about women’s economic emancipation and how it’s changing our homes, our workplace and our society for the better.