Be Yourself. The Future Can Wait.

Everywhere I turn, in client conversations, over lunch with colleagues, even the awkward small talk at networking events, someone is talking about the AI wave as if it’s a storm we can outrun if we push ourselves hard enough

I’ve been to this dance before. I am old enough to remember the first beige PC humming on my desk, the dial-up modem singing its terrible song, the pressure to ‘learn to code’ before you were left behind. It feels all too familiar, the panic, the urgency, the sense that everyone else has the manual.

And the narrative is always about keeping up, future proofing. It's a compelling narrative BUT what are you future proofing against? other people? the future? (whatever that means) my own uncertainty?

A few months ago, something nudged me, not an epiphany, just a low key, uncomfortable question: Who exactly am I trying to future-proof myself against?

Oscar Wilde is credited saying it first, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

You are the original you. You do you better than anyone or anything else, no LLM, no Agent, no chat bot.

And I've started letting the different parts of me walk back into the room with me, the curiosity around Taoism and Zen that shape how I listen, the years on the organic farm that taught me patience I didn’t know I needed (and the interconnectedness of all things) , the messy, beautiful lessons from being a son, a brother, a husband, a dad.

And If I had downplayed bits of my self to stay safe, I began to realize that it was the things that made me stand out that gave me an edge a differentiator. In my coaching journey I have learned to use shifts in energy as "tells" or signposts. I’ve begun using those tells; the way my shoulders relax when something energizes me, or how my chest tightens when a conversation pushes me out of myself.

Every day I reflect in a voice note or in writing, talking of the things that jumped out at (or away from) me. What was me and what wasn't. And those reflections have created a map for me - what lights or lifts me up, what deflates me, where I slip in the background or own the space I am in.

One of my favourite surprises has been how other people mirror me back, the colleague who pops over to sanity-check a pitch, the one who practices a talk track because they trust the way I listen, the smile someone holds just a fraction too long because they feel seen.

And what has surprised me is that the more I lean into who I am the less anxious I feel about the future.

So I am doubling down on being me. Yes I will keep on learning, reading being curious, and I will bring more of that into my work and my conversations. And I will mistakes too - and by being me more, I have learned that mistakes are a signpost too!