Coming Up for Air After Months of Future Thinking
Over the past several months, I’ve been noticeably quieter online. A few people have reached out to see how I’m doing, and I’m happy to say that it is all good. In truth, I’ve simply been immersed in one of the most demanding, thought-provoking, and meaningful projects I’ve worked on in many years.
For much of this time, I’ve been developing Career Professionals of Canada’s new Certified Future Strategist (CFS) certification program. The work focused heavily on the future of career development, artificial intelligence, changing labour market realities, human judgment, ethics, trust, adaptability, and the growing need for thoughtful guidance in an increasingly complex world.
What began as a professional development project gradually became something much more reflective and personal. Spending so much time thinking about the future changes a person. It forces you to confront difficult questions:
- What skills will matter most in the years ahead?
- How do we remain ethical and human-centred in a world increasingly shaped by technology?
- What happens when information becomes endless, but wisdom remains scarce?
- How do we help people navigate uncertainty without pretending we have all the answers?
The deeper I moved into this work, the more I realized that conversations about AI and technology are rarely just about technology itself. Underneath them are deeply human concerns about trust, belonging, fear, loneliness, fairness, purpose, identity, and hope.
I developed a complicated relationship with AI during this process. Some days I found the possibilities extraordinary. Other days I felt cautious and unsettled by the speed of change, the influence of large corporations, and the reality that innovation does not always arrive with equal measures of wisdom, regulation, or protection for the public.
At the same time, I also saw incredible opportunities. I saw how technology can support learning, accessibility, communication, creativity, and problem-solving. I saw how it can help people organize overwhelming information and open doors that previously felt closed.
I suppose where I landed is somewhere in the middle, not fearful, not blindly optimistic, but thoughtful and cautious. I believe technology itself is neither good nor evil. Like most powerful tools throughout history, much depends on the intentions, ethics, and values of the humans creating and using it.
More than anything, this experience reminded me that the human side of life still matters deeply. Kindness, wisdom, empathy, ethics, reflection, and genuine human connection are not becoming less important because of technology. If anything, I believe they may become even more valuable in the years ahead.
As the Certified Future Strategist (CFS) program now moves toward launch, I’m beginning to slowly emerge from what I jokingly call “development mode.” I’m reconnecting with friends and family, returning to creativity, spending more time outside, and allowing myself to think beyond deadlines and documents again.
I’m also beginning to realize that many of the thoughts and reflections that emerged during this process deserve their own space outside the certification program itself. In the months ahead, I hope to write more openly here about AI, the future of work, the Human Trust Economy, human-centred leadership, purposeful kindness, aging, wisdom, and what it means to remain deeply human during times of rapid change.
For now, I simply wanted to say hello again, and thank you.
Thank you to everyone who checked in, encouraged me, supported me, and quietly remained part of my life while I disappeared into this season of intense work and reflection. Your kindness mattered more than you probably realized.
The future is arriving quickly. I believe we will need thoughtful humans more than ever.
With purposeful kindness.
