TN50#146_Happy New Year, The 4^th Turning Is Here_01 January 2024

Hi Team,

Have you ever paid much attention to your “generation’s” identity?  I never really did, I do know that I’m a Gen X-er, which sounds way cooler than Boomer, in my opinion. So imagine my surprise, at 52, reading about my generational identity and finding it incredibly accurate; and not just mine, my parents too, both born into the Silent generation.  I just finished a pretty thick book called, The Fourth Turning Is Here, by Neil Howe.  It did a very good job explaining the generations and their characteristics going all the way back to the discovery of New World.

There’s more, read on.

Happy Monday and welcome to The Next 50 #146. I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional.  My frameworks focus on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think.  This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.

There are 4 generational personalities: Prophet, Nomad, Hero, Artist.  Gen X, my generation, are Nomads.  My parents, the Silent generation, are Artists.  This 4-personality cycle has repeated every 80 – 100 years over the last half millennia, along the way the United States, and really the World, goes through its own corresponding cycle.

Mr. Howe, the author, refers to these cycles as “Turnings”.  You can also think of the cycles like the seasons, Spring (1) follows Winter (4) follows Fall (3) follows Summer (2) follows Spring.  Some Winter cycles culminate with events you may have heard of like: WWII, the Civil War and the Revolutionary War.  If you remember the title you’re putting the pieces together now, The Fourth Turning Is Here, that’s right – Winter.  If he’s right on the theory and the timeline the next 10 or so years are going to be a humdinger (not in the New Year’s Eve celebration kind of way) and the world as we know it will look different than the one we exist in today.

So what?  Why am I sharing this today?  Here’s why, the last few years and what 2024 is most likely going to be like fits perfectly within the narrative of the book, and let’s be clear the book has as many pages as this article has words so I’m not even scratching the surface of the book’s material, not to mention prior published books and analysis that date back decades.

So read/audible the book or a high-quality summary, decide if it holds any merit and think about the implications of the next 10 years on you, your family (especially your kids) your business, your community, etc.  If the scenarios that the book describes were going to play out, would you want to be living a bit differently than you are currently living now?  Like how and where you live, how you raise and prepare your kid(s), how you take care of your self, how you interact with your community and on and on.

I’m not looking to buy a bunker based on reading the book, but I am definitely thinking about what life could look like in 10 years and after for my family, community and nation and how I can help the people I care about, especially my kids, be prepared.

As always share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!

Have a good one, Alex

PS. Thank you for reading my blog, I’d really love to know more about what “performance” topics would be most relevant for you in 2024; please shoot me a quick email and let me know your thoughts: alex@fpp.llc

PPS.  If your new to First Principles Performance Coaching, here’s a one stop shop for all my stuff.  You can also shoot me an email at: alex@fpp