Serene Ambition in a Real-time World

The changes rocking the world these days are anything but predictable. Headlines report crisis after crisis. Systems, governments, and entire industries are being disrupted. Nothing is certain. All we have is “now”.

You probably didn’t imagine even in your wildest dreams that this would be the reality in which you would be growing older.  

What if you could be centered and calm, at peace and serene with all that is happening? What if you could also, at the same time, imagine ambitious new possibilities, make new commitments, and collaborate with other people—older and younger—to create a world that you would want to leave to future generations?

Jim Selman believed that no matter how old or young you are, you have something unique to contribute to our shared future. Age—and whatever meaning you give to it—is just an interpretation.

This compilation of Jim’s reflections on growing older and living in real time, a follow-up to Living in a Real-Time World, will inspire you to rethink how you relate to yourself, others, your circumstances, time and the mystery of life. 

In this book, Jim looks at our culture’s story about growing older. Then he reconsiders aging as a possibility and explores how to live his life as a contribution. This exploration brings him to Eldering, a distinction he made to denote multigenerational dialogue and collaboration to create our common future. A future that, in his words, “is sane, that works for all of us, and that leaves the world in better shape than we found it”.

In a real-time world, we make choices for the long-term future without having all the information or knowledge we might want. In a real-time world, we operate with no real, sustainable control over people and circumstances. In a real-time world, who we are is a constantly evolving story. In a real-time world, our ambition is more about purpose, possibilities, and commitments than goals and strategies. In a real-time world, collaboration and co-creation are constants.

Through his firm Paracomm International, Jim helped leaders and companies—including numerous multinationals and Fortune 500 companies in over 60 countries, as well as the White House, Congress, and the U.S. Air Force—achieve breakthroughs in their performance. With Shae, he co-founded the Eldering Institute, working to transform the paradigm of aging with the goal of the end of life having as much possibility as the beginning. Check out Jim’s website.