Up is tough, but bang.

Up is the only direction we can’t go on our own. Happily, in today’s world we’re never on our own.

Things move quickly. Whole industries are being shuffled and dealt around in ways that are nothing like they were the last time we looked. Skill sets now considered essential didn’t even exist a few years ago. We can connect with people over the Internet and social media in ways that still seem impossible if we ever stop to actually think about what we do a dozen times a day on our cell phones and tablets and laptops and desktops. Nothing stays the same.

You may be one of the people driving those changes, relentlessly digging for ways to take everything up a notch or move them into some direction that no one else had yet considered. Or you may feel like somehow you got left behind, and you’re just trying to cope with the new technology on the job or figure out how to sync your phone to the Bluetooth in your car.

Rather than just focus on all the swirling changes around you though, ask yourself what’s going on inside. How are you changing? That’s not the same question as “How are you being changed?” Are you actually planning who you are and what you can do, or are you simply being told what you need to do in order to keep your job or record Game of Thrones? You may indeed need new skills from time to time, but what changes would be strategic for you, whether “required” or not? How could you improve the quality of your life? The way you earn money? The way you care for your family? Or even how much fun you have?

Of all the changes that technology has delivered, none is more incredible — yet more taken for granted — than the ease with which we can change our whole lives. Without even getting off the sofa, we can learn a new language, get university-level education in almost any field imaginable, or start coding and becoming part of Techo Wonderland. This is the best time in history to have a brain and fingers, yet most of us still spend our evenings watching sitcoms and crime shows or, if we’re more Internet driven, cat videos. Seriously, stop and think about this. If you ever find yourself dreaming of living a better life, you’ve already won the lottery. You’ve been given what you need. You can change it all.

Fair enough, it won’t all come easily, but hey positive change never did. Never will. Up is the only direction we can’t go on our own. We can leap forward or backward, dart left or right, and yes we can easily get down, lie down, or fall down. But moving up will always require something more than we can do on our own. We need a ladder or staircase or something to climb, or someone to give us a boost. Happily, that’s exactly what today’s world is giving us.

Get a glimpse of what your future can be. Take a look at training sites like Lynda.com or Treehouse or CoursePark or the dozens of other learning sites that are out there. Discover the possibilities waiting for you. The Internet has created a whole new world with unlimited potential. The only thing that hasn’t changed — even one iota — is time. Yes, you can make better use of time if you manage it correctly, but we’re not given one second more than our hairier ancestors had in the caveperson days. It’s continually ticking away, and we won’t get today back. It’s time. Resolve to grab the incredible opportunity you’ve been wishing you had, or risk discovering that, as Pink Floyd said so well, “One day you find 10 years have got behind you. No one told you when to run; you missed the starting gun.”

Bang.