THE NEXT BIG THING

If there’s anything that seems to be continuously on everybody’s mind it is, “The next big thing.” Now when I say “everybody,” I mostly mean people in marketing and sales, people in self-development, organizational development, H.R., positive psychology, success, wealth creation, screenplay writing, novel writing, etc. Well, yes, I guess that means most of us. And when I say “continuously” I mean that it seems to be ever-present and that it never stops or goes away.

For decades, business (and other fields also) have experienced “the next big thing” as new products, services, and experiences have been offered as “the big solution,” the panacea, the cure-all for the problems that undermine and interfere with success. This has come to be known as “fad of the month” (“flavor of the month”). Yet as one thing after another didn’t pan out and prove to be the cure-all, and as more and more people worked on develop “the next big thing,” the cycles became shorter, and the sense of “oh, just another fad” became more and more pronounced.

Now it is true that from time to time someone does discover or create “the next big thing” in a given field or domain. Yet most often that is not the pattern. Most often the pattern is that when the next big thing is first discovered and created, it is not truly “the next big thing.” It is just something new and different. Often when something is presented and marketed as the next big thing, the reality does not pan out.

The internet offers an interesting example. In terms of its importance as a discovery, it qualifies as one of those “next big things.” Yet when it was created, it was not seen as the next big thing at all. It arose and was around for many years before it was widely discovered for the uses that we put it to today. Long before it became “the next big thing” in our minds, it was around as a small thing that hardly anyone knew about. Only later did people began to learn how to use it so that it became the next big thing. The same thing could be said for Bill Gates and his associates creating their first products in his garage. It would eventually become “the next big thing” although it didn’t appear that way at first.

What drives this hunger for the next big thing? One thing that has driven it and continues to drive it is an assumptive frame: When someone, somewhere, somehow comes up with “the next big thing,” it will be quick and easy and completely change our lives. Ah yes, quick and easy. That’s what we all want, isn’t it? We want things quick. And we want things to be easy. That’s why “Get Rich Quick” schemes continue to multiply and why old worn-out schemes keep re-asserting themselves seducing people to the quick and easy next big thing. If human being weren’t so impatient, there would not be so many people so gullible for the message, “This will be really quick!” “It won’t take much time.” So people still buy silly gadgets that’s going to wear off the fat of the mid-section while you sleep, while you eat, while you watch TV. It’s quick and easy.

Easy is one of the seductive words when it comes to “the next big thing.” No work, no effort, you don’t have to study, sweat, feel exhausted, etc. It is low cost, fun, quick, won’t cost you much at all and you will

start to see results in three days!

So what am I getting at? Recently I have been asked repeatedly by several people, “What’s the next big thing in NLP or in Neuro-Semantics?” Maybe it was in editing the book, Innovations in NLP with Shelle Rose Charvet. Anyway, the truth in answering this question is: I don’t know. And to take that a bit further, I have never pursued the next big thing. So then I was asked about some of the models that I’ve created and if when they first appeared they were recognized as the next big thing.

Yet that’s just the thing— I never sought any of them, I never pursued “the next big thing” in Neuro- Semantics. For example, when Frame Games emerged, when the Matrix Model came to me, when the Axes of Change and the Self-Actualization Quadrants —I had not plan for any of them. I did not seek after any of those models. Nor did I spend any time “trying hard” to find or create them. They all emerged while I was engaged in something important to me ... they emerged and it would be more accurate to say that they found me rather than I found them. When they did emerge in my mind, it was the result of having been engaged in a study or in a modeling project and they came to me when I least expected them.

It is paradoxical, isn’t it? To chase after “the next big thing” seems to be one of the key things that prevents us from discovering the next big thing! Conversely, to release the pursuit of the next big thing and to focus on exploring something that you are fully engaged in and to do so in depth, to model a human expertise that fascinates you, this is what enables next big things to arise when you are ready for it. Looking for magical answers, lost-cost easy and quick solutions will actually misdirects you and the use of your powers.

I think we could argue that many of the things that we now recognize as “the next big thing” started off as a small thing and that it became the next big thing by how certain people began employing it. And if that’s the case, then what if— just what if— there are several “next big things” present in your life and mine right now? Suppose that the next big thing has already emerged, already been around for awhile, and it has simply not yet been recognized. If that was the case— what would that call upon you and me to do? Would it not call upon us to refocus our search so that we begin to look about us with eyes of appreciation?

Perhaps instead of pursuing “the next big thing” we should focus on pursing the most important meaning or solution that would make the most difference to us. Perhaps you should aim to be more present, more here in the here-and-now and more appreciative of solutions and resources that are all around you. This is, in fact, one of our themes in Neuro-Semantics. Be present. Learn to become fully engaged in this moment with what you endow with rich meaning, access this state as your optimum “zone.” If this is your genius state, and from within it will come your “next big thing” are you willing and able to make this your focus?