Just-a-Pause - How 2.0 are you?

It is said, "Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, man shall have discovered fire." ……Welcome to LIFE 2.0

Life 2 where? …. That's the point!

There is much hype and these days about Java 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Business 2.0, SMS 2.0 and the most famously talked about, Web 2.0. What is Web 2.0? It's the next phase of development of the Internet. Shiny new web tools that serves as a platform for interactive information aiding Social Networking, Blogs, Wikis, RSS, Social Bookmarking and Tagging...the likes of Facebook, My Space, the infamously famous Orkut, etc.. These social networking capabilities enable users to form their own communities, share life experiences, and give their feedback and comments on products and services. This exciting venture into the external unknown has addicted some to such an extent that they have lost their own sense of being; almost developing a "herd mentality"

If technology empowers people, where are all the brilliant ideas? If Gandhi, Shakespeare, or Socrates had a blog, can you imagine the power of their message today?

Long ago, Socrates described some second thoughts he had about the new and questionable technology called a "book". He thought it had several weaknesses. A book could not adjust what it was saying, as a living person would. In addition, a book could not be interactive, as in a conversation between two persons. According to him, in a book, the written words "seem to talk to you as if they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say, they go on telling you the same thing forever."

It sounds very much as though he would have preferred a blog, doesn't it?

We search for meaning and may find it in the connections we make and what we share and discover. These days, we are invited to comment on any and everything. The new web tools allow us to do this much more easily, but it is so easy to forget that the tools, no matter how wonderful, are still tools - a means and not an end.

What is popular is not necessarily true. Every tip, trick, piece of good advice is just one more bit of mind baggage that one has to let go of if we want to know what's real. To discover it personally… to live it, that is Life 2.0

Here we are, safe, secure, immortal beings (or so we think!), living the life of our present incarnation. But we have forgotten who we "really" are and have come to believe that we "are" this experience of life. Life 2.0 is for those who are in search of sanity, work life balance, for those who are undergoing life-changing shifts in perspective. Life 2.0 celebrates the transition phase.

Like Rich It is about the where of finding your happiness and fulfillment. Millions of words have been penned attempting to define what it is. Countless more have been written on the how of achieving these desirable ends. Oddly, where is rarely considered as an important ingredient to achieving success. Yet asking where makes sense, when you think about it. A polar bear is unlikely to find its bliss in a rain forest, no matter how many chances it gets.

Voila!! Look inside. There it is. While Web 2.0 serves as a platform to connect to like-minded people over the Internet, Life 2.0 helps us connect with ourselves through our thoughts and our soul within. It's found in doing the things that we truly enjoy that allows our creative spark to shine through. So, are we set to release Life 2.0 in the real sense?

What if you did have the power, the reach and the glory? What if you were given dominion over all things? And what if eternity lay before you, brimming with love, friends and laughter? Yet still, one day, in all your radiance, bubbling over with giddy excitement... you tripped, fell, and got hurt... really hurt. Would you hate yourself? Would you give up on your dreams? Would you forget the magic?

I say…. Live on. After all, there is always Life 2.0 and beyond. In the bargain, you may discover your very own "YouTube" and broadcast yourself!!