We launch The Foreseeable Now with one of the world's top 50 female futurists, April Rinne. April is a global authority, advocate, ally, adventurer, and author of the wonderful new book "FLUX: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change." In this conversation with April Rinne, we explore the many facets of change - the kind we choose and the kind we don't - and what April discovered throughout her own life about cultivating trust in our "inner compass" to navigate change. And we explore a fascinating crossroads: what do we ask ourselves at a threshold moment when the question we choose will influence our journey from that point on? Whether we know it or not. What kind of power does that moment hold in shaping future moments? We talk about navigating grief, how ways of seeing shape our ways of choosing, and why everything starts with trust. Starting with trust, she says, is one of the 8 superpowers of what April calls a "flux mindset." As a child, her father, a cultural geographer, taught how to use a compass and orienteer - go off the beaten path. He told her, “The world is a marvelous place — go check it out!” And she did. As of the summer of 2017, she had traveled to more than 100 countries, worked in more than 50, and lived overseas for more than 10 years. Every year, she works in about 20 different countries. I haven't stopped thinking about this conversation. The stories of her as a child, compass in hand. The stories of her growing up traveling the country with her family. The story of the day her whole world came crashing down. We take time to unfold and understand this story in particular, deeply listening into how April recounts it, because the threads of that story are inextricably woven into the next twenty-five years of her life and work. How she survived. How she made sense of the unexpected. How she learned to find her way through grief. How navigating the change of loss helped her understand the deepest layers of navigating any kind of change. And how her life journey, unforeseeable as it was, revealed to her her own wisdom of orienteering our lives in flux...with flux...by developing what she now calls a "flux mindset". I keep imagining her as a four year-old with compass in hand, a pre-schooler who already knew how to orienteer and map her environment without fear of the unknown. She was taught that the world was vast and vivid and meant for exploration without hesitation, that humanity was a precious resource, that service was calling, that diversity wasn't an option for seeing the world but the clearest lens through which to see, live and grow in it. I've never met anyone like April. She has both an open-hearted curiosity and an ancient wisdom. She is warm, brilliant, and full of surprises. I'll leave one of those to the end of the interview. Let's just say she knows how to keep her center of gravity when the world is upside down.
April Rinne holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and an M.A. in International Business and Finance from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is a Fulbright Scholar and has also studied at Oxford University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the European University Institute.
Her special interests include running, yoga, and hiking from the Himalayas to Aconcagua. Extended solo travel. Maps. Photography. Architecture and more.
Check out April Rinne's internationally acclaimed book "FLUX: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change."
Drop in and visit her unique and captivating website www.aprilrinne.com
"What is a Flux Mindset?" https://fluxmindset.com/what-is-a-flux-mindset
"The 8 Superpowers" https://fluxmindset.com/8-superpowers
Read April's global publications https://aprilrinne.com/author
Marvel at April's handstands around the world ~ https://aprilrinne.com/handstands
Instagram @aprilrinne
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aprilrinne
Twitter @aprilrinne
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilrinne/
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The Foreseeable Now is hosted and executive produced by Lu Hanessian, co-production and original music by KÁNO SOUND.
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