To live in the “is” world and not the “should be” world. Never before has there been a wider gap between those who are awake and those who are sleepwalking.

2010 is a pivotal year, a season of transition and great change.

I say this as much from a feeling in my bones as any event I might specifically describe. In 2-3 years you will look back and see the pre-2010 world as strangely different from the one you find yourself living in.

5 years from now you’ll stand in wonder of once mighty empires that have fallen. By 2020, a company you’ve barely heard of today will be more powerful than Facebook or Google.

The sub-prime mortgage industry has ceased to exist in the US and will doubtfully ever return. Increasing government controls on old industries will force creativity to flee to new territories, because entrepreneurs can always innovate faster than bureaucrats can regulate.

In the 20th century, the top 1 billion people were the #1 driver in the world. The 21st century will be marked by the emergence of the “middle billions” – the tier of humanity which, now connected, can participate in the world marketplace. Many of the next wave of billionaires will come from countries we consider to be “underdeveloped.”

You are seeing that now on sites like Elance where an abundance of raw talent is available 24/7 from less developed, rapidly advancing countries. The middle billions will power the economic comeback.

You can use the information age to sharpen your mind and stay abreast of the greatest thinkers in history, or you can dull your senses with entertainment and pleasure seeking. Your choice.

You can use your iPod to tune in, or to tune out. You can contribute to the world you live in, or you can nurse at whatever breast keeps you sedated. Your decision.

Never before has there been a wider gap between those who are awake and those who are sleepwalking. You will only see this chasm widen.

The consequence of this is that politicians will try to get elected by promising to abolish the 80/20 rule. But regardless of their vain attempts, a tiny percentage of people will still drive the vast majority of progress.

You get to decide which side of the 80/20 tracks you live on.

In a world that is drowning in data and information, the most precious commodity is WISDOM – the ability to make sound judgments and harness knowledge. To interpret and use information.

Wisdom comes from the outside. It’s requested and received. It’s not merely a ‘given.’ And it should never be taken for granted. Common Sense is uncommon and it will always be precious. Those who lack wisdom are unable to perceive things that are staring them in the face. And nothing you say will make them see.

I can only urge you to open your mind and your spirit to the things that are new. By this I don’t mean bells and whistles and gadgets. I mean shifts in the culture, new expectations, new paradigms. New rules that replace old ones that don’t work anymore. To live in the “is” world and not the “should be” world.

A thousand warriors I have known. Among them, dozens who’ve had total financial wipeouts, bankruptcies, massive failures. One made $2 million personal income in 2006, then zero in 2009. I know another who’s upside down to the tune of $100 million.

Some are shady characters. Some are among the finest individuals I’ve ever met. One was cleaning up all the messes in his life one by one, rekindling his marriage, shedding his addictions and bad habits, and doing an admirable job at that. It would seem he deserved a break.

It didn’t happen because he was a bad guy. It happened because the world moved on.

In almost every case, they are furiously re-inventing themselves. Which seems like a paradox, because times of economic growth are revealed to be seasons of greatest stagnation, gluttony and sloth.

Lean times produce enormous innovation and industry. 278 of the current Fortune 500 companies were founded by solo entrepreneurs in an economic downturn.

Lean into the leanness.

Forest burns to the ground. Weeks later you return to find nothing but ashes. Yet unseen, below ground, a revolution is underway.

Today is the day the heavens are shifting. Advancing under a guise of stagnancy, this is new a season of healing – physical, emotional, financial, spiritual.

If you find yourself restless and bored of things that used to work and don’t anymore, this is the season to ask and expect old wisdom to take new forms.

The Secretariat movie is prophetic for this year.  Secretariat literally had the heart of a champion—a heart almost 3 times as large as a normal horse heart.  That heart was the powerful engine that made him a great champion.

This is not the year to declare our history. This is the time to prophesy our future.

Perry Marshall

Thanks to my friend and confidant Sue Towne for supplying much of the inspiration for today. Thanks to Perry for this article. This is why I assist other to become Champions in their lives.