It happens within or without our control, with or without our participation.
I’m reminded of a story I referred to about four years ago in the Last Word – it was based on the book Who Moved My Cheese? about two mice and two tiny humans who survived life in a maze by feasting on cheese that miraculously appeared in the same place, at the same time every day.
But one day the cheese didn’t appear, and so they were thrown into chaos. Three of the four were able to successfully change and go forward, one was left behind.
It’s a simple story, but one that accurately reflects all walks of life. Our home lives, where we adapt as our children come into the world, grow, leave home and have children of their own. Our social lives, which change as we progress through different stages of life, gain new interests, encounter setbacks and advances.
But one day the cheese didn’t appear, and so they were thrown into chaos…
Our professional lives, where competition and innovation force us to constantly evolve in an effort to remain at the top of our game, relevant to our audience, profitable and ultimately, enjoying life.
Over the decade or so, the world of publishing has experienced enormous changes and as a result, plenty of publications have been forced to close their doors. Even the media giants – Fairfax and News Corp. have laid off large numbers of experienced staff in an effort to transform from process driven news factories into lean machines capable of churning out stories on the hour, via online platforms. There’s no doubt that in the rush to grab readers’ attention, content has suffered. Stories are becoming more dramatic in nature, yet less weighty in detail and photojournalism is no longer in the hands of a gifted few but the domain of anyone who’s there, right now, with an iPhone.
Like you, we too at mivision, continually need to evolve and improve our offering. Our website is not only viewable on your desktop but on smart phones, anytime, wherever you are, whenever you like. While we’re always looking for the latest news to upload quickly, we continue to develop more in-depth articles for our monthly journal so that you, our readers, can receive considered views from the profession’s experts and maintain your professional education by accessing the latest research.
It was GK Chesterton who said, “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes”.
Our new soul, our new nose, feet, backbone, ears and eyes come to you in the format of our new look journal, with perfect binding and a greater emphasis on ophthalmology than ever before. We’ll keep searching for new ways to evolve over the course of this year and into 2015.
I’m pretty sure it wont be an easy year. There will be challenges along the way, set backs and mistakes. But I’m also of the opinion that you don’t learn, and you can’t achieve great changes without making the occasional mistake. Let’s get into it.
