Whether the interesting times that we live in are made more interesting by politics, pandemics or simply technology, change is with us and change is inevitable.
Life isn\’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
George Bernard Shaw
Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining?
I was recently struck by the completely clear blue skies, the clarity and timeless beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way. This is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest drives in the world extending from Cork in the South to Donegal in the North of the Island of Ireland. This winding coastal road follows the entire rugged coastline and it is said that at any point on the road, you can see all four seasons in one day. The next parish from this beach at Doonbeg, Ireland is New York or Newfoundland depending on the set of your sails, your compass corrections or, more likely whether you are in charge of your circumstances and your tolerance for the cold!
Overhead, is the main air corridor from Europe to the Americas. Now, with the impact of Covid lockdowns, the streaks of aircraft vapour trails have been replaced by clear blue skies, wind-blown clouds, migrating seabirds, and, down below, empty beaches. Under the old ‘normal’, you should normally see the trails of up to twenty aircraft on a fairly consistent basis throughout the day.
Such was life at the time of writing, slowly coming out of lockdown, awakening to a new pandemic world and facing into a new world of masks, social distancing, government by social media and a level of social control hitherto unheard of – \”all temporary, and for our own good\”, we were advised.
Or, every silver lining has a cloud?
Unfortunately, reflected in these clear skies lay a massive erosion of, or at least transfer, of wealth, some of it in the right direction, and some in the wrong direction, depending on your point of view. Since those chilled spring days, we have also seen the dramatic effects of family wealth and business loss, job losses beyond reckoning, changed circumstances and the effects of government decisions on a global scale, while the ‘best’ decisions were made in the haste of emergency and often made based on the limited information available at the time.
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And now we await the effects and more importantly, the unintended consequences … or do we?
Let\’s pause and consider those dramatic clouds and blue skies reflected in the turbulent, crystal clear seawater below, and hope that after a hopefully brief reset, we will have a better appreciation for our planet, and a drive to build a more sustainable world for our children, and our children\’s children…
Let\’s go … but where? And to what? What do we really want?
Who would have guessed at this set of circumstances as we rang in the New Year, and the New Decade … just a few short months ago?
We live in interesting times
We “live in interesting times”, and I’m not sure whether I should attribute the sense of this comment to a Chinese Curse, Chamberlain or Terry Pratchett … only time will tell.
For me however, and for many millions more around the world who have faced calamitous change in recent years, either through the oil industry collapse, technological change across all industries, or the more recent economic shut-down, it no longer makes sense in this new world to say that “I want to just retire and go on a world tour, a cruise, maybe …”, or whatever else remains on the bucket list – like that remains a real possibility for at least the next couple of years at least!
Whether the interesting times that we face are made more interesting by politics, pandemics or quite simply technological change, change is with us and, as ever, change is inevitable. We must take responsibility, respond to and accommodate, or adapt to the change if we are to survive.
We must not allow ourselves to become the victims of changing circumstance or the unintended consequences of government decisions so often made on political ‘insight’ and expediency, with the excuse that, \”well, we did the best we knew how at the time\”.
Take charge of your condition … and your future
In effect, we must take charge and decide how we wish our own lives, and our own economies, to develop by taking responsibility, by taking an active hand in managing our future, our savings and investments, no matter how meagre they might appear at this moment in time.
The starting point in the discussion must be to ask how you see your future and that of your family over the coming years? It is critical, as a starting point, to assess and face the facts as to exactly where you are now, in the current time, relative to where you thought you might be the last time you looked and to see where you want to be in one, five and ten years – NO, NOT WHERE YOU THINK YOU WILL BE … WHERE YOU WANT TO BE, where you see yourself is where you will arrive – that is the question.
“I don’t believe in circumstance, the people that get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them”
Also GBS – He had something to say about, just about, everything …
And that’s where I will leave you for now – more to follow …
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