Embrace the absurd

Let’s paint a picture

 Well the chicken crossed the road – and I think we all know why? …. BUT

the other day I discovered that my son has a picture of the chicken crossing a country road, with the words:

“I dream of a World where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.”

Absurd – ridiculous – and very funny!

It’s just another way of looking at things.

How would a 12 years old boy in Guatemala look at this, or a 90 years old woman in Hungary?

I grew up on a diet of Monty Python, the Two Ronnies, Spike Milligan etc where humour was often ridiculous. Inevitably I have a different sense of humour to the younger ones in my family; and my “Dad Jokes” receive the expected derision (well at least I get a reaction).

But as a way of decision-making and an aid to creativity, embracing the absurd is great.

How many times in history has the absurd happened? For example, with guerrillas making a mockery of massive forces – harnessing speed, agility and their own brand of decision-making?

For every big decision the questions should be:

·         Is this the only way?

·         What if we accepted it wasn’t and looked at the alternatives?

 A painful example

 It reminds me of working on a massive bid for a well-known American Company in London. It slavishly used Six Sigma and other project methodologies, whether or not they were needed (N.B. Is this the only way?”):

·         Set procedures - slavishly followed

·         150 PowerPoint slides for a bid/no bid where we were already deep into the next phase (the Corporation had already committed so much money, that the decision had been made)

·         An online meeting – 3 locations in the USA and 3 in the UK for that 7 hours bid/no bid meeting

·         Decision delayed whilst 3 of us then flew to the USA to meet the Corporation’s Executive on a difficult (for them) point

·         Ludicrous – hopefully Covid 19 put a stop to such stupidity – better to find other ways

And in the USA, I suggested doing it differently.

Even making that suggestion was classed as an absurd idea. I was told that I was “fired” – an interesting concept when I was self-employed, not employed by them in the first place! The whole episode was costly, time-consuming and unnecessary – in my view stupid …. and it didn’t change anything, we carried on bidding!

 Being different

 Many of our best discoveries and inventions have come from looking at something differently – whether through happenstance or a combination of other ideas:

·         Will Keith Kellogg (yes, that was his name) accidentally left some wheat on to boil, and the World’s most famous cereal (Corn Flakes) was born (happenstance)

·         Viagra – the plan was to treat angina ……… but Pfizer discovered that their drug was having a different effect on men – causing erections (happenstance)

·         The clock-radio, multi-tool pocket-knife and smartphone were all combinations

Absurdity is often just looking at something in a way that is outside the norm – our comfort zone.

We try to claim that our decisions are based on logic, whereas the driver is frequently emotion, but we claim logic to fit those decisions.

 A different way of thinking

 The whole notion of a time to retire is based on a logical premise without the emotion. At first look, the idea that you can or cannot retire being solely based on your financial situation, appears to make sense. (Millions of entries in Google, from financial people, would appear to support this notion).

But does it make sense?

Let’s be absurd – because I believe that this is the wrong way of looking at things.

The problem is that this method stops people doing things, by completely blocking their thinking (I can’t afford those things, so I can’t do them etc).

To me, it’s about the other elements first – the why? The decisions that come from emotions:

·         Why do I want to retire?

·         What do I want to do; where, when and with whom?

·         How can I have the personal energy I need for that?

·         How can I make it happen?

Then it becomes a question of money, health, help, attitude etc.

Yes, money is very important – but it’s not the place to start your thinking.

Granted, it’s important to build-up money if and as possible – and this can all be affected, or have been affected, e.g.  by redundancy, divorce, Covid 19 and any number of obligations – which can mean really understanding your priorities.

But with deep knowledge of what you want to do, when and why, you are in a much better position to get ultra-creative with the “how”.

The how can involve both financial and non-financial things – and this is a function of a real knowledge of yourself.

You may be fortunate and simply be able financially to do what you wish.

But if you need to do so you can consider e.g.:

·         Part-time, different role based on your interests (not necessarily what you have done before)

·         Starting your own business

·         Leveraging assets (which might involve downsizing, equity release etc)

·         Living differently

·         Joining with others in a different way

·         Getting creative/different – looking at things in another way

And here’s a thought for all those people who ceased work early because Covid 19 incited you to look at your life differently, but you are now worried (e.g. by the energy crisis) thinking you may have a financial need to go back to work.

What could happen if you had a time-shift? Say you secured a job (possibly in the same Organisation as before), but with an agreement to return to work in 6- or 12-months’ time? Or perhaps you’re in the fortunate position of knowing you could find a new role then and don’t need that security.

Then say you took that 6 or 12 months and did a load of things you wanted to do in retirement – like travel the World etc.

You could use the money, knowing that you’d replenish it.

Don’t focus on the complications – focus on the possibilities – e.g. how can I make this happen?

I recently read the book “The 100-Year Life” by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. Part of their premise is that in the future we will have multiple roles – with training and other periods between them. Some of our leisure/retirement might be taken in chunks earlier – so it’s no longer a 3 stage Educate – Work – Retire. My suggestion (above) is just taking an element of that now.

For some, Covid 19 has brought different opportunity and different thinking.

Absurd notion, isn’t it?

You might just want to embrace it!