I’m convinced pain is just ahead and that it’s exactly the medicine we need. As much as I’d like to get it over with, nice and fast like, I’m afraid what we will get and really need is a period of prolonged pain. The good old-fashioned type where you find out what you’re made of. Where you remember what’s important and what you’re fighting for. Where you look back years later with gratitude that it made you the strong person you are today type.
In the pursuit of making our kids lives easier and not face the difficulties we did, have we not made them less resilient and more anxious? The kids today, am I right? The adults today, am I right?
Is it not a sign of the times when the company formerly known as Facebook plummets for wasting millions of dollars on a fake “meta” world? When one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history imploded in the cryptocurrency world using fake money. Where the number one job kids desire is to be an influencer. All while the world simultaneously faces an energy crisis and the worst inflation in 40 years on the most essential everyday items we need to live.
It seems the good times have us too focused on the meta, when we need to get back to the real. We seem to have lost our way. There’s too many people and things to blame right now to solve it expediently. Hence, people seem more divided than ever as we play the blame game. It could be a while before people forget why they are fighting each other and begin to come together with solutions.
The big conundrum is it’s as if we need to take a while to get to the solution. Only through the prolonged struggle do we more permanently heal and become better prepared to handle success. Too many years of great times and then kicking those problems down the road have gotten us to where we are.
Michael Hopf wrote…“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
The last sentence is exactly where I think we find ourselves.
Sure, we could install operation warp speed for energy policy ushering in clean and abundant nuclear energy, install small nuclear reactors to onshore and power manufacturing of essential supply chains, becoming a powerhouse, but we aren’t ready for great solutions. We aren’t mentally and physically ready to put in the hard work.
I think we are going to need to freeze in the cold a little, struggle to make ends meet more. It will force us to be more resilient, focusing more on our family, friends, and loved one, and only then will we be ready to work together for more sustainable success.
It’s been a long time since we’ve been in a real recession that corrects the sins of the past. Much of the 2008 recession was papered over. The quick pandemic recession was papered over more heavily than ever, allowing people to buy boats and party while we closed the economy. We didn’t really take our medicine during these times and correct bad behaviors. We seemingly only reinforced them.
It’s at the point where this next recession could be a real doozy, or where we spend the better part of a decade going in and out of more minor recessions that feel like one long one.
As much as I’d hope to get it over with quickly, there’s value in toiling in the fields as a young kid and the success it prepares you for later in life. I hate to say it, but I hope we take our medicine this time, even if it takes a while, so that we create a more sustainable recovery that benefits more people. It’s never fun to do what needs to be done while you are doing it, but the character it builds, makes you grateful for those times and everything that comes after.