Is this the best time to be making life changing or other major decisions? Perhaps, the temptation should be avoided just now, rather contemplating smaller life changes which should be doable no matter how the uncertainties of the future unfold.
Resilience is being tested in the time of Covid-19(CV) for all people; and it is also being developed. Building resilience has been discussed in previous Sherbhert articles, and one example, the can-do attitude of Royal Marine Commandos, was recently highlighted. For the commando, focus on “what they can do” rather than what they cannot is a good discipline: as is seeking to distil hope and opportunity out of current adversity. Another characteristic is “acceptance”, influencing only what one can; and in the case of CV’s consequences, accepting the living with uncertainty and taking things as they come; adapting on the way to new requirements and behaviours, while not knowing what future work, travel , social and other everyday life will look like.
MOVING TO THE COUNTRY? A LIFE-CHANGING IDEA
While living a lifestyle and workstyle under domestic CV lock-up, for some there may be time to reflect on what was previously better or worse, and what changes might be worth making in the future. Real uncertainty for the future as currently pertains can perhaps lead to a sense of lack of control and direction, and from there a desire to get control and make some decisions. An article in the Times of 20 May headlined “Disillusioned urbanites dreaming of a great escape”, and a sub-line “Home working and the sunny weather has led to a surge in interest in rural property” points to people considering life-changing decisions. It begins with a story of a couple, forced into home-working, who have spent lockdown in a rented holiday home in Norfolk instead of London, and who are contemplating a permanent move to the country: perhaps the biggest life and investment decision families make. This may well be right for them. But their only experience is during 8 weeks with wonderful weather – Winter is different and could have some influence on what may be the ultimate best decision.
BUYING A CAR – ANOTHER BIG INVESTMENT
A Financial Times article also of 20 May records the collapse of sales of private cars and real concern for the future among the car industry. It also points to a possible glimmer of hope, a silver lining: apparently immediately after Boris Johnson’s televised speech in early May announcing a gradual easing of lockdown, there was a huge surge of interest in buying cars experienced by Autotrader, the online car market. In China, as it eased out of lockdown, there was a sharp rise in individual car usage, as subways were avoided. As the U.S. and Europe relax restrictions, the car industry, the article reports, anticipates at least a short-term upswing in private car sales. People therefore are considering perhaps the second biggest investment and lifestyle decision, buying a car, as they contemplate how life after lockdown may look.
THINGS MAY KEEP CHANGING
Lots of outcomes are possible from the uncertainty: usage of public transport perhaps will be a fraction of what it was – which could influence significantly either the decision to move out or buy a car. Cities may discourage private cars, encouraging bicycles and walking; in lockdown, the stress of life in a small apartment with no outdoor space has perhaps loomed large, and houses with gardens, in and outside cities, are appreciated. Take London, so reliant for lifestyle on the variety of restaurants and bars, and the hospitality sector generally – will that ever come back, or at least in the short term? So too, theatres and other entertainments. These factors will go into the pot of ideas around investment decisions. If thinking of moving out of a City, and things do not work out as planned, it may be harder to move back. While homeworking will be a big thing for at least a year and maybe much longer, in the long-term people may miss the buzz and social aspect of going to the office or equivalent. How the world of work and leisure will eventually emerge is anybody’s guess, and there may be lots of different things tried, problems solved by technology, and the attitude of people to risk of CV and other diseases will vary until any normals are established. Perhaps the situation will remain in flux for some time.
Social distancing may become well established in some shape or form, with empty trains and buses; eating out may become rare except in exclusive and highly costly establishments; private office accommodation per person rather than crammed open plan could be the norm; International travel may be highly circumscribed. But then eureka a vaccine is discovered, and everything will change again. Who knows? When big decisions are made, they happen on the basis of assumptions and predictions, hopefully assessed with a level of rationality. But that is hard today in a number of areas.
RELATIONSHIPS- ABNORMALITY AND STRAIN
Another area where decisions may be contemplated could be relationships, for example between people who have been forced to share a setting for 24/7, or who have been unable to meet for an extended period. The abnormality of the situation could be so extreme as to have created strains that may never otherwise manifest themselves. Making lasting determinations about such relationships might perhaps best be deferred in many circumstances.
DOING THE DOABLE
On the other hand, during lockdown people may have adopted new ways and behaviours, or developed pre-existing ones, which could be enjoyable and life enhancing to continue into the future, in whatever way the uncertainties resolve themselves. That is, the ability to carry them forward is mainly a choice within a person’s control, unaffected by other eventualities, and so they are doable. The range of things is as broad as the populace itself.
Any decision to make a major change now for the long term will be being resolved during a time of stress, or indeed extreme relaxation, in exceptional circumstances with normal considerations and life assumptions thrown into disarray. Is that the best time to be making such decisions? Perhaps not for a number of people. It may be a better option to accept uncertainties until some level of clarity appears, and to keep adapting as behaviours develop or are dropped and restrictions are relaxed or invented to meet new circumstances. Taking things a week at a time may be easier to cope with and then in due course develop longer term plans with more reliability.
For some however the changes currently in the mixer may present such clear opportunity that it must be grabbed now and caution abandoned. Nevertheless, at the least, people can carry on with the doable new things they choose to, no matter how uncertainties unfold.
