Overcoming Inertia
(For the next few weeks, we’re going to look at some of the more common reasons people put off exploring a Second Rodeo.)
An old man and his dog used to sit on the porch every afternoon waiting for the mail. One day while he was making small talk with the mail carrier, the dog, who had been sleeping, raised his head and let loose a long, mournful howl. The mail carrier was startled but the old man didn’t even notice. This happened several more times over the next week and finally she had to ask. “Mr. Jones, your dog sounds like he’s in pain. Is everything alright?”
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with this ol’ mutt,” he said. “He likes to lay in that exact spot every day. But there’s a nail sticking up from the porch. I keep forgetting to hammer it back down. After about thirty minutes that nail starts to rub his chest and he has to complain about it.””
The mail carrier considered this a moment. “Why doesn’t he just move?”
The old man shrugged and said, “Well ma’am, I guess it don’t hurt that much.”
I love that story because that dog is us. He’s me. We all put up with things that could be fixed, but our discomfort isn’t yet enough to evoke change. We intend to make a change. We complain about the need for a change. But we have yet to change. Inertia is a powerful force to overcome.
At Second Rodeo, it’s not our place to tell people when to change. Instead, we guide people on a journey of self-discovery that deflates the reasons to stay where you are. That sometimes means asking difficult, even uncomfortable questions. Sometimes, we all need a nudge.
The first category of discomfort comes from what we can call active waiting. You’re emotionally ready, you have a good idea about what’s next, but your primary focus right now is wrapping up your first rodeo, aka “retirement”. Yet you’re actively learning, planning, dreaming about what’s next even as you wait on the details of when.
What I see more often are people delaying the planning and preparation of what’s next for non-specific reasons–let’s call it passive waiting. In physics, inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its velocity. Decision making can create an inertia of its own. So we’d rather tell ourselves, I’ll deal with it later. I’m sure it will all work out.
The process of planning a Second Rodeo often involves answering intensely personal questions that are easily postponed. It can mean wading through a gauntlet of enticing options that all look good. Choosing this and not that. Rather than investigate, we wait. And wait and wait some more.
Wise people typically start their journey toward financial freedom decades before they retire, knowing their money needs time to grow. Planning what you’ll do when you have financial freedom takes time as well. When should you start planning a Second Rodeo? As soon as you know you aren’t going to do what you’re now doing forever. That means today is a pretty good day to start.
Dreaming is free. Research is easier now than at any time in human existence. Exploring some interesting possibilities is not a lifelong commitment. Test-driving several scenarios can be fun, even liberating.
If this topic has been creating some discomfort for a while now, let’s work together to get you off that nail.
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