Adjusting Course: Lessons in Flexibility
Why does the path of an object, over long distances and time, appear to curve and meander before reaching its target?
Take, for example, a plane flying north from the equator. It will not fly in a straight line. First, it must compensate for the Earth’s rotation. Then, the navigation system adapts to a curved route to reach its destination. Though this effect may seem minor, it becomes significant over long distances. This phenomenon is known as the Coriolis force.
It’s also noticeable in large-scale movements, such as air currents, ocean currents, and weather systems. This deflection is what gives hurricanes their characteristic spiraling shape. It’s called an “apparent” force because it doesn’t result from any physical push or pull. Instead, it’s the result of observing movement within a rotating reference frame, which makes it look like there’s a force acting on objects when, in reality, they are moving in straight paths relative to their own perspective.
Understanding the Coriolis force provides insights into more than just physical movement. It teaches us about the importance of accounting for unseen influences over long-term journeys. This principle can offer valuable lessons for navigating complex systems, like financial markets. Just as a plane must adjust its route to reach its destination, financial strategies must also adapt to subtle, yet significant, forces over time.
Here’s how this connection unfolds.
The Coriolis Force
At the start, we incorporate our goals, needs, dreams, considerations, and wishes. We assess risks to better understand market performance probabilities, much like a captain mapping a route while factoring in cargo weight, tail drag, head winds, cross winds, and air traffic. A comprehensive start feels reassuring and responsible. Then, in time, something happens.
A specific life event changes our perspective. Something we once desired no longer feels appetizing. A wish for a certain unplanned item materializes. The market enters correction territory. Interest rates fall and then rise. International tensions heighten fears of a looming conflict. Another dependent surprises our family. A parent needs support. A friend faces financial hardship, and our heart speaks out. Our son or daughter speaks of attending college out of state.
Like the Coriolis force, our lives too operate within a “rotating reference frame.” Patterns emerge and we see cycles in our lives where themes repeat and unexpected happenings cause our trajectory to seemingly veer off course. Yet, these moments don’t throw us off our path—they cause our plans to curve and adapt around life’s rotating forces, creating the illusion of deviation.
It’s a give-and-take relationship, where we learn to become vulnerable and flexible to things outside our control. In the end, our plans changed because we changed, but we hit our target because we adapted to risks and the rotation of external forces impacting our strategy. We made small adjustments along the way. Sacrifices even.
In our pursuit to manage a dynamic strategy, not a rigid one, we will not only survive unplanned events and catastrophes, we will thrive. In the words of Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”