Stranded

“I have a feeling that my boat has struck, down there in the depths, against a great thing. And nothing happens! Nothing...Silence...Waves...

Nothing happens? Or has everything happened, and are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?”

You may recognize these lines as “Oceans”, the poem by Spanish prolific writer and Nobel Prize in Literature Juan Ramón Jiménez. I first read it several years ago, and the words have been with me ever since. I suppose the older I get, the more significance I derive from it. The poetry, in my opinion, speaks to us about change, but not just any change, rather, one that is virtually imperceptible. We have the impression that something is different, but we cannot be certain. “Silence”, as he points out, is the only thing that accompanies our sensation of change. Still, we know deep down that the life we knew is over and that a new chapter has begun.?

Have you ever felt this way? I know I have. Change is present in all aspects of our life. Work, personal relationships, and our own consciousness are fertile ground for inconspicuous change to take place. Most of the time, we choose to ignore the numerous signs that a situation has come to an end, in other words, that “our boat has struck down there in the depths”. This is because we have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo as evidently, we have been able to survive. Our ego’s primary goal is to protect us thus, it will do whatever it can behind the scenes to keep us safe, from creating fear to convincing us that nothing is different or that the new situation is unimportant.

I see two ways to react to change. Number one, we stay on the boat and hope to resume sailing once waters rise again. This might never happen, but at least our ego will be pleased. And number two, we embrace standing in the new life, get off the boat and charge ahead. This will demand from us the ability to adjust to unknown conditions, to learn new things, and to respond quickly to new circumstances. Adaptability, in other words.

According to Tim Harford in “Adapt”, adjusting to an unexpected situation will also call for tolerance to failure. Trial and error, in his opinion, is needed when addressing problems because the evolutionary algorithm – of variation and selection, repeated – seeks solutions in a world where challenges are constantly varying. The ability to adapt requires then inner confidence that the cost of failure is one we can endure.

Acquiring the necessary skills to adapt to change is something all of us can do. But, in my opinion, the greater task is to develop sensitivity to recognize the degree of adaptability that a new scenario demands from us. Let’s take a look at our work lives to illustrate this point. Often, it’s just a matter of making a few little tweaks to our thinking or behavior to meet new expectations. Other times, however, complete self-reinvention is required. When this occurs, most people will hurry to identify themselves as experts in a new role in order to appease their ego (i.e., return to a sense of security and stability). In his book "Range”, David Epstein argues against this and instead recommends that we become generalists. He looked at some of the world's most successful people and discovered that generalists, not specialists, are better suited to succeed in most industries, especially those that are complex and unpredictable. For example, athletes who go on to become elite rarely specialize early in their careers, and musicians achieve greatness through a wide range of methods.

Early hyperspecialization is frequently promoted as a sort of life hack, a prescription that will save us the time and effort of gaining experience. However, research in a variety of fields reveals that mental wandering and personal exploration can be powerful. As a result, Epstein suggests for us to experiment and change as required. Moreover, he notes we are better off forsaking a former aim and changing directions totally if the need arises. To put it in another way, when the moment comes to reinvent ourselves, let’s take some time to be generalists. This will enable us to be more creative, agile, and capable of making connections that our more specialized counterparts are unable to see.

For some people, self-reinvention might imply leaving their corporate jobs to start a business that supports the lifestyle of their dreams. If this resonates with you, pay attention as Timothy Ferriss reveals a strategy for reinventing yourself in "The 4-Hour Work Week." He proposes a step-by-step approach that begins with defining our true desires. This may need testing different options without informing others, as most people are quick to stop us before we begin. The second stage is to eliminate activities that waste our time. Selective action (i.e., doing less) is the way of the productive. Also, time-wasters like irrelevant meetings, repetitive catch-up calls, and nonsense emails should be avoided. Third, Ferriss suggests automating our cash flow by outsourcing as much as possible so that we can devote our time to bigger and greater things. And in the fourth and last step, he advocates for dissolving the ties that bind us to a single location, in other words, to encourage remote working as days outside the office can be very productive.

Going back to Juan Ramón Jiménez, he discovered at a young age that the family's wine-making business was not for him. So, after graduating from high school, he went on to study law, which he eventually abandoned in order to pursue painting. But he quickly realized that poetry was his true calling and devoted himself entirely to writing. When Jiménez's father died, he fell into a deep depression that required him to spend years in hospitals and mental centers. He then resurfaced as a mentor to a new generation of poets as well as a best-selling author with "Platero y Yo," the Spanish book translated into more languages along with Don Quixote. A few decades later, when the Spanish Civil War broke out, he was forced to live in exile in Florida, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Throughout his life, Jiménez adapted his work to the early 1900s' modernity, then to his dark times of despair with stripped-down poetry, and finally to his last years by the sea. “Oceans” is the result of this remarkable story of adaptability and reinvention. Go back and read it again. You may realize that the one standing now, quietly, in the new life, is you.

Author: Esteban Polidura, CFA. November 13, 2021.?