As life goes on, the last few years since Covid hit have been the hardest in many dimensions—economically, mentally, and environmentally. All that the curtain has hidden is coming out to the surface, and it’s degrading in all possible ways we can imagine. Although the interest rates recently reduced for the first time in a few years, people are still feeling the pinch. This pours into their mental health, and the environment is not helping. With the change of weather patterns, a knock-on effect is felt everywhere, from farmers to average Joe wanting to just enjoy the weather, but it’s too hot. Through the motion of the different hard proportions, inflation is realized and thriving for itself.
If we had to look at life on a stork chat, the change from COVID would show a sharp decline in our value of life. The inflation in our lives is simply the change that causes us to adapt by reinforcing our ways or downsizing in our way, waiting for the vicisous season to pass. “What if it’s the new norm?”. In economics, we are taught that inflation goes up and down and never becomes chronic. One does not simply live in a constant state; we are always pushed through seasons in our lives, from the hard year-end chasing KPI season to the new year’s new goal resolutions. We have to be careful in how we read our state of life; just like inflation is a broad measure, we have many variables we have to take into consideration.
In all decision-making instances, time is always the winner over our choice. From split-second decision-making in a Formula 1 race to a political change of leaders to delay decision-making (RSA proverb in Gauteng), everything seems to have an expiration date bound to time. Let’s take the variable time in evaluating our life’s inflation. Over time, what we put in in our lives, we hope to receive significant rewards in all forms: money, happiness, and wisdom. But with inflation in our lives, this seems to be not the case, especially when we reach a certain stage in our lives. Growing graduates to aging, where no new leaves are formed. Our only hope can be a compound interest in our efforts that is eaten by the inflation infused by the world’s factors.
Through the lenses of my life, I have discovered new members of the family have taken a huge chunk of my stamina to pursue personal growth and keep up with my social circle of friends and family. Conversation with my manager has alluded me to look at a different perspective of the season, not to wait for the winter to end but to chunk what I can to adapt. In all cases of inflation in the market, adaptability is key to moving forward, not waiting on what’s not guaranteed.
To sum up our dive in understanding our lives using the inflation concept, we ought to be very careful in each season we find ourselves in, and our first action when run down by time should always be to adapt to create a balance in our lives overall. After all, just like COVID affected everyone in unique ways, inflation is felt differently in our lives, but there is one strong hold strategy everyone can shield themselves with: Adapt.
