LIVE WELL in TURBULENT TIMES article #8 of 10)

PREPARE CALMLY FOR COLLAPSE

Having prepared for the end of the world, they sat on a mountain top and waited. It didn’t happen.

A while later, they prepared and sat and waited again; and it didn’t happen again.

Maybe those who now tell us that life-as-we-know it will soon come to a grinding halt, are similarly deluded.

But then again, are they onto something?

I’ve thought a lot about it and have listened to others who’ve thought about it too. I don’t know - my guess is as good as yours - but I reckon that there is now at the very least a possibility that the systems we currently rely on could collapse. I suspect I will witness this in my lifetime (I have 13 years left if I live as long as my dad).

So I’m hedging my bets and am preparing – calmly - in a way that makes sense whether or not collapse does indeed comes to pass.

With that preparing, I notice that I feel calmer. Preparing helps me to live well in turbulent times.

I think of riding motorbikes, as I did from age 16 to 72; when I wore a crash helmet, I felt some reassurance that it would be there if needed it (which indeed I did in a few brush-with-death moments).

Everything on this list is worth doing, systemic collapse or not and several are ‘business as usual’ for many households: stocked cupboards, energy efficiency, backup lights.

What am I doing to help me prepare calmly? Here’s the headlines:

1. Maintaining a store of canned and dry foods with high nutritional values, pasta, rice, replacing regularly keeping everything in date, to ride over bumps in the supply of basics.

2. Installing two fire extinguishers (in case the fire brigade may be under pressure and take time to come) and having an update first aid kit close to hand.

3. Having alternative light and power sources (battery packs, candles, a battery light which comes on when the power goes off); and we are recommissioning an old oil lamp I inherited from my parents).

4. Having two mini water filters ready in the drawer and installing rainwater storage containers to harvest and store what falls freely from the sky.

5. In our small suburban garden, I am re-learning how to grow food and flowers (for the pleasure of tasting new potatoes, home grown carrots and the like, while not entertaining the fantasy of self-sufficiency)

6. Insulating windows as best I can (over the years and as money allows, progressing from ‘Clingfilm’ on the windows to secondary glazing now to new double-glazed units).

7. After years of not doing it, now getting an insecure and drafty old side door refurbished.

Alongside these seven things, we enjoy the company of those living close by, finding that this community is enriching now, and also knowing that if systems fail, we will all be on hand to support each other, needing neither travel nor tech.

Everything on this list is worth doing, systemic collapse or not, the effort is minimal and most are reasonably low cost to do. So why not?

Well, one ‘why not’ is that we may be at a life stage when we do not have the spare time and attention - job, kids, parents, shopping, keeping a roof over our heads and the like. There’s too much going on now, so no spare bandwidth to think about tomorrow. At my later stage of life, these demands have become less pressing.

Another ‘why not’ is that money is a limitation, even though the first four on the list are two figure expenditures. And let’s spare a thought for those in the world who have no spare cash at all.

Alongside these reasons not to prepare for collapse, I take a moment to think, to imagine.

1. I imagine the day when the lights don’t switch on and the fridge no longer hums You never know when there’s electricity, as is already the case in many parts of the world.

2. I imagine the taps in the kitchen delivering a trickle of water, but it doesn’t taste clean because it isn’t.

3. I imagine the day when there is one additional, uninvited person (AI) in every Zoom, Googlemeet or Teams meeting.

4. I imagine that it’s a good day when there’s stuff on the shelves. I often wonder about supplies of my favourite food disappearing and some days the milk, bread and other staples are there, but some days not and I have to get used to long queues.

Imagine the day, imagine the day...

While imagining these things, I also consider all the people who created these systems and others who maintain and operate them so that each of the systems I rely on keep working. These systems are complex and fragile and so are the people who keep them running; neither people nor systems may survive or function well with the onslaught of emotional instability, tight finance, unbridled AI, attack and war.

I think my preparations are grounded, sensible and that my head is neither in the sand nor in the clouds.

Maybe you are open to considering these things. Neither head in the sand nor waiting for The End on the mountain top seem smart options to me.

I am doing things which I think make sense with or without gradual or perhaps sudden collapse. My preparation is not Rambo-style sharpening my machete and heading for the jungle and eating roots ands berries. It is much calmer and more sensible than that and anyway I don’t have a jungle close by.

This Live Well in Turbulent Times series accompanies the best seller and idiosyncratic novel business book ‘Good Leaders in Turbulent Times: How to Navigate Wild Waters at Work’ which is packed full of practical advice - see what shines bright for you - for leaders going through crises and emerging stronger. A story of nine characters over seven years, with 41drawings by Steven Appleby and 138 nuggets of advice (definitely some for you in there)

The next article in the series #9 ‘WHAT ARE YOU FOR?’ will be published on Wednesday 18^th June

Previous articles in the series of 10:

#7 PAIN TO FUEL (aka Bad Stuff to Good Stuff)

#6 MEET TOGETHER

#5 STOP, KEEP BREATHING< NOTICE WHAT HAPPENS

#4 PROTECT MYSELF, DISCERN THE TRUTH

#3 SEVEN THINGS TO CONSIDER.

#2 REACTING TO TURBULENCE

#1 LEAVING MY DOOR OPEN

INTRODUCTION

Article image: EyeEm Mobile GmbH