Recession: Trajectory= [Situation]+[Aspiration]

Hello and welcome to "the Recession",

Over the next few weeks you should be seeing a series of blogs presenting the fruits of the ordinary experts mini think-a-thon about "the Recession". Here is the first segment.

Before getting stuck into the topic I would like to start by making two observations from experience.

The first is that where you are going has some bearing on what happens in the present.

One example of this might be if you are heading to the dentist (or an exam) you are likely to act very differently to how you might act when you are preparing to go to the cinema or for a coffee with a friend. If it was me in the first scenario I would be tetchy, grumpy and generally unpleasant to be around, while in the other I would be more relaxed (although I don't like coffee). I think this is important for the recession because where we as a society think we are going will impact how we act now. We will be much more pleasant if we are going for coffee than if we are going to an exam. I think we saw the result of just this sort of thing in the Tottenham riots in August of last year.

My second think is that: Trajectory= [Situation]+[Aspiration]

What do I mean by this? well simply put I am saying that where you end up is often the product of where you are now and where you would like to go. If your aspiration is to go to the cinema and your situation is that you have enough time and money your trajectory will be to go to the cinema and you will end up at the cinema.

Now obviously if your aspiration is to go to the cinema but your situation is that you don't have enough time or money, then that will effect your trajectory. You probably wont go to the cinema straight away but you might set aside time and save up money and eventually you would go to the cinema. Your end point would be the same but your trajectory would be slightly different.

It is my opinion that issues begin to arise when we change the formula from Trajectory=[Situation] + [Aspiration] to [Situation]=[Aspiration]=Trajectory. You see, in any given event there are things we have no control over, there are things we have indirect control over, and there are things we have control over. When we allow the situation to define our aspirations and therefore our actions that is when we give up control and that is when people lose control.

Such a road is one of self fulfilling prophecies where the end point is not so different from the current situation. We may have wanted to go to the cinema originally but we do not end up there.