Portfolio is up to you “Live your own time” – HONZ

When choosing a book at a bookstore, many people probably look at Obi first. When I picked up this book, the first thing that caught my eye was the phrase “Thoughts on how to live free from capitalism.” I have read many books with similar content. The next moment I was about to put it back on the shelf, a strange word caught my eye.

“Why is it that the more efficient we become, the more we are pressed for time?”

At that time, I had just changed jobs and had the same problem. Even though we have improved efficiency by introducing convenient tools such as SNS, Slack, and Zoom, why do we end up losing time? The line between public and private life had become blurred, and I felt like I was being forced into a never-ending game of attrition, like a game of whack-a-mole.

Even though I was trying to escape, I think I still hadn’t set a concrete goal. Once I started reading this book, I couldn’t stop turning the pages. Like water seeping into a desert, the printed words appeared and jumped into my head. It helped me clear my head and know what to do. Quoting from the “Introduction”.

It’s a paradox that even though you’re trying to increase your productivity and save time, the more you focus on it, the more time you’re running out of. I wonder if there’s a time thief somewhere in the mechanism by which I live. So where is the time thief? Do you have any particular moments that come to mind? ~From the “Introduction” of this book

The author graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law and completed a Master of Design Methods at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After working in the P&G Marketing Department in charge of hit products such as Febreze and Lenor, he was involved in launching new business creation programs at Sony. After that, he started “BIOTOPE” and has been involved in strategic design for various companies.

Looking at this biography, you would think that he is a person who has continued to win on capitalist metrics (productivity, KPIs, self-investment, smartphone usage, etc.). It’s interesting to me how the author put this book together. The key to this book is a change in values ​​to “live your own time”, which is the exact opposite. The author points out that there are two types of words for this “change” in English.

Changes caused by external factors are called “changes.” The company ordered me to be transferred. He got married or had a child. divorced. I lost a loved one. These are “changes”. However, there is another change. That is “transition,” a change caused by internal factors. (Omitted) A change in values ​​and identity is a transition. ~From the “Introduction” of this book

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people have moved away from the office and have reduced the frequency of face-to-face meetings. The author analyzes that during this period, a transition occurred in which people regained their “self-time.” People began to think about what their ideal lifestyle would be, and as a result, many people changed their jobs and where they lived.

Certainly, it was a time when I eased off the accelerator that I had been keeping my foot on and deepened my introspection. The details are detailed in the chapter titled Great Reset (Copernican shift in values). “Earning wealth every day” “Are you in the city or in the countryside?” “What makes you feel “rich” when you’re doing something?” “How to break free from capitalism” and so on. That was an interesting consideration.

During that period, the author came across the theory of transitions. This is a theory by Bridges, an American human resources consultant, that there are three stages in life’s turning points. There are three stages: “time to end,” “neutral stage,” and “stage to start the next stage (regeneration stage).” There are many useful points when reading the explanations in this book, so I recommend reading it. It would be interesting to replace it with myself.

Actually, these three stages happened to me too. When the coronavirus pandemic began, I voluntarily quit my previous job where I had worked for 25 years. I ended the life I was used to and stayed home with my family during the first year of the coronavirus, then went through the neutral period of 2, where I moved around a lot, and now I’m in the 3 regeneration period.

The next chapter is a portfolio of new life topics such as “work,” “housing,” “food,” “community,” and “education.” The author’s own experiences and interviews with immigrants are included, so the resolution is high. I had previously visited potential destinations, but I remembered that I had decided to continue living in Tokyo based on my family’s unique judgment.

This book is a concrete account of the internal changes that occurred in oneself as a result of emigration, from the perspective of “one’s own time,” based on interviews with people who also emigrated. This book is by no means a “book praising migration.” ~From the “Introduction” of this book

If this book were to be a typical “book in praise of post-capitalism” or “a book in praise of migration,” then the title itself, “Living Your Own Time,” would be a self-contradiction. This is because the reader ends up living in “someone else’s time” according to the author’s ideas. There is no way the author, a strategic designer with many hits, would make such a mistake.

Also, this book is different from other self-help books, and has a unique personality. The author, a brilliant author, provides a framework for thinking while walking the reader through the transition process. There, readers are forced to face themselves, and this increases the value of their reading time itself, “here and now.” And it generates enormous power to change the lives of readers.

In short, the answer is not given by the author (someone else), but is left up to the reader (you). I realized that I had arrived at my own answer by overlapping my own changes since the spread of the new coronavirus with those of the author. For the author, moving to a rural area was the way to go, but for me, living in Tokyo was the way to go. Your new world portfolio is up to you.