Separating the Chicken From the Egg

This is an exercise in problem solving, and hopefully an inspiration to be able to find different avenues when you feel stuck on an issue. Often we feel there is only one road to take- one route to the end of a question. Everything else seems like a dead end, and there isn’t even a clear solution or resolution to our question. I’ve been thinking deeply into this lately, and my life has been upside down for some time now. Since I moved here it’s been an absolute struggle. Nothing has come as planned, which is odd because I feel like this is the only time in my life I had any real plans or preparation- I’m one to decide something and go with it. As it was described to me by a friend: “There are people who look before they leap, and there are those who look after they leap- you are one that looks around while you’re in the air.” This ballistic assessment of my situation has done me well (ish) so far, but this time I really wanted to feel like I was doing it right. I’m older now, and frankly figuring out how to fly while the plane is crashing is stressful. So I took time, had a plan, had savings, and…well, even the best laid plans go awry. 

So I’ve been in this spot of survival now for almost two years. How do I do this? I’ve done this before, why is it so hard now? Yes, moving is never easy, but also I’ve had an extra special set of hurdles to jump through and I’ve grown tired. So what do I do? What do you do when you can’t find a job in your field, your business isn’t growing as you’d like it to, and even in a hot market your house won’t sell? The wall seemed so tall that I’d never get over it. And that’s fine- go around it. 

We have all heard the age old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Take a moment here to think about your answer. Got it? How did you come up with your answer? Reflect for a second then keep reading. 

This seems like an impossible question right? There had to be a chicken to lay the egg, but chickens come from eggs. This has been a philosophy conundrum for eons. Yet there is an answer that is clear, simple, and proven. It just takes some thinking outside of the shell. The egg came first. Clear and simple. Eggs were on this earth ages before even the ancestors of chickens. 340 Million years ago the first eggs arrived into existence. Birds? Only 150 million years ago. So eggs have been around for twice as long as birds even, and chickens were waaaaaaaaay after that appearing only 10,000 years ago. Fish laid eggs first, reptiles started about 150 million years later, 25 million years later birds arrived, and chickens are basically newborns in the series of evolution. And this is just the timeline for shelled eggs. Other forms arrive million and millions of years before that. Eggs were period. 

Why has this become a statement of philosophical importance then when there is such a clear and proven answer? Because it challenges thought. Did you think about fish eggs? Or were you stuck on chicken eggs? The question doesn’t state “which came first, chickens or chicken eggs?” It just simply asks about the existence of eggs, of which there are thousands more avenues than from the cloaca of a chicken.  And that is it. What I wanted to share today with you. Think outside of the existence of your question, and explore different avenues. My house didn’t sell, still- yeah, I know even in this hot market. It’s crap. So what do I do? Keep lowering the price? Lose tons of money to get rid of it? No. I am renting it. I am providing housing for someone while gaining an investment opportunity for my future. I only saw the first out, and the cash I could have made from that and not the long road and likely more fortuitous one at that. My job? Reshape, rethink, rebrand, and I’m going back to school. Got a few part time gigs in the meantime that will allow me what I need to survive. It took some good advice, some help from others, and the push to rethink what I thought I knew. And I encourage you to do the same. Be well.