Guest editorial: Create time to create future

This column is a rushed job. Life is a rush. Everyone is busy. Everyone. The year goes so fast. Kids seem to grow up in a flash. So when do we do our thinking?

How do we get the time to innovate, to create?

It was recently reported that most visitors to The Cloud on Auckland's waterfront during the Rugby World Cup "expected New Zealand to be a bit technologically backward, particularly our Australian neighbours, with only 34per cent thinking we were technologically advanced, and our Asian neighbours only 18 per cent. Overall the survey respondents consider Kiwis to be friendly, straightforward and hard working but rural and not particularly creative." For a supposedly innovative country, this is a bit surprising. So maybe we need to take more time to think.

And where can we think? Men are said to need a "man cave", and I am not qualified to suggest where the fairer sex think better. But as a human race, think we have. During the centuries there have been a bunch of critical innovations that someone took the time to think up that have made, and continue to make, a critical difference. I suspect they were on holiday when they made the breakthroughs, as they had the space to look at things a bit differently.

The hand axe enabled humans to hunt and gather with more than just their hands. Farming, as a system, enabled us to walk out the back door and eat food. It superseded hunting and gathering. Cities developed as people sought to live closer together and this innovation enabled efficiency of living. Transport meant you could go somewhere else faster than a walk and send stuff places without going yourself. It enabled trade. Energy production enabled production.

Communications meant you could stand still and still get the message through, or hear what someone else had to say without being with them. Medicine of course has enabled us to survive and stay alive longer. It's put difficult choices in our path. More recently, the internet has shrunk the globe while expanding access to knowledge and others. Looking forward, who knows what the Square Kilometre Array or Hedron Collider will bring?

As us adults are so busy, what about the kids? Recently I went to lunch with one of my young sons and asked him what the big issues were for him this year. He had just finished primary school. The list he rattled out was: Am I going to miss the bus? Do I have enough money to pay for the bus home? When I am at school, how long until lunch? What am I going to do on the weekend? Before any game, am I ready to win? When am I going to see my friends? Have I brushed my teeth? Have I done my homework?

My son's had a pretty good year. His list could equally apply to the country.

We don't want to miss the First World country bus, we need to earn money to pay for it, need food, need leisure time, friends in the world, and good health. And we need to do our homework in preparation for the tests ahead.

Everyone has their own perspective of course. But I can't help but think that sometimes we worry about stuff that doesn't really matter. We spend too much time anxious and don't give ourselves enough space to think, innovate and create. We create burdens and anxieties that we don't need, can't change and that don't matter. Perhaps we need to chill out, relax, take time to think, and back ourselves. Holidays are a good thing.

Conor English is the CEO of Federated Farmers of NZ.