I remember this one time, probably a good few years back now, I was sitting in on this rather stuffy meeting. Lots of suits, important-sounding titles, the whole shebang. We were talking about some big project that was, let’s just say, not going exactly to plan. Deadlines were looming, and no one really had a solid answer for how to fix things. After a lot of back and forth, the guy in charge, a real big shot, just sighed and said, “Alright, folks. It sounds like we’re just kicking the can down the road on this one. We’ll have to revisit it next quarter.”
Now, I was a bit younger then, still learning the ropes of corporate speak. “Kicking the can?” I thought. I literally pictured someone booting an old tin can. Seemed a bit odd for a serious business discussion. For a hot second, I wondered if they were talking about some weird team-building exercise I hadn’t heard of. I definitely didn’t want to ask and look like I was out of the loop, so I just nodded along like I knew exactly what he meant.
Later that day, I was grabbing a coffee with a colleague who’d been around the block a few times. I casually mentioned it, trying to sound like I was just curious about the phrasing, not totally clueless. “So, uh, ‘kicking the can’… that’s a new one on me,” I said, trying to play it cool.
He laughed, a good, hearty laugh. “Ah, yeah, that old chestnut,” he said. “It just means to put off dealing with a problem. You know, instead of facing it now, you just push it a little further away, hoping it’ll be easier to handle later, or maybe someone else will deal with it.”
Boom! The lightbulb went on. It wasn’t literal at all. It was a metaphor for delaying a decision, especially a tough one. You’re not solving the issue, just postponing the inevitable. Like kicking an actual can – it moves, but it’s still there, waiting for you further down the path.
Ever since that day, I’ve started noticing “kicking the can” everywhere. It’s amazing how often it happens, once you know what to look for.
- You see it in politics all the time, when difficult choices get pushed past the next election.
- Heck, I’ve done it myself in my personal life. Got a tricky email to reply to? Sometimes it’s easier to just… not open it for a day. Or two. That’s can-kicking, on a small scale.
- Even with household chores. That wobbly shelf? “I’ll get to it next weekend.” Famous last words, right?
It really made me think. People do it because facing problems is hard. It’s uncomfortable. Sometimes it feels easier to just nudge it out of sight for a bit.
So, what’s the big takeaway from my little discovery?
For me, understanding “kicking the can” was more than just learning a new idiom. It was about recognizing a pattern of behavior. It’s the act of avoidance. Now, I’m not saying a strategic delay is never useful – sometimes you genuinely need more information or a better time to act. But more often than not, that can just gets rustier and harder to deal with the longer you leave it.
It’s a pretty common human tendency, I reckon. But knowing the phrase, and what it really means, helps me spot it in myself and in others. And usually, it’s a good reminder that tackling the problem head-on, even if it’s tough, is often better than just giving it a boot and hoping for the best. That can has a nasty habit of tripping you up later if you’re not careful.
