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I don’t have to tell you that the Current Global Situation is daunting.
The biggest challenge for many of us is perhaps the uncertainty of it all. Where will things go from here? When will we be able to return to life as we knew it? How long will it take for life to feel normal again?
Nobody knows just yet. Time will tell. Here’s what we do know, though:
- We’re still here and in the game.
- We still have work to do.
- We can still serve others.
And so we can’t give up and give in to despair. If we do that, we let the virus win without having to even enter our body.
If we decide to be resourceful and resilient, however, and to persist and prosper, we can emerge from this pandemic stronger in body, mind, and spirit.
Antifragility is a term coined by financial analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe something that doesn’t merely survive shocks, but benefits from them. Thus, such things aren’t easily damaged, defeated, or destroyed.
Now’s the time to embrace antifragility, because in many competitions, you don’t have to be the best to win. You just have to be harder to destroy.
Do you know why bulldogs were such formidable opponents in nineteenth-century dog fighting?
It’s not because they were the strongest or most agile or hostile of breeds, but because the extra fat and skin around their necks made it harder to rip their throats out. Other dogs had to work overtime to kill them. That’s illustrative.
When you’re indefatigable, when you can absorb a tremendous number of blows to get into the pole position, and when you can embrace and even rejoice in adversity, you may strike out from time to time, but you’re going to bat a lot better than average.
Don’t think you can’t do this. It’s literally in your DNA.
Not so long ago, our forebears had to chase, fight, and kill just to survive. They expected hardship. They were willing to face the worst. They embraced the fact that the universe, in all its apparent tranquility, is a carefully balanced chaos of forces that we barely understand.
Now’s the time to act like we descended from these hardy men and women.
What’s more, many of history’s greatest figures and many of today’s strongest companies emerged from turbulent times and industries. This probably isn’t a coincidence, because contrary to popular belief, it’s not the smartest or strongest that survives, but the most adaptable.
In other words, nature rewards the nimble, and extreme environments call for extreme elasticity.
So, as the panic mounts and the jungle drums beat louder, know this: no matter how alarming circumstances might be, we can respond in one of two ways—we can view them as a challenge or a threat.
We can choose to redirect anxiety, stress, and fear toward positive outcomes. We can choose to push through pain for the opportunity to learn important lessons. And we can choose to never say die no matter how fiercely the winds of fate blow.
We’re living through history. A sea change is underway. Some people will be prepared to make the most of whatever comes next.
Will you be one of them?
