The question is widespread: how to deal with chaos, or to use a trendy word, with a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous)?
I like one answer provided by Leo Babauta in a blog post on how to deal with chaos: “When chaos and messiness come our way, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not inherently stressful and anxiety-inducing. It’s just that our minds don’t usually like these things. We want order and simplicity.
So the problem isn’t the external situation. It’s our internal ideals. We want order and simplicity, not to be interrupted, not to be overwhelmed. The ideal of orderliness is causing our frustration, stress, anxiety, not other people, not a chaotic situation.
The ideal of orderliness causes our difficulties. And we created the ideal. Therefore, we are causing our own difficulties.
The good news is that, if we created the ideal, we have the power to change it.”
The interesting part is to identify how our embedded ideal of orderliness and stability influences the way we look at the world. That is definitely something we need to overcome to thrive in the Collaborative Age, and that needs to be part of the education of every young generation: change is the new normal.
