Three Skills to Thrive in 2021
As we end this year and get ready for the next, I’ve been thinking about the enormous amount of uncertainty we’ve been living under.
When the ground shifts to the degree it has old systems tend to collapse, and the new solutions that come to take their place, while helpful, carry with them their own amounts of confusion and uncertainty.
Faced with so much that's unfamiliar I've noticed some large part of me just wants things to “settle down,” take on some semblance of "normalcy" and offer back up the "predictable” and “anticipated.”
And I’m not the only one. There is everywhere a resistance to the level of disruption we've been navigating. In a way we're ready for the “new” to be over.
And this is what I’ve been thinking about lately, this aversion to deep change and its accompanying state of "not knowing."
Not knowing is a very unstable platform from which to leap into yet more unknown. We can feel the free-fall of it and it’s not comfortable.
But if experiencing the unknown is a necessary and key aspect of change, including positive change such as growth, then learning to co-exist with the unknown is not optional.
Learning to thrive in the unknown becomes an even better goal.
Learning to navigate the unknown nimbly and well is no ordinary skill, and not a choice if we’re looking for the continued growth many of us are after.
So how do we tolerate external disruption without being internally disrupted ourselves?
How do we best navigate the rapid change that comes with accelerated growth?
While these questions are an ongoing study for me, here are three things I’ve found that can help right now:
Tighten the Frame. Don’t just be in the moment, but be in this very moment of the moment. Tightening the immediacy of your frame of action will give you the most current and relevant data from which to make decisions.
Know the full range of your risk tolerance. Knowing who you are in this situation in this moment is key to understanding the right risk level to tolerate during disruption. Getting to this level of self-knowledge requires ongoing attention to the question of who you are.
Stay in flow. Know that immediate reactions to the actions you take don’t hold the whole story of your actions. Time reveals layers of impact. Let things be without applying the old standards of success, and let your actions express their full truth over time.
Now each one of the three suggestions above is not a simple “to do” fix. They ask more of you and have a different “quality” to them don’t they.
They are the rules and tools for working with what I call creative uncertainty. They tap the knowledge of how to step beyond what’s known into what’s unknown, and in fact thrive once you get there.
Which is important, this ability to navigate creative uncertainty, because I believe this is exactly where we’re headed. Unfettered by what was and didn’t work, we’re speeding headlong into what is, and what’s possible. What could be.
These are new times coming. They will ask of us new responses, new visions and new ways of working.
I invite you to welcome what’s coming, to hitch your skirts and dive in, not with fear, but with excitement, with your vision, your truth, and above all, that thing that lies in your heart just waiting to be expressed.
Welcome to 2021!