Ten years ago the challenges you face today would probably not have arisen for you. You were likely in a different role and you probably didn’t have the skills or experience to be able to do what you can do today. Similarly, the situations you found challenging then are probably routine for you now.
The abilities you have today are a direct result of the challenges you faced in the past. Which means that the challenges you face today are actually opportunities for you to become the kind of person you want to become tomorrow.
You get to choose which challenges you respond to and the ways you do so. Which means that you get to choose who you become.
This brings you five more opportunities for how you might choose to move forward from whatever situations you are facing today:
- Apply your existing skills
Under this option you might choose to address a situation by applying the skills you already have. Now even a supposed ‘crisis’ becomes an opportunity for you to practice or hone your existing abilities.
. - Develop or Expand your skills
Another option would be to use the situation as an opportunity to develop new skills or abilities. Again, a so-called ‘problem’ becomes an opportunity for you to learn and grow.
. - Transform your abilities
The ultimate skill would be to have been able to prevent the current situation from arising in the first place. As Sun Tzu put it, “The greatest general is the one who defeats an enemy without fighting.” So your third opportunity is to learn whatever skills or abilities would have enabled you to prevent the current situation from happening. This is the most difficult but also the most powerful response. (The book says more about how you can achieve this.)
If none of these paths seem attractive there are two more options you might choose:
- Ignore the situation
You might choose to ignore the current situation and live with it. This could be appropriate if you have other, higher priorities to address. Or you might want others to learn and develop their skills. So your opportunity here is to improve your ability to prioritise, to delegate, or to develop others.
. - Remove your skills to somewhere else
The final option is to use the event as a trigger to move to a different situation: perhaps one that has more meaning for you, that better matches your needs, or that will develop or reward you better. Now the so-called ‘crisis’ has actually become an opportunity that helps you to get clear about what matters most to you and to take action to pursue the priorities that matter most to you.
Together with the five types of outcome you might choose to create, this means that there are potentially ten types of opportunity that might exist in any situation. And there could be more than one solution of each kind.
Simply looking for these opportunities will bring you benefits. And the more options you find, the more likely you are to find a way forward that truly inspires you and the people around you to long to make it happen. All of which puts you back in control and makes you more antifragile.
Are you facing any challenges today? Are you seeing them as ‘problems’ or as opportunities to become who you most want to become? How many options can you find under each of the five headings? Which way forward inspires you most?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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(And remember: you can’t learn to swim just by reading about swimming, you also need to do the practice.)
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