At the core of becoming antifragile in this time of rapid change is the ability to take good decisions, even when a situation is unclear or the outcome is difficult to predict.
The key to unlocking this ability is a powerful idea that runs invisibly through almost every aspect of our culture. It gave Shakespeare’s Hamlet his most famous line, “To be, or not to be.” It shapes the defining mantra of the world’s most powerful nation: “You can become anything you want to.” And it sits behind the universal structure of the “Hero’s Journey” that runs through almost every spellbinding, bestselling story ever told: from Casablanca to Star Wars, Harry Potter, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones.
This is the idea that one day you might grow to fulfil your destiny, to become who you truly are.
Who we think we are (and who we think we aren’t) determines the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the cars we drive (or don’t). It shapes the jobs we choose, the ways we vote, and the people who become our friends, lovers, and life partners.
Who we think we are determines every action we take: whether we follow the well-worn path or the road less travelled. And in this time of change, this small but powerful idea becomes even more important, for four main reasons.
The first is that this time of change will inevitably bring us challenges that make it harder for us to do the things we are used to doing and to have the things we are used to having. Some of these things will be easy to let go. And the reason why we find the other challenges more difficult is because they are the ones that have the greatest impact on our ability to maintain our sense of who we are: our identity. If we understand that this is what is happening, then that will make it easier for us to avoid impulsive responses and, instead, to deliberately choose our best way forward.
The second reason is that the challenges that arise during times of change will often force us to make choices we’d rather not make, at times we’d rather not make them. Again, understanding that this is what is happening will help us to respond better.
The third reason is that if we approach these apparently difficult decisions not as ‘problems’ to overcome but as opportunities to understand better who we really are and what actually matters most to us, then we can use these situations to gain clarity about who we most want to become — even if the situation seems difficult.
And the fourth reason is that the clearer we are about who we most want to be (and not to be) then the quicker and easier we will find it to make these difficult decisions — even when information is in short supply and the outcome is difficult to predict — and the more inspired we will then feel to get up each morning to do what we have chosen to do.
This time of change is forcing us to make decisions we would rather not make, at times we’d rather not make them. But if we use this as an opportunity to get clearer about who we really are and who we most want to become, then we will enable ourselves to take better decisions faster and to focus our limited time and resources on achieving what actually matters most to us.
In a changing, uncertain world, this is the most control we can ever have. And this is the fourth step to becoming antifragile.
How easy do you find it to take decisions based on little or no information or without knowing how things are going to turn out? Would it be useful to become better at this?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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