Chaos
Using disorder to your benefit
When you think of chaos, chances are good it doesn’t strike a happy chord within you. For many people, chaos and the disorder it brings is like a circle of hell. When your alarm doesn’t go off, so you and your kids are running late, then you realize you forgot to get fuel in the car, but you also can’t find your keys… You get the idea. Or think of any movie where they show the state of a house after a raucous college party. That is all chaos.
But what if I told you a little bit of chaos can be something good that you use to your advantage?
When things are in disarray, we have lots of options for how to respond, all of which help us hone our decision-making and flex our resilience. If we are in a situation that is unfolding in an unexpected way, we have the opportunity to get creative with how to address it.
Let’s go with the house party example. Pretend the kitchen is a mess and every dish has been emptied from the cabinets. That gives the people who use the kitchen a perfect reason to rethink the way their room is organized or to do a spring cleaning. Maybe it even prompts them to clean out the “junk drawer” that is a staple in every kitchen.
Chaos gives us a chance to have a fresh start, to make a new beginning out of disorder.
In Greek mythology, Chaos is one of the hardest figures to understand. It is considered the first entity that existed, representing a void from which everything else came to be. It is empty and formless, the perfect blank canvas. And sure enough, according to the mythology, everything that has come to pass was born out of that infinite abyss.
Chaos doesn’t need to be cosmic to present itself in your own life. As mentioned, there are plenty of everyday happenings that can create their own tiny worlds of chaos. So keep in mind that each of those moments is a chance for you to choose what you will create out of them. Will you create a more present, attentive version of yourself, or maybe you’ll find optimism in what the disaster can surface. Personally, I like finding the creativity in the chaos; how can I take this problem with new parameters and come up with the most elegant solution?
Finding peace and grounding in the chaos is hard. As you’ll learn throughout this book, our brains like to keep us safe, so they make us feel anxious in new and different scenarios. If the idea of chaos is throwing you off, not to worry; that’s totally normal.
The important piece to keep in mind is that life is chaotic. We can make as many plans as we want, but we can’t 100% predict what will happen each day. There’s always room for a little bit of chaos to sneak in, and that’s when it’s your time to shine.
Though it may be hard in the moment, try to find peace and calm when there’s madness around you. See if you can approach a chaotic moment with a thoughtful solution or a creative way to reframe what’s going on. Managing even 1% more of the chaos in your life will start feeling like a superpower over time.
