Livin' La Vida VUCA
On embracing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity — to revive and revitalize the order and harmony of my life.
I have observed that a sense of agency — a feeling that my actions are meaningful and impactful — is essential for my mental well-being. Without it, I feel powerless and helpless. I have developed my sense of agency by focusing on the things that I can control. When I do that, I can see that my actions bear fruit — and that makes me feel good.
Integrity is essential here — saying what I will do, and then doing it. When I focus on the things that I can control and act with integrity, there is a sense of order and harmony in my life.
But the universe is mostly made up of things that we cannot control. When we only focus on that which we can control, we miss everything else. A sense of agency and the mental well-being that comes with it are essential — but it is equally essential that we embrace novelty and chaos.
One doesn’t have to go far to find chaos these days — the world is filled with it. The managerial types have come up with a nifty acronym to describe it: VUCA — which stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
Volatility: the tendency to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse. Example: cryptocurrencies over the past year.
Uncertainty: that which cannot be relied on; not known or definite. Example: the current state of global supply chains.
Complexity: consisting of many different and connected parts that interact in non-obvious ways. An aeroplane is complicated, but not complex — it has many different interconnected parts but it’s possible to know how they interact. The weather, on the other hand, is complex.
Ambiguity: the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness. Example: everything that you see in the news.
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts
The world — and our lives — will be filled with increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in the coming years. We need to evolve and adapt to this dynamic reality — and to do that, we need to be willing to completely surrender — let go of the desire for control and embrace the VUCA, so that we can truly understand it and leverage it.
We have to be willing to lose control, integrity, structure, discipline, order, and harmony. Not for the sake of losing them. But so that we can walk out into the unknown, absorb the VUCA, learn from it, and come back to renew the structure — to revive and revitalize the order and harmony of our lives.
I am present to the patterns of anxiety and fear slithering in my consciousness, indicating to me that all is not well in this orderly Garden of Eden that I am living in. Over the past few weeks, I have been slowly letting my life come undone — letting it all fall apart.
I will be spending the whole of next week on holiday (or pilgrimage, pick one) in Kodaikanal, and my intention is to let go of the grip that I have on my life — to disengage the clutch so that I can change gears.
After 75 consecutive weeks of tracking my habits, I will spend week 24 of my Project 52 (Year 2) not tracking any habits — just livin’ la vida VUCA!
See you on the other side!