Antifragility

The last couple of weeks, I have been grappling with how to “deal” with the current circumstances? It seems like we all are experiencing a barrage of restraints, restrictions, an overload of information, uncertainty and a general lack of future perspective. When will our lives go ‘back to normal’? Where is this all taking us? Sometimes I feel complete and utter frustration and other times at peace and zen that things are going as they should be. As the world is in flux, as are my emotions to the constant changes.

Something that helped me was a term that was brought to my attention, allow me to share this passage by author Nassim Taleb:

“Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile. Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better”

So the question that I ask myself, and one I have been exploring even with teams and groups I work with is “How can I become Antifragile? What can I do to become an anti-fragile individual & leader?” 

Antifragility, as I understand it, is not without vulnerability nor emotion, it is in the midst of what you are experiencing, having the ability to become stronger because of diversity. As a muscle strengthens after first being broken down, it builds itself back up to take on more stress/pressure after its recovery. 

We often encourage each other to become resilient, but what if we moved passed resilience, to not only withstand the circumstances but instead to allow them to make us better, more conscious, more whole? 

No doubt that our current world order is having devastating effects. Perhaps it is just like the Japanse art of “Kitsungi”; Where broken pottery pieces are put back together with gold which is built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.

What if this time is making us all more antifragile?