Wisdom In Leadership
By Les Mottosky
We're incubating a period that will define the next Earth.
The signs are in our face: headlines say one thing, the world does another. Everything is changing. For good. And in an most unexpected way.
Screen ubiquity has created a media environment that's become an overstimulated and blindfolded, 800 pound gorilla living in each of our heads.
The solution is both simple and impossible: let the battery go to zero and don't recharge it. When we aren't aware of the headlines, life seems pretty harmonious. Most people appear to be healthy and functioning. Traffic flows. Goods and services continue to provide for our well-being. And nature relentlessly offers a model of rhythm and resilience that's coded into our own DNA. Life – that place where we embrace living – feels dang sweet.
Then our eyes grab a headline on a screen and 'poof!': the gorilla is back; throwing us into an existence of silent distress.
We haven't yet learned to live with or without our tech addiction. This balance of imbalance is the tightrope each of us is now learning to walk.
In all probability 2026 will not restore reason. So it's up to each of us to recalibrate for more chaos; to layer our own internal order on top of the digital havoc we consume.
To navigate this shaky future, it's wise to study the past.
Enter the Taoists. It's their philosophy that allows them to perceive this historical time as every previous drama-less moment: unpredictable. They've cultivated a mindset that allows them to see everyday as 'another day'. Here are four Taoist skills most relevant to this moment:
- Wu wei (effortless action): an ability to flow with events, not against them.
- Embracing change (yin-yang flux): chaos is also natural transition.
- Detachment from fixed outcomes: insulation from suffering when plans collapse.
- Simplicity & flexibility: like water, we shape our attitude to any size or shape of life container.
The above tools are necessary puzzle pieces for thriving through disruption. And there are more. The Greeks nurtured the mental toolkit of Stoicism to maneuver through 'Wonky World' whenever it arose.
- Dichotomy of control: focus only on your own response, and ignore the uncontrollable.
- Amor fati: a love of fate provides an embrace of chaos as necessity.
- Premeditatio malorum: mentally rehearse disasters to reduce fear and prepare potential responses.
- Virtue as sole good: inner morality remains intact regardless of external turmoil.
The similarities are striking. Those four sequential ideas from each lineage mirror one another in spirit. This is often evidence of deep and unwavering wisdom.
A Forever-The-Student Tip: instead of another phantom or flaccid resolution, make 2026 the year of skill acquisition. Choose the Taoist or Stoic path and internalize one of their four skills over a three month period. Then do it three more times. On this date next year, instead of an empty, long-forgotten broken promise, you'll have a skillset to lead others – and more importantly yourself – through these rapids of drastic and unrelenting change.
This is how we apply order to chaos.
This is human adaptation.
This is the next Earth.
TAGS: #Wisdom In Leadership #Radical Reframe #Change Is Our Nature #Adaptation As Innovation #Orderly Chaos
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
Ask about the Clarity Engine Process.
Members Discussion