Defend or Grow?

What’s the best option when the world feels swirly?

We’re in a moment.

Not just high volatility, but high uncertainty, bundled with high stakes.

Hello, disruption.

When this happens, there are really only two options…

💡 Join Team Disruptor.

Simple truth: in times of profound shaking, there is no uncertainty without an equal and opposite amount of possibility. They’re two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other.

If you’re not seeing the doors being opened, or creating them yourself, your job is to find or create them. To lead and leverage the transformation, rather than get pummeled by it. It’s about adopting what I cal the Possibility Mindset, and joining Team Disruptor. Kind of like the kid in The Sixth Sense, but instead of seeing dead people, you see possibility.

Or…

🫥 Default to Team Disrupted.

Strap on your fear blinders and ignore the doors being opened by the, admittedly, merciless shaking of ground beneath your feet. Don’t look for new possibilities.

Instead, defend what you’ve amassed. Status, market share, resources, relationships, indicia (albeit false and fleeting) of security. Allocate time, money and energy to holding onto what you’ve got. Try to ride out the change. This is about adopting the Protection Mindset. Aaaaaaand, joining Team Disrupted.

In moments where the disruption is short, limited in scope, and measurable, waiting it out with a Protection Mindset might be a viable option. Defensible, at least in certain rooms, for certain hot minutes.

You mind tells you it’s a lot less scary to sit tight than roam the uncertain night. And, because our brains are more strongly wired for loss aversion than gain acquisition, this is the approach most take.

We are weird, if not largely predictable beasties.

Still, it’s a temporary salve. Short-term avoidance that leads to eventual decline, followed by all the psychic detritus you’d been trying to avoid crashing down on you. Just at a later date.

You’re not opting out of the pain, just delaying it.

But, ummmmmm…what about Team Coast?

Can’t I just pay attention (meaning binge tiktok), and waffle in the middle zone between disruptor and disrupted? Learn a little. Dabble a little. Take meandering baby steps along a fairly narrow path that doesn’t stray too far from the mean? Knowing that, sure, I’ll miss out on new opportunities, but also get to steer clear of the big scaries?

Nope.

When uncertainty and stakes get high and stay high, with no end in sight, there is no middle. It evaporates.

I mean you can tell yourself there is, but what you’re really doing is inadvertently choosing Team Disrupted. You just won’t realize it for a while.

When the depth and duration of change is:

• Long

• Hard-to-measure, and

• Potentially paradigmatic (ie - the moment we’re all in now)…

Waiting it out is, in nearly every case, a fool’s errand.

The hide, hold, and pray option will inevitably drop you into the domain of the disrupted.

Then, the delirious.

Then, the dead (or, at least, dead in the water).

You cannot wait out or hide from something that collapses time and eviscerates the norm.

Eventually, it’ll be your demise.

This is as true for your career, your relationships, and your physical and mental health, as it is for your teams, your offerings, your creative output, brands, and business.

Joining Team Disruptor and cultivating The Possibility Mindset is ScaryAF.

You don’t know how it’s going to end.

You don’t know if or when or how the next wave of incredible ideas, innovations, connections, or insights will drop. Or, not.

You CAN’T know. I mean, that’s the actual point.

But, at least you’ll be in the game. Rather than running faster and faster with scissors that grow bigger, sharper, and more existential by the second Crazy Glued to your fingers. Hoping you don’t get lapped, while watching the shoe of false safety drops on your work, health, relationships, creativity and life.

Yes, we are in a moment.

The stakes are high.

The uncertainty unbearable.

The level, depth and duration of change largely unmeasurable.

Defense and denial feel safe. But, the only thing they’re keeping you safe from is feeling vulnerable in a world where exposure, hard as it may feel, is the gateway not just to survival, but to agency, autonomy, and growth. To not just getting dragged, kicking and screaming, into a future that’s no longer built for you, but rather playing a part in making it what you need it to be.

Question is...

Will you keep defending an already lost and unrecoverable yesterday, or step into the uncomfortable, yet profoundly opportune crashing wave of possibility?

Neither is easy, but at least the latter holds the potential to carry you into, or play a role in shaping, a future that’s not just friendly to you, but build by and for you.

Okay, that’s my take.

What’s yours? Share in the comments, if you’re inclined.

With a whole lotta love & gratitude,

Jonathan

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Fun Stuff to Learn & Watch This Week.

• Good Life Project® Podcast - We’re doing a two-month Future of Medicine series, going deep with a leading experts, doctors, and scientists on cutting-edge diagnostics and treatments. I’m sitting down with people like the Chief Science Officer at legendary cancer research institution, Memorial Sloan Kettering.

  

  Topics include aging, cancer, heart health, regenerative health (stem cells, peptides, etc), AI-enabled medicine, metabolic health, med-tech, and more. I’ve been learning so much, my brain is exploding with the level of innovation that’s here now, and coming soon. New episodes air every Monday through the end of the year. Check them out here.

• TEDx Talk - Why Craft Matter Now More Than Ever - The video from my TEDx Talk aired just two weeks ago, and the reception has been incredible. Fancy-pants analytics tools tell me it’s a 55x outlier on the TEDx Talks Youtube channel, viewed more than 26,000 times already, it’s closing in on 100 thoughtful comments, and over 1,300 likes already.

  

  I’ve been wondering why. I think it’s because the big idea is landing for a lot of people. Especially now when so much creative juju is turning digital and AI.
  
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  If you haven’t watched it yet, check it out here. And, if it resonates, I’d be so grateful if you’d share it, like it, and leave a comment over on Youtube. It helps tell the mighty algorithm that this idea matters, and it should be shared with more people. And, that’s how we make a bigger difference in more people’s lives.