Chaos
Embracing it, controlling it, and the wisdom to know which approach to take
I’ve heard a lot of talk about chaos lately.
I don’t know if this has been a thing for a long time that I just noticed recently or if it’s something that’s just now become trendy. Maybe it’s just a particularly good attention-getting word. Or perhaps things do actually feel chaotic at this particular juncture in time.
Embrace the chaos, I’ve heard, right alongside, we need to control the chaos.
So which is it, embrace or control?
I think the advice to embrace the chaos is most aptly applied to situations in which by chaos we actually mean ambiguity or the messy middle of a thing. Both of these feel uncomfortable and unknown. Both are also a hallmark of growth— whether that be professional or personal. In the development of every creative work, every product, every business, there is going to come a time (read: many times) where you feel like you’re at an impasse. There are either a million “right” ways to move forward, and choosing one over the other seems impossible OR conversely, there are zero apparent solutions to a problem you are facing in the moment.
The only way to solve for either of these is to move through them. Professionally, it’s choosing and committing to one of many paths. It could mean stepping aside momentarily to see if absence will bring some clarity to that perceived lack of solutions, but then you’ll have to return and try something. It might be a move forward or a pivot— but it’s progress either way. In personal growth, it’s staying with those ugly, sad, and just not fun feelings to process them and feel them. To articulate them. To learn their lessons.
Embracing chaos is all about staying in those ambiguous times. Acknowledging that they aren’t hindering the process, instead they are the process.
So what of the control the chaos advice? If chaos = ambiguity and ambiguity = an essential part of the process should we ever seek to control it?
This is where discernment shows up. There is the chaos that is really just ambiguity in service of the creative process, but sometimes there is just chaos. There are a lot of ways this might show up, and a lot of them are highly individual to your situation, but it could be things like last-minute projects that land on your desk with urgency you didn’t create, heightened unrest or discontent in the field you work in, interpersonal conflicts between team members.
While the appropriate reaction to the ambitious chaos of growth is to stay in it, this is rarely the best approach to what we’ll call chaotic chaos. But the idea of controlling it also isn’t completely accurate either, because chaotic chaos is almost always external to us. It is created by others, and we often can’t stop it.
Which means what control the chaos truly means is control your reaction to the chaos.
In the moment, this may be taking intentional deep inhales and long exhales to slow down your stress response. It might mean handing that immediate task, but then looking for tangible ways to improve communication and processes so they are less last minute in the future. It’s finding a trusted confidant and/or professional to talk to about navigating change in the workplace. It’s taking steps to advocate for large-scale policy changes, while also developing daily practices like journaling or meditation or exercise that help you build resilience against getting caught up in a swirl of what-ifs.
Chaos isn’t going anywhere. There is a time for embracing and a time for controlling, and it’s up to us to discern between the two.
Beautiful Thing of the Week
Just one little something bringing me joy this week (read last week’s longer list here):
I’m not the primary hot sauce aficionado in my household*, but I am the primary squirrel lover, so obviously, this needed to be added to our pantry:
Are you amidst the chaos of creativity? Dealing with some particularly chaotic chaos? How do you stay in it or control your reactions? (Also just feel free to share squirrel pictures, or condiment recommendations— all are equally welcome here!)
Inspiring! The seas in which I swim (self-defense, coaching, pastoral care) are inhabited by leviathans of chaos as small as a broken bureaucratic process or an annoying audit, to as terrifying as an existential crisis or a physical assault. And yet your wise insight holds as true for me as it does for you: there are forms and degrees of chaos, some guarding treasure, some with toothy maws. Reef sail when it's rough and ride the swell, but keep your harpoon sharp I say! And remember the words of Jung, “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” ~Mitch