Working on Your Ability to Thrive in Unpredictable Environments

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Everyone can benefit at some point in their lives from being quick on their feet, be it to jump at an opportunity that presents itself or to tap into some quick wit to defuse a situation. These moments will come up more regularly for some people than others during everyday life, and yet, even the most fleet-footed of these people can find themselves stuck when unexpectedly thrown into a chaotic environment.

Much of the time, this won’t be your choice. An outside force can suddenly change the picture for you at work or home, ushering in a much greater workload, new deadlines and tasks, and even a situation that keeps on changing. Few enjoy being in the middle of such chaos, and few can be blamed for buckling under the pressure, but those who thrive end up far better for it. Luckily, there are some broad ways to help prepare for such occasions.

Getting into Chaotic Situations

One of the best ways to prepare your reactions and readiness for chaos is to seek it out. Find ways in which you can sink yourself into experiences that offer unpredictability and will naturally pose problems and decision-making situations. Getting out into nature can be a good source of this. Someone who speaks a lot on this and has been thrown into such situations through his job is writer Ant Middleton.
Former British special forces member turned reality TV show host and author has said that one of the best things that you can do is make friends with nature. He sees the world as “one big playground,” and that people don’t realize how good it is for them to go out “exploring a different environment” as they stimulate the mind in different ways. Further, he says that you should go out and make mistakes as you’ll learn from them the best.

Being out in nature and going off path will deliver you many different challenges to overcome. Equally, you can find situations within walls that make you run critical thinking and analysis in your mind to find the path to victory. This’d be the case with poker. Anyone can turn to sites like Global Poker to find tables teeming with others who’re trying to win the big pot and their stack. In these, you need to outwit the others and in different situations on each hand.

Little Steps of Preparation

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Say, you don’t fancy venturing into the wilds or betting against others in a card game, there are other steps that you can take to get in a better state of mind for a potential chaotic situation. Having more flexibility in your life is an important step. As this Mental Floss piece details, you should embrace unknown avenues and try to explore alternative routes to find a solution, learning from the toughest days and their outcomes.

Further, while routines are nice and help you to stay on time, try to trim them back a bit. Have a routine of five things taken down to the three fundamentals, allowing for you to pivot and follow whatever may occur in between. You could also work on individual complementary skills as you go. Do activities that make you plan well, that require more effort to solve, or that take place in distracting environments to build up readiness.

Being more open to other avenues, having a mindset of thinking beyond the usual path ahead, and being adaptable in unusual environments all help to prepare you for whatever chaos is to come.