A weekly newsletter where I help people apply values-based productivity principles and systems for personal growth, primarily using Obsidian. Subscribe if you want to make more of your notes and ideas.
💪🏼 Are you Rugged & Flexible?
How do you deal with change?
Do you roll with things easily, or do you try to protect the status quo?
According to Brad Stulberg in his new book Master of Change, most people respond in one of four ways:
- Attempt to avoid it or refuse to acknowledge it
- Actively resist it
- Sacrifice agency amidst the chaos
- Try to get back to where we were
The thing is, change is everywhere.
On average, we will experience 36 different disorder events during our lifetime!
And change isn’t good or bad. It’s neutral. It just is.
Which means we don’t have to freak out and try to get back to the way things used to be.
In fact, healthy systems have learned not to change. They can thrive in the midst of instability because they've learned to adapt to it.
In other words, they’re rugged and flexible.
When something is rugged and flexible, it’s not threatened by change. It’s rugged enough to endure it but flexible enough to adapt to the new surroundings. It’s the key to thriving in our ever-changing world.
The opposite of rugged and flexible is weak and rigid. When something is weak and rigid, everything unordinary is a threat. It has to fight against change because it’s too rigid to move with it.
Obviously, we want to be rugged and flexible. But that’s not as easy as it sounds.
When things are constantly changing, it’s hard to find a reference point. If we don’t have a rugged and flexible identity, we can get attached to the things we have (job title, spouse, home, etc.). Then when that thing that provided identity and stability leaves, we’re tossed into an existential crisis and we try to redefine who we are.
Honestly, this book could not have come at a better time for me. I’m in the midst of a lot of change right now, and I relate to a lot of the stories that Brad shares here. I especially liked his description of personal core values as a source of stability in the midst of change and the idea that our happiness is driven by our expectations.
If you’re in the midst of a disorder event (something that fundamentally shifts our experience of ourselves in the world we inhabit), you need to pick up this book. And if you’re not, you will be at some point. This is a great book for helping you navigate change and instability during uncertain times.
If you want a more in-depth review, check out this week's YouTube video:
It’s the first in a new Book Club series I’m trying out where I post short video reviews of books that I read. This one is about 14 minutes long, so they are significantly shorter than the Bookworm episodes where we discuss the big ideas in the books.
And if you want to download my mind map notes for this book, click here.
— Mike
P.S. Joe is still trying to figure things out on his end for Bookworm, so I had my friend Mike Vardy on to talk through this book with me. Here’s the link if you want to listen to that episode (it’s a little under an hour and a half long.)
Practical PKM
by Mike Schmitz
A weekly newsletter where I help people apply values-based productivity principles and systems for personal growth, primarily using Obsidian. Subscribe if you want to make more of your notes and ideas.
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