Challenge 16 - Anti-fragility
"Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better." 1
Today's challenge moves beyond simply being robust and learning to bounce back or bounce beyond.
The recent pandemics: SARS and COVID-19 have provided insights into how people cope with stress and uncertainty. Not surprisingly, they found that in 2020 mental health problems were twice as prevalent as in non-pandemic times. There is, however, cause for optimism as anxiety, isolation, sleep problems co-exist with social growth, personal growth, and gratitude.
So what is antifragility, and how might it help us in these uncertain times. Firstly, anti-fragility is not the same at post-traumatic growth, which involves some sort of trauma, whereas anti-fragility is the interplay of your perception of the level of disruption in your world right now and your perception of the capacity to thrive.
According to Dr Paige Williams, it is defined as being three things: the confidence of your ability, skills, and knowledge. There is sometimes a big gap between the perceived disruption you see in your world and your perceived capacity to thrive; the bigger that gap is, the more fragile you're going to feel.
So how might we build these principles into our everyday:
Break the negative – let go of what you can't control and stop worrying about it. (I acknowledge this is not easy)
Reframe the struggle from being a sign of failure to an opportunity to learn and grow.
Learn forwards – use learning loops to accelerate your growth (what did you try, where did you struggle & what might you try next)
Want to find out about your fragility? Take the survey theantifragilesurvey.com
How might you build an antifragility mindset into your day? Tell us here Tell us here
Reference
1. Nassim Nicholas Taleb in ‘Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder’ (2012)
Further reading
Long Read: becoming anti-fragile. Learning to thrive through disruption, challenge and change. Dr Paige Williams. 2020
Listen: Dr Paige Williams – How anti-fragile are you? how-anti-fragile-are-you
Short read: Prove your antifragility https://medium.com
** Disclaimer – Part of the Build Your Ideal Day Program – 30 Day challenge by Duncan Young. All content and media on the Build Your Ideal Day Website is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.
