“One of the secrets to life,” says INSEAD professor Horatio Falcão “is not to make better plans or come up with even better ways to predict the future. But rather to prepare and improve the bike and its rider to better address unforeseen challenges as they come.”

Before January 2020, we were cycling down a paved road with the exits clearly marked.

Now, we’re mountain biking down a steep, muddy trail surrounded by fog and approaching thunderstorms.

If you’re in the habit of reacting to external circumstances, you are going to feel increasingly powerless and out of control.

🆘 Because you can’t make good decisions if you’re caught up in worry and second-guessing.

🆘 You can’t have a strong immune system when you’re constantly flooding your body with stress hormones. 

🆘 You can’t win your team’s trust and respect if you don’t show vulnerability and own your mistakes.

Sleep, exercise and mindfulness are critical, of course. But they don’t get to the root of the problem: identifying the interpersonal triggers and emotional loops that keep you in survival mode.

So this is the opportunity. Using the circumstances of a volatile world as a training ground, you can evolve to a place where you feel in control and calibrate your stress levels as easily as adjusting the gears on a ten-speed.

Where you’re able to transmute fear and doubt into inspired action.

Where you stop wasting precious mental energy and lead through the chaos with authority and confidence.

And maybe, even doing some wheelies.