Embrace the Chaos

By Bob Miglani

Nothing is predictable and we have more uncertainty than ever before. 

“So, why should I bother setting or writing life goals when the world is so much more unpredictable?”, you may be asking yourself.

It can be easy to get skeptical about writing down life goals, especially when life has so much uncertainty and chaos these days. 

We start to think, “Why bother?”, “What’s the point?” 

From the unpredictable events happening around the world, in our jobs, our businesses, our lives to the uncertainty of the economy and our relationships, it’s easy to dismiss the whole of idea of writing down life goals as an exercise in futility.  

While I understand that most of us know what we generally want out of life, we are not very specific about it, often leaving us to pursue a broad idea of “finding meaningful work, making more money, finding love, starting a business.”  And we’re surprised when time flies by and we haven’t gotten anywhere.  

In my own experience of learning to deal with uncertainty and chaos in life and at work, I have come to the conclusion that writing down very specific goals serves a very useful purpose, especially during times of great uncertainty.  

Tweetable: “We’re more likely to get what we want out of life when we are crystal clear on what that is”

Goals don’t have to be money focused or career focused.  It can be anything you want to achieve in life.   (more…)

One of the reasons we have a difficult time moving forward in life sometimes is this nagging voice of self-doubt in our head. Whispering nothing but debilitating thoughts into our subconscious, we get nervous about taking action and delay…and delay.  Until it’s too late.

As I reflect at my own experience of trying to deal with uncertainty in life, I realize that no matter how hard I think, some new surprise always comes out of nowhere, causing me to rethink all over again.

What I learned over these last few years is that my overthinking did not help me to ‘figure things out’.  In fact, it had the opposite effect of confusing me further when it was supposed to provide me clarity.

I believe we are all meant to be DOING not overthinking.  Sure, some sort of rationale thinking should always take place but our society today has become so risk averse about everything – from what restaurant we visit to the flights we choose to the person we marry – that we get lost in our overthinking mind which leads us to nowhere in life.  And time slips by faster than ever.

Tweetable: Moments of Self-Doubt Can Only be Replaced by Moments of Action

Here are 4 reasons why I believe action trumps overthinking: (more…)

“In this economy?!” my wife and I thought to ourselves as we debated whether or not to open her new business in 2008.

After having our second child, my wife wanted to go back to work.  But not to just another job.  She wanted work that allowed her to have time with our kids and contribute her skills of being an Optometrist while building some equity.  We also wanted a Plan B…in case my career would encounter chaos.

Weighing all the pros and cons of starting a new business, we were stuck for a while, over thinking, over analyzing, writing a business plan in between sleepless nights with the kids and my travel schedule at work.

Then one day, she just did it!  She signed the lease to open her new business, an Optometry Eye Care practice with an Optical.  Six months of over thinking vanished just like that…poof!

Tweetable: Seeds of inner confidence start to bloom the moment you stop over thinking and start doing.

That was the summer of 2008.  Despite having a newborn in our lap, we moved forward with starting a new business in an uncertain economy.  Construction in Oct. 2008 and opened the doors in February 2009.

After 4 years, I realized that starting a new business in an uncertain economy has taught us both a lot about life…not just about how to start a new business but how to move forward in life despite not knowing how things will turn out especially when things look gloomy.

Here are 4 life lessons I learned helping my wife in starting a new business in an uncertain economy: (more…)

All the negativity in the news media, the cold temperatures and dark skies outside, uncertainty at work and craziness in life can make anyone freeze.  You get nervous constantly thinking and analyzing what steps to take in life.  You make resolutions and give up because you say, “What’s the point?”, “Why should I even bother in all this unpredictable environment?”.  You feel stuck because you look around and just feel overwhelmed in all the chaos of life.

In my journey of learning to deal with uncertainty at work and the unpredictable and seemingly random nature of life, I used to worry all the time about the future.  Dealing with anxiety and stress due to uncertainty in life is hard because you feel like you have no control over anything in your life and it becomes a vicious cycle.  Causing you to freeze.  Paralyzed by over analysis of what I should do in my life, I felt stuck.  But over time, I broke through.  I got unstuck and began a journey that I’m still on.  And while I am not sure how it will go in the future, I feel so much better because I am unstuck and moving forward in life despite living in uncertainty.

Here are 4 lessons I learned on how to get unstuck in life: (more…)

“I can’t believe he did that to me.  He let me down.  I was wronged.  Yes, I deserve better.  I worked so hard for him and did all he asked of me.  Sacrificing so much.  Putting off my family to grow a career.  I travelled at the drop of a hat for him.  And all I got was gray hair and he got a sweet deal.”, a voice inside my head repeated over and over as I ran ever faster on the treadmill in the hotel gym yesterday morning.

I couldn’t believe it.  Inadvertantly, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, thoughts of an old boss surfaced as I exercised on the treadmill.  Every step I took on that machine became hard and more purposeful, as if I was punishing him by running faster.

I ran faster, feeling upset and plain old mad.  The feeling was so intense.  At some point, my legs couldn’t go much faster and along with the beads of sweat, I felt something fall from my eye and it wasn’t sweat.

It was probably the best workout of my life. But more importantly, I had this realization:

We carry around so much baggage without realizing it.   (more…)