Today is July 14 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you recognize and control how you respond to the randomness of life?”
On November 14, 2005 a sparrow knocked over 23,000 dominoes in the Netherlands, nearly ruining a world record. The bird flew through an open window at an exposition center in the northern city of Leeuwarden where employees of television company Endemol NV worked for weeks setting up more than 4 million dominoes in an attempt to break a world record.
Fortunately the stop gap measures put into place allowed 4 million (92%) out of a possible 4.4 million to fall and set the world record at that time. Despite the organizer’s best efforts to prevent accidents or mistakes, an external force had a direct impact on the event.
British politician and writer Benjamin Disraeli noted “Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.” This is important to remember when the randomness of life creates circumstances beyond our control. Too often people create their identity from the events in their life.
For example, when someone loses their job they might consider themselves a loser.
As one researcher noted “The problem with defining yourself by what happens to you is that life is more random than we’d like to think. Yes, sometimes the person who studies hard or networks well or works all hours succeeds in a way that someone who isn’t putting in the effort does not. However, as much as you may not like to admit it, there are also people who don’t put in a lot of effort and are naturally talented in a certain way, connected to the right people, or simply in the right place at the right time. Controlling what happens to you is not as easy as it may sound. But you can control how you respond.”
How often do you recognize and control how you respond to the randomness of life?