“You can dance in a hurricane, but only if you’re standin’ in the eye.” - The Eye, by Brandi CarlisleWhat I hope you derive from this article:
Optimism during this outbreak.
Poise throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
An appreciation for the consistently chaotic world we live in.
Courage to remove uncontrollable fear factors from your psyche.
A slightly more nuanced perspective on happiness.
The reason I’m writing this article is 2020 has been a year of catastrophe. It appears the global pandemic and subsequent stock market crash didn’t satisfy 2020’s sadist appetite. We now have 30 million people unemployed in the US, suicides are on the rise, and hundreds of wildfires are ravishing the west. I think we can all agree, 2020 has been a world-class hurricane of a year.
Hurricane Harvey, the costliest storm in US history
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey laid siege upon Texas and Louisiana. The storm eviscerated the gulf coast with 130mph winds, and drowned Houston with an unprecedented four feet of rain in four days.
Absolute mayhem ensued: core infrastructure was under water, the grid went down, and hospitals were compromised as neighbors attempted life support on fellow neighbors in chest-high water. The carnage ultimately cost ~100 human lives and $125 billion in damage, making it the costliest storm in US history (tied with Katrina).
The anatomy of a hurricane presents a paradox: chaos surrounds a serene, inner circle, as seen in this diagram courtesy of NOAA, USGS:
While the rain bands rip and demolish countrysides, the eye of the storm remains eerily calm. Witness this awesome picture from inside Hurricane Dorian:
Perhaps nature is offering a clue for life: amidst the chaos, stay centered. As life’s pandemonium swirls around us—work deadlines, screaming babies, financial anxiety, questionable health, family drama—resist the temptation to be pulled into the rain bands, and stay centered in the eye of the storm.
I first heard about this metaphor in Michael Singer’s stand out book, The Untethered Soul, summarized as such:
“Come to embrace—even admire—the cyclonic complexity of life. Find your own inner calm. Use your awareness of your own consciousness to avoid being pulled into the rain bands.”
The reason I’m writing this article is 2020 has been a year of catastrophe. It appears the global pandemic and subsequent stock market crash didn’t satisfy 2020’s sadist appetite. We now have 30 million people unemployed in the US, suicides are on the rise, and hundreds of wildfires are ravishing the west. I think we can all agree, 2020 has been a world-class hurricane of a year.
Calamity as a constant
Surely 2020 is uniquely bad, but could calamity be more constant that we think? The research piece Never a Dull Moment suggests every year brings multiple disasters and discontent (mostly fueled by the media). In hindsight, we now realize that some of these calamities were tempests in teapots, but at the time they felt DISASTROUS.
Chaos and complexity are defining features of life. Or in the words of my father-in-law, “Life is just one damn thing after another.” The benefit of hindsight allows us to appreciate that life is less of a hurricane and more of a constantly blowing wind.
So what is one to do?
Start within.
Sometimes the hardest storms to withstand are in our heads: relentless nagging, restless anxiety, destructive self-thought.
In the words of Singer:
“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind—you are the one who hears it.”
In the highly-recommended YC video How to Win, Daniel Gross makes a similar point particularly well, coupled with a video game analogy:
“Build the habit of stepping out of the frame and experience emotions in 3rd person.”
Once we learn to tame the monkey mind, life can still be chaotic. Circumstances—especially as dire as 2020 events—can be downright depressing. So while we’re mindfully poised in the eye of the hurricane, we still have to learn to manage the tough stuff.
To that we turn to the wisdom of Jim Rohn, a world-renowned speaker whose philosophy inspired a legion of gurus like Tony Robbins (who actually gave the eulogy at Rohn’s funeral in 2009, RIP). Rohn writes, in his masterpiece The Art of Exceptional Living, a few simple, yet powerful lines:
“What do people do when things get hard? Blaming circumstances is what you would expect. This is what a typical human would do.”
“What happens happens to us all.”
“It's not what happens, it's what you do about it.”
“We can not change the circumstances, but we can change ourselves.”
But was does this mean? What can we actually do?
Stay centered, take ownership of your circumstances, stay positive, meditate, and find a new discipline to catalyze growth and change in our lives.
I tried to draw a picture of what I’m trying to say:
Take action on something you don’t like right now
Feeling isolated in your apartment? Plan an epic group getaway to Exeat, Utah like my friend Viv.
Need some personal time? Submit a PTO request right now and fly to Bozeman, Montana for a week-long, Walden-esque getaway. You deserve it.
Workout routing not so great/existent? I’ve been doing this core-torquing 15min ab workout by MadFit once/day. It’s a bummer gyms are closed, but living room workouts are even easier!
Got a case of the pandemic blues? The majority of these health experts recommend Vitamin D + B12 to keep mood and energy upbeat. I take both once/day. (Why Silicon Valley Execs Are Investing Billions to Stay Young, Robb Report, Aug 2020).
What is helping you stay balanced right now?
I crowd-sourced answers to this question from my team at work and they came back with:
Sleeping in (waking up naturally) - prioritize your 8 hours/night
5-Minute Journal daily habit of gratitude
Breaking up the day (avoid the non-stop 9-5 and take a break to playing tennis, etc.)
Don’t dwell, have projects: writing, home improvement—motion creates emotions!
Watch the movie classics with your kids
Online classes, e.g. learn how to code, learn anything
Breathwork, e.g. wim hof method (app!)
Exercise: MadFit on YouTube, yoga classes, Instagram personal trainers, running
Media: video games with friends, Discord chat, streaming TV / entertainment
I hope this article leaves you with a few ideas to catalyze an upward vortex and avoid the downward spiral!