How to Survive in a Time of Chaos

A primer for GenZ and Millennials.

I previously wrote this for my other publication People's Art of War. I’ll be moving a few of my “How to Think” articles here. This was originally a paid article. Its now free going forward.

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Chaos never disappears. If you’re Gen Z or a millennial, you’ve already seen how unpredictable life has been the last 20 years. One moment, you’re on top of the world. Next you’re wondering where your next job is. Or even what your purpose is in life.

This time of chaos hasn’t helped. Its driven much fear. But there’s hope.

The mistake most people make is believing stability is the norm. It isn’t. Chaos is the default state of the world. Your ability to survive and thrive - depends on how well you move through it.

You don’t need to know what comes next, only that you have the ability to handle it when it arrives. That’s confidence and determination to use chaotic times to your advantage. Even to your benefit.

Confidence is not knowing the future - it is knowing that no future will arrive without you adapting to meet it.

So this week, we’ll break down what this means:

1. Define Your Vision. Keep Refining it. Your vision is your foundation. It is the only thing that will keep you steady when everything else is shifting. A well-defined vision takes away much of the frustration of ambiguity.

2. Know what is in your control. Chaos drains those who waste energy on what they can’t change.

3. Know what is out of your control. Most of the chaos of ambiguity comes from outside factors. Much of it dictates your planning, execution, and strategies.

4. Define Your Space and Position Strategically. Survival is not about reacting. It’s about positioning yourself so that when the storm hits, you use it.

5. Develop the Right Mindset. Ambiguous situations rarely offer a choice between good and bad. More often, the decision is between bad and worse.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Define Your Vision. Keep Refining it.

Your vision is your foundation. It is the only thing that will keep you steady when everything else is shifting. Or people losing their heads. You need to explain to yourself clearly what your final intent is.

This is not just a material outcome. It is not about a specific job, a house, or a number in your bank account. Those things come and go.

Your intent is deeper:

• What kind of life are you trying to build?

• What principles will you never compromise on?

• What will you still fight for even when everything falls apart?

Vision requires character. Without it, you will be dragged into a hundred different directions, reacting to every crisis instead of moving with purpose.

Your vision provides:

• A reason to keep moving. The people who survive chaos aren’t necessarily the smartest or the strongest. They are the ones who have something to work toward. Without purpose, survival is just prolonged suffering.

• A guide for decisions. When the world is uncertain, every choice feels risky. A clear vision cuts through the noise, helping you decide which risks are necessary and which ones are distractions.

• A sense of control. Even when you don’t control circumstances, you control your response. The only true form of security is knowing you can navigate whatever comes next.

But vision alone is meaningless if you don’t build it the right way.

A well-defined vision takes away much of the frustration of ambiguity. It boosts confidence and focus.

How to create a vision that works in chaos:

• Define your intent. Your vision doesn’t need to be a perfect roadmap. It just needs to set a direction. Do you want freedom? Stability? Influence? Wealth? Defining this is critical for navigating ambiguity. It’s easier to prioritize and make tradeoffs if you know why you’re doing it. If you don’t decide, the world will decide for you—and you may not like the outcome.

• Talk about Concept of Execution. Defining an end isn’t enough. Explain how you want it to be done. Create process and mental frameworks for yourself. Align it with vision and its intent. Allow yourself to determine the best path - give yourself a shape. Test relentlessly and experiment just as relentlessly. Throw away a need for specific outcomes. No one is static - and neither is your vision.

• Break it down. A long-term vision is useless if it can’t be acted on today. Reduce it to small, tangible steps. Good vision refines itself as goes from the big picture to execution. Each step is accomplishing a feature of the larger vision. The ability to move forward, even in uncertainty, separates those who survive from those who are left behind.

• Overcommunicate it—to yourself. The greatest enemy in chaotic times is forgetting what matters. Write down your vision. Repeat it. Remind yourself and think about it. The world will try to make you forget who you are. Don’t let it.

In chaos, most people waste energy fighting uncertainty. The smarter move is to define what matters, then act as if the rest doesn’t exist.

Ambiguity is hard when there is no direction. Vision defines what part of that ambiguous space we operate in. Breaking it down helps you focus on what is important, and what you must give up.

2. Know what is in your control

Chaos drains those who waste energy on what they can’t change. Focus on what you can control. Maneuver where it matters.

Resources.

Resources aren’t just money. They include relationships, networks, and knowledge. Every advantage in chaotic times comes from having something others don’t—access, information, or favors owed.

• Be frugal. Cut unnecessary expenses. If your lifestyle forces you to keep running just to survive, you are already trapped. Live below your means, so you have room to maneuver. Extravagance is the privilege of those who can afford to fail. You must be disciplined.

• Build partnerships and leverage. Money is a tool, but relationships are what make things move. You need allies, not just contacts. Build networks of advocates, mentors, and people who will vouch for you when you’re not in the room. Partnerships are about trust, not just transactions. Leverage comes when you’ve built something real. Power is not in possession but in the willingness of others to act in your favor.

• Position and invest strategically. Hoarding resources means nothing if you don’t place them where they will grow. Position yourself in environments where you gain knowledge, access, and credibility. Invest in projects, people, and work that build long-term survival and strengthen your network. The strongest position is one where opportunities come to you, not one where you’re always chasing. The wise do not gamble on miracles.

When I was younger, I thought stacking cash was enough. Then I watched people with far less money but better relationships get ahead faster, not because they had more, but because they moved smarter.

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Talent.

Your skills and connections determine your survival. You are only as strong as what you can do and who you can call.

• Master practical skills. Strategy, hard skills, politicking—these matter more than degrees or titles. While politics matters? You also must have hard skills to maximize your advantages. Politics can get you jobs and positions without hard skills, no doubt. But to really take a strong position you need hard skills paired with it. Both are political force multiplier.

• Strengthen your network. Power is built on relationships. People open doors for those they trust. Keep lines of communication active. A well-maintained network is an ecosystem, not a list of names. Connections between people are as important as your connection to them. People follow those who can make their lives easier.

I used to think being good at my work was enough. Then I learned that skills alone mean nothing if the right people don’t know or trust you enough to open the door.

Mindset.

Your emotional state determines your resilience. The first casualty in chaos is usually confidence.

• Detach from panic. Fear clouds judgment. Observe first, then act. People who hesitate or overreact get swallowed by events. Watch how they flow, instead of declaring an end of the world. I see people do this far too often. The more you panic the more it clouds your judgment.

• Use fear as a signal. If something scares you, study it. Weakness comes from avoiding what makes you uncomfortable. You have to learn to listen to it. Fear kept your ancestors alive through harsh winters, wars, and upheaval. Have a conversation with it - you might see something you don’t expect.

I keep seeing Gen Z rushing to accomplish everything before 30. This mindset burns people out, makes them reckless, and forces them into weak deals. Or into easily avoidable debt traps.

Speed means nothing if you’re sprinting toward exhaustion. Gather resources, position yourself, then move with intent. Time rewards those who learn patience before they are forced to.

3. Know what is out of your control.

Most of the chaos of ambiguity comes from outside factors. I find this is the hardest for many of us (including myself) to face. It can be like staring down barrel of a loaded tank gun ready to fire.

Much of it is outside of your control. Much of it dictates your planning, execution, and strategies.

What’s outside your control?

• Time. You can’t speed it up or slow it down. But you can choose how to use it. People who move too fast exhaust themselves before the real game begins. People who wait too long never move at all. Set your own pace. Make sure it’s one you can sustain.

• Other people. In chaos, people act on fear. They will betray, disappoint, and misunderstand you—not out of malice, but because uncertainty makes them desperate. But chaos also reveals the best. Some will stay steady. Some will have purpose. Some will have lost hope but still carry strength. Find them. Learn who can be trusted and who cannot. Do not waste time fixing the weak. Align yourself with those who can build with you.

• Global instability. Markets collapse. Governments change. Wars break out. Every crisis brings losses, but it also brings openings. The key is not to fear chaos, but to manage risk. Diversify your dependencies. Study where the damage will land and where new opportunities will form. Those who react emotionally get crushed. Those who remain calm survive. Some will even rise.

• Luck. Some people start with advantages—wealth, connections, timing. Others have nothing. But luck is not just inheritance. It is also recognition. Those who move quickly on an opening, who prepare before opportunities arrive, and who sustain their gains, are the ones who appear lucky. The world gives nothing freely. Everything must be taken.

• The rules of the game. Every system has rules. Some are official. Some are unwritten. All can be studied. You do not have to like them. You do not have to believe in them. But you must understand them. Every rule has gaps. Every structure has weaknesses. Your job is make complaints your purpose. It is to maneuver inside the system.

To know what is out of your control takes courage: you must face the unpleasant factors to be able to account, plan, and respond to them. And that’s okay.

Knowing and accepting them as facts is the most important part.

You must see these factors as a daily part of working in ambiguity and the cost of living in a chaotic time. You don’t have to do it alone either. Find people to help you do it. That’s how people built civilizations.

4. Define Your Space and Position Strategically

Photo by Elena Popova on Unsplash

Survival is not about reacting. It’s about positioning yourself so that when the storm hits, you don’t just endure it - you use it. Gen Z and millennials are navigating an unstable world - economic downturns, political shifts, and technological disruption.

Many problems feel too large to fight, but strategy is about defining what you can act on and where you must adapt. You do not need to control everything to win. You need to know where you stand.

Use strategic thinking to cut through chaos.

• Define your problem space.
  A problem space is the terrain you operate within. It includes both what you control and what you don’t. The mistake most people make is trying to solve everything at once instead of identifying what factors are fixed and which can be influenced. You cannot change a recession, but you can change how you prepare for it. You cannot control a company’s hiring decisions, but you can control what makes you competitive. The clearer your problem space, the better your strategy. A general who understands the battlefield fights with precision. A general who does not fights with panic.

• Define your operational space.
  Your operational space is where action happens. It includes the tools, skills, and relationships you can deploy right now. A weak operational space means reacting blindly. A strong one means you already know where to push. But operations are not just about acting—they are also about sustaining. Winning an opportunity means nothing if you cannot hold onto it. Expanding a position requires reinforcing it first. The goal is not just to seize openings but to build stability around them. Victory is not in the first strike. Its the ability to hold and expand after the battle.”

• Define your strategy space.
  Your strategy space is the range of possible moves available to you. If your position is weak, you will find yourself backed into a corner with no good choices. If it is strong, you will have multiple paths forward. Expanding your strategy space is about keeping options open before they are needed. A limited strategy space means reacting under pressure. A wide strategy space means forcing your opponent to react to you. The best strategist is not the one with the most plans. Just the one who prepared the best to respond to most outcomes.

Defining these spaces then determines the process and operational space you’ll work in.

• Concentrate resources to take decisive action.
  Power is built through focus. Too many people try to be good at everything and end up effective at nothing. Do not scatter your energy across every possibility. Build depth in key areas so that when the time comes, you can act quickly and decisively. The best opportunities do not wait for those still preparing. Strength is not measured by how much you hold, but by how quickly you can bring it to bear- and sustain it.

• Increase maneuverability.
  Uncertainty is constant. Those who survive it are the ones who can adjust quickly. If you tie yourself to a single path, you will be caught off guard when the world shifts. Always keep the ability to move—whether that means adapting your plans, repositioning yourself, or shifting to new opportunities before others realize they exist. Those who move first shape the next battlefield. The strongest position is lets you advance, not just defend.

• Tie everything to vision.
  No amount of planning matters if it does not connect to a larger goal. If you are just moving from one opportunity to the next without direction, you are at the mercy of whatever comes next. Strategy is not just surviving the present—it is shaping the future. You must act, but you must also build something that lasts. Strategy without vision is movement without purpose.

Early in my career, I thought I had to be everywhere, doing everything at once. Then I saw people who moved far less but ended up ahead—because they picked their spots wisely.

In this economy, it’s not about how much effort you put in. It’s about making sure that effort leads somewhere and builds something sustainable.

5. Develop the Right Mindset

Ambiguous situations rarely offer a choice between good and bad. More often, the decision is between bad and worse. The ability to act under such conditions separates those who survive from those who are paralyzed by hesitation.

A strong mindset is not about knowing the right answer—it is about maintaining clarity and readiness even when no clear path exists.

Principles of Mental Readiness

• Accept that every action carries risk, but manage it without obsession.
  There are no perfect moves in uncertainty. Every action has a cost. You cannot eliminate risk, but you can manage it—adjusting when necessary, but not to the point of paralysis. The difference between a strategist and a gambler is control, not avoidance. The world does not reward those who wait for certainty. It rewards those who move before it arrives, knowing what they can afford to lose.

• Observe before reacting.
  Many fail in chaos because they anticipate too much or assume too little. A clear mind sees things as they are, not as they wish them to be. Action must come from understanding, not impulse. Decisions made without clarity are just bets placed on hope.”

• Commit fully to the decisions you make.
  Think and commit to your decision. Those who cannot commit cannot learn. They are always trying to correct, never absorbing the lesson. The more you adjust mid-course, the more mistakes compound. Make the best choice with the information you have, then execute. Hesitation is erosion. Every correction weakens the foundation beneath you.”

• Accept both success and failure with discipline.
  People fixate on avoiding failure, but the inability to manage success can be just as dangerous. Those who cannot handle setbacks become weak. Those who cannot handle victory become reckless. Failure is only permanent for those who cannot absorb it. Success is only lasting for those who can build on it.

• Be mentally prepared to capitalize on gains and contain losses.
  You cannot control every outcome, but you can control how you respond. The most adaptable don’t let failures destroy them. But they also don’t let success go to their heads. A strong position is not one without loss—it is one where loss does not break the structure.”

In both military and consulting, I have seen one truth repeat itself—people who need control suffer the most when it is lost. Confidence in ambiguity does not come from certainty. It comes from knowing you can maneuver even when certainty does not exist.

You need willingness to accept the consequences of actions in an ambiguous situation. You must go into the situation with strong determination — acceptance of both failure and success.

Last Words

Thanks for reading this far. This is a bit longer than usual, but with the demand for this article (you know who you are), I decided to make it longer.

No one has ever been completely sure of what they’re doing in times like these. The difference is that some keep moving while others wait for certainty.

Survival in a chaotic time is not about avoiding hardship—it’s about being the kind of person who outlasts it. You do not need to predict the storm. You need to know where to stand when it arrives.

That’s all for now. I hope this helps. As always feel free to comment with questions. I’ll be doing a further article down the line.

Before then, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to subscribe.