Disruption as Destiny - How Chaos Evolves Us
I sat alone in the back of the large black SUV, lost in my own thoughts as I gazed out the window into the passing Ohio farm country. Accompanied by four women, we were headed for a road trip adventure. Suddenly, one turned back to me and asked, “So, what is your astrology?” I told her “Gemini”, and then mentioned a moon in Scorpio.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed.
“What?!” I responded, worried.
“Oh dear!” she fired back.
“Ok...what?!” I persisted.
“Moon in Scorpio––that’s intense!” she said emphatically. “I mean, like, folks with moon in Scorpio, well, have a tough path. Your lifetime is filled with lots of challenges.”
I smiled to myself. That felt accurate. For whatever reason (Moon in Scorpio?), I’ve encountered my fill of challenging experiences from the time I was a small child. I entertained many inaccurate narratives about those circumstances to try to explain or understand them. I believed hard things happened because I was deeply flawed in some way, or deserved it. Later, as a young adult making my first foray into spiritual seeking, I believed they were “lessons I needed to learn” (because I was deeply flawed and deserved it). A bit later, I thought it had nothing to do with me, but it was because life was deeply flawed. And society reinforces all these perspectives—challenges, disruption, crises are to be avoided at all costs, and their appearance means something is terribly wrong. “What are you attracting?” a new-age friend mused unhelpfully when I shared about a recent flood on my ranch, which resulted from uncommonly violent monsoon storms.
If I’ve learned anything from living with challenge, it’s this: hard things are not punishments or proof that something is broken, they’re thresholds. That personal truth feels especially relevant now, as disruption surrounds us all. And it doesn’t look like this trend is going to change any time soon. Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum or where you live in the world, everything is changing rapidly. Disruption is everywhere, touching every aspect of life—the economy, technology, politics, healthcare, education, and our very social fabric. People are feeling destabilized, stressed, and scared. If the over-culture endorses the idea that disruption is bad, then this only adds to our emotional stress load.
When things fall apart, what do we do? How do we interpret events? The framework biologists call the Adaptive Cycle is a powerful tool for us at this time. It can help us accurately understand the real invitation of hard times, offering us a much more empowering perspective. The Adaptive Cycle is not a straight line, but a living rhythm that cycles through four phases: Release, Reorganization, Growth, and Conservation. You see it in caterpillars dissolving into butterflies. In gilled fish, sprouting legs and crawling onto land. In the arc of every season.
According to the framework, a key catalyst for pushing a species or system forward (this is called “bouncing”) is disruption. Disruption is always the spark that moves life forward. It usually occurs during the peak period of consolidation or maturation in a system. Think about summer, when the plants and trees cannot grow one inch more. They are in full bloom, every branch filled with an abundance of greenery. You would call this part of the seasonal arc of a year, the conservation or maturation phase. Then, a cold snap or a shift in the sun’s angle occurs. This disruption signals to the trees a change, which prompts the leaves to fall, preparing mulch for winter’s dormancy. Without disruption, the system stagnates and eventually expires.
Nature reveals that disruption is not positive or negative, it merely is…whether it be a flood, or the birth of a child, a divorce, or a marriage. By definition, a disruption is anything that changes everything. In fact, the word crisis comes from the Middle English crise, borrowed from Latin crisis, itself from the Greek krisis (κρίσις) meaning "decision," "judgment," or "turning point".
Observing and learning from nature’s evolutionary cycles has taught me not only to embrace difficulty but to leverage the unique conditions that such disruption provides. We understand that disruption is part of a grand, intelligent design to push evolution forward, whether it be for a single lifetime or a complex living system. It is not to be avoided, judged, or feared; it is to be engaged. For disruption is a time of profound awakening. It is the harbinger of transformation.
Due to our conditioning, modern humans strive to prevent disruption at all costs. We control outcomes and eliminate risk. We avoid failure. We freak out in the face of unsettling change. We tell ourselves stories about what it all means. However, these approaches often put us at odds with the natural momentum that would assist us in evolving as a society and as a species. Additionally, it contributes to even more suffering.
My guess is that life is intense for you right now. Or perhaps it’s intense for someone you love. Our current circumstances worldwide: climate change, the rise of authoritarianism and fascism, economic uncertainty, AI, and choked human rights (to name but a few), send tremors reverberating into every corner of daily life. None of us is exempt from the turmoil.
In the face of these circumstances, you might be tempted to shrink, downsize, numb, back off, pull back, and hunker down to “weather the storm”. You might feel compelled, out of fear, to tighten your pursestrings, disengage from your community, or dim your light so as not to draw attention to yourself. Or, you might be compelled to freak out, overreact, rescue, fix, or overfunction. And truisms like “This too shall pass” just flatline the reality of what’s really happening, and lure us into simply gritting our teeth to get to the other side. But the Adaptive Cycle invites us to do otherwise.
What does nature teach us so that we can use this time to transform? According to biologists, when an organism is amidst an evolutionary leap, induced by disruption, it:
Preserves the DNA that is essential for the species’ survival
Discards the DNA that no longer serves current needs (form, energy, behaviors, processes)
Rearranges and reallocates DNA to create new abilities that enable thriving in new or more challenging environments.
Using nature’s intelligence, let’s build a roadmap for you during these times using a similar pattern:
Preserving your “DNA” that is essential right now -
What and who do you need to keep close?
What is working for you?
What values or principles are core to who you are?
What are your non-negotiables?
Discarding the “DNA” that no longer serves you -
What relationships and/or projects are life sucking?
Which old stories feel like a tight snakeskin you have long outgrown?
What habits no longer serve you?
Where is there clutter (in any form) that needs to be cleared?
Reallocating the “DNA” to create new capacities to thrive -
Where can you re-allocate your energy - can you shift it from a life-sucking project and put it into that book you wanted to write?
Instead of tightening the purse strings, how about reallocating funds away from the remodel and putting them towards the training you’ve been wanting to take, or therapy, or coaching, or finally taking that spiritual retreat?
What about your attention - can you deliberately refocus it elsewhere, to a place that serves your growth?
Consider other resources, i.e., time, capital, space, and passion, and reallocating them to places that will bounce you forward.
As you can see, meeting these times requires acute self-awareness and deliberate steps so that you can actively and mindfully participate in nature’s hand that wants you and our species to evolve. Resisting disruption is like holding your breath underwater, you can do it for a while, but eventually the body insists on breathing. Engaging disruption is like that first gulp of air: overwhelming, yes, but also exhilarating, necessary, alive. Embrace these times as an invitation from life to roll up your sleeves and be a part of the new human story that is emerging.
Disruption is not the end of the story, but the opening lines of a new chapter. The question isn’t whether it will come; it already has. The question is: will you meet it as a victim, or as a creator? Will we?
Resources
With thanks to my friend Toby Herzlich and her organization Biomimicry for Social Innovation and for her omnipresent inspiration.
Kelly Wendorf is an ICF Master Certified executive and personal coach, published author, spiritual mentor, disruptor, and socially responsible entrepreneur. As founder of EQUUS® she specializes in the liberation of robust leadership capacities in those who are most qualified — the empathetic, the conscientious, the accountable, the generous, and the kind. Did you like this essay? Kelly is available for a wide range of services including Coaching, Workshops, The EQUUS Experience®, Retreats, Keynote Speaking and more. 