How to become antifragile (Synergistic Mindset)

My favorite book is “Antifragile” by Nassim Taleb. The book distinguishes three categories of systems: Fragile systems are damaged by stress, robust systems withstand stress without change, and antifragile systems advance and thrive from stress. If you want to join the third category, thinking about stress as helpful is key.

What to do

Whenever you encounter stress, remember that both the stress response and stressful events help you get closer to your goals.

Why it works

In the last two weeks, I’ve advocated adopting two different stress mindsets. The first is the stress-can-be-enhancing mindset. It holds that the (physiological) stress response helps our performance and well-being instead of harming it. The second is the growth mindset. It regards stressful events as valuable opportunities for learning, skill development and personal growth. If you want to make stress work for you instead of against you, you need both of these mindsets. In a groundbreaking new paper, Prof. David S. Yeager (pictured above) and his colleagues have called this combination the “synergistic mindset”. 

Having only one of the two is not sufficient. If you believe that challenging stressors come with opportunities for learning and development (an event-focused growth mindset), but also think that the stress response is harmful (a response-focused stress-is-debilitating mindset), experiencing the stress response will deter you from engaging in the stressful but valuable experience. If, in turn, you think that the stress response can be used as a resource (a response-focused stress-is-enhancing mindset), but view stressful events as hazards to be avoided (an event-focused fixed mindset), you’ll disengage from stressful demands any time you encounter difficulty or failure. 

“By targeting both mindsets simultaneously”, the researchers conclude in their paper, “the synergistic mindset […] can convey the empowering message that both stressful events and stress responses can be harnessed in support of valued goals”. In short, you need to adopt both a stress-can-be-enhancing mindset and a growth mindset to advance and thrive from stress.

How to do it

As I’ve explained in my last two posts, the easiest way to adopt a new stress mindset is by writing a letter about it to yourself. To facilitate remembering and learning, pretend you’re writing the letter to someone else. In your own words, describe the stress-can-be-enhancing mindset and the growth mindset. You can find some guidance in the “How to do it” sections of my last two posts.

If writing letters isn’t for you, there’s another excellent practice for adopting a synergistic mindset. I learned about it from Stanford professor Kelly McGonigal’s book “The Upside of Stress”. This practice is setting stress goals. Stress goals are ambitious, meaningful and difficult. Accomplishing them is stressful and requires us to grow professionally or personally. Here’s how to set stress goals in three easy steps.

First, come up with three ambitious, meaningful and difficult goals that you want to accomplish over the next 90 days. Be bold. If these goals are a bit intimidating, you’re up to something. Second, imagine what you expect to be challenging about these goals, and why you might feel stressed when pursuing them. Third, keep these goals top of mind when planning out – and going about – your weeks and days.

Being antifragile is the realm beyond resilience. Resilient (aka robust) people survive stress and stay the same, while antifragile ones thrive specifically because of stress. Against this background, here’s a simple challenge for you: Set three stress goals for the next 90 days, try to pursue these goals — and let me know how it went.

If you can think of one person who could benefit from adopting a synergistic mindset, please share this post with them.

Until next week,
Christian