We all love our routines and familiar environments. We feel safe and comfortable when we are together with our family or friends. Once we have found our perfect job, house, or partner, we want this situation to stay forever. We want to enjoy the good life we have worked hard to achieve.

But life does not function in this way. Unexpected events will occur, and you will be forced to respond. You or one of your loved ones might get sick; you could lose your job or crash your car or…

We cannot prevent bad things from happening, regardless of how much we want that to be the case. Millions of things can happen every day. Better be prepared to handle problems. The exciting thing is that we can not only train our body. We can also train to overcome obstacles and solve problems. How do we do that?

The solution is simple: look for challenges. You can start wherever you want: maybe try something for the first time, like a new and challenging sport or a completely new location for your vacation. Download an app and start learning the language you have wanted to master for so long already. Go to the dance class you have talked about with your partner.

There are endless possibilities. Get out of your comfort zone and take some (measured) risks. You will soon experience that every challenge makes us stronger. If you fail at something, think about possible reasons, correct your approach and try again. Don’t give up.

And the best part: it can also be fun!

When the Pope asked Michelangelo how he managed to create the beautiful statue of David, the sculptor replied, “I just removed everything that has not David in it.” That being said, excessive amounts of information prevent us from distinguishing important news from “noise” and responding appropriately to it.

The teaching is, “Get rid of everything that no longer serves you, no matter whether it is material possessions, beliefs, identities and habits: you will get the benefits without potential side effects.” There always comes a time in life when we feel the need to simplify, removing those unnecessary superstructures that sound so good in theory but serve little purpose in practice.

• This time generally coincides with a particularly stressful and challenging period. However, it is not necessary to wait for difficult times to simplify. 
• To be antifragile, one of the key steps is to focus on the essential, follow “a few but good principles” and get rid of everything else.
• In times of adversity, in fact, these few cornerstones will help us not to lose our compass and to better face the challenges of everyday life.
• The right question to ask yourself is, “What habits, routines or activities actually create real value in your days?”

For example, in your personal, life and professional growth journey, you may be wondering what you need to add to your skill set to be competitive and employable. You hear from all sides (the above-mentioned noise) that everyone needs to develop new skills because the world is changing and requires you to be on the same page. Intuitively you might put your attention toward the new skills you need. And so on, and so on…

But an interesting question might be: what do I need to unlearn? What do I need to take away from my skills that, by conditioning me, might prevent me from developing in the future? What knowledge and skills do I need to unlearn in order to learn new ones and be adequate in the job market?

But the practice of “unlearning” (the “taking away method” as Michelangelo did) is also very useful in the relationship with one’s children: they were born in the technological age and have a very different mindset from ours. To understand our children, more than learning things, we should be able to remove some of the fixed points of our mindset, we should suspend our prejudices. This will help us to see their periods, to evaluate them and connect with them from those perspectives as well. Certainly, our relationship with them will improve as we will be much better at understanding each other.

To be personally antifragile, it is helpful to constantly eliminate what is fragile in you, that is, what does not like chaos. 

If you see that you are going down a dead end, turn around and start again from another point. Never consider a failure as wasted time – learn from it and try to make it better for the next time.

If you want to develop your antifragility you must introduce a healthy dose of uncertainty and unpredictability into your life. To do this you must take many small risks, continually experimenting with new paths: regarding your work, your financial situation, your social relationships, and so on. These small risks will often turn into small failures, yet irrelevant to your overall well-being; some of them, on the contrary, will turn out to be the best choices of your life. On the other hand, you will have to avoid at all costs those risks that, if they come true, will have a definitive impact on your career, your relationships, your life.

Examples:

• Putting all your savings on that investment your brother called “A guaranteed success!“;
• Indulging in bad habits that could seriously endanger our health – Yes, smoker, you know what I’m talking about!
• Lie and betray other people’s trust in the hope that we will never be found out.

The equation is “Risk little but a lot of times, instead of risking a lot but a few times“. But what does it mean to “risk little a lot of times”?

Whenever we have to make a decision under complex and uncertain conditions, we cannot accurately predict the final outcome, especially if that outcome can be verified after some time has passed.

It might turn out that between the decision and the verification of the outcome there might be a combination of relevant factors (a war, a new technological breakthrough, a new discovery, a new competitor, a business closure, and so on and so forth), unknown at the time of that decision, and unpredictable. It could give rise to effects much better or much worse than those initially considered as objectives of the decision-making process.

Many believe that every major decision is associated with significant risk, and that the only reasonable approach to decision making is to try to minimize that risk by acquiring as much information as possible.

The antifragile approach is totally different. Rather than trying to predict and anticipate what may happen, it aims to focus on the outcomes of possible extreme scenarios. These are those generated by particularly favorable and unfavorable conditions. It exploits a feature found in almost all contexts characterized by complexity and uncertainty: asymmetry.

Any decision with – in our perspective – potentially positive outcomes can fall into one of the following cases:

1. Under favorable conditions, the benefits are high, while under unfavorable conditions they are small (++/+).
2. Under favorable conditions, major benefits are generated, while under unfavorable conditions major harms are generated, comparable in size to the benefits that occur when things go well (++/- -).
3. When favorable conditions occur, benefits are limited, while in the case of unfavorable conditions, harms are devastating (+/- -).
4. Under favorable conditions the benefits are enormous, while under unfavorable conditions the harms are limited (++/-).

If a decision falls into the first category, it is certainly to be considered positive. The only reason why it might not be adopted is if there is a resource conflict, i.e., having to spend resources allocated to the implementation of another decision, from which greater benefits are expected. For example: do I invest in developing more centered skills that earn me more money or do I invest in creating my own business?

Decisions belonging to the second category are not expected to generate significant improvements in the medium to long term, given the normal alternation of favorable and unfavorable conditions. The benefits produced under favorable conditions by these decisions would, in fact, be offset by the damage produced by decisions with similar characteristics under unfavorable conditions.

In practice, there are a very limited number of decisions that give rise to such symmetrical scenarios. For instance: I buy the hydrogen-powered car. Now, if hydrogen becomes the new standard fuel for cars (favorable conditions) I will have useful returns from the investment decision, such as low fuel cost, widespread availability of filling stations, etc. If the standard fuel becomes another (e.g., electric power) (unfavorable conditions), I will have many harms such as high fuel cost, low availability of fueling stations, etc.

The third category represents those decisions that, while hinting at the possibility of generating benefits if favorable conditions arise, may result in serious and irreversible outcomes if possible, though unlikely, negative conditions occur. Such decisions are to be avoided.

I already have a house but, going into debt, I buy another house in the country with the goal of improving my personal condition and my ability to develop a better mindset for my and my family’s progress. If conditions become unfavorable (e.g., I lose my job and cannot find another one) I risk losing the house that I own as well. It is better not to make this decision.

In general, when a decision may result in devastating and irreversible outcomes if certain negative conditions are met, the option should be discarded a priori, regardless of the positive dimension of the most likely outcomes.

To the fourth category belong decisions in which one has more to gain than to lose from volatility/instability. Since it is not possible to predict the outcome of a given decision with extreme accuracy, it is advisable to create the conditions for which, in the worst conceivable case, the damage is limited, while should favorable situations occur, the benefits are enormous. In this way, it is not necessary to rely on hope or luck: one can afford a certain number of failures, provided that when favorable conditions arise, the benefits more than compensate for the sum of the damage incurred.

Can we suggest you an example of applying this principle in your life right away?

Invest in your education: learn uncommon skills; learn the fundamentals of a new language; specialize in promising but as yet unexplored areas (by reading PESTEL outcomes in your field). If things go wrong, you will have lost a few hundred euros in courses as a maximum, but if things go right the possibilities for your growth will be unlimited.

If you want to be more antifragile, whenever you have to make an important decision in your life, choose the path that will guarantee you enormous benefits (+++) if things go well and will instead cause limited damage (-) if things go wrong.

Life can be defined as a long theatre pièce in which events unfold and in which we are the main protagonists. The drawback is that we are not its scriptwriters and directors. This means that the reality that manifests itself is a constellation of unexpected and unforeseen occurrences over which we apparently have no power.

In every area of life, therefore, it is crucial to be able to understand the context one is living in and interpret it properly in order to be able to respond actively to the needs that arise. Reality has to be perceived for its being multifaceted; that is why it demands that each one of us adapt and bring out the best in each situation. As a matter of fact, every situation is different and requires a malleability of the individual.

In the professional as well as in the personal sphere, being versatile and reacting in the right way is the key to success and to overcoming any obstacle placed in front of us.

But how can this be achieved, you say? The answer is simple: understand that reality is a mirror reflection of oneself. After all, we too are polyhedral, we just have to figure out what piece we can offer to complete the puzzle in front of us. This means that some aspects of our being may be weaker than others, as a 6-sided die is composed of both a face of value 6 and a face of value 1. The same applies to everyday life: great days follow bad days and vice versa. If each face corresponds to one of our skills or character traits, each situation demands that we respond by pulling out the right number.

There is just one small problem: many people think they only have faces of value 6, they are not aware or do not want to admit to themselves that they also have negative angles, weaknesses: metaphorically speaking, faces of lesser value.

That is why it is of utmost importance to work on gaining full awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, to have full control over oneself and to understand how best to shape oneself in relation to the context one is approaching. Do not be frightened if you initially think you are not good enough for certain things: not everything is within our competence. Being aware of one’s limits is the starting point for understanding how to behave when our shortcomings need to be remedied.

Confronting this aspect of reality brings our flaws to the surface: this epiphany must be embraced. One must not try to escape the tunnel in an attempt to reach the light at the end of it: the darkness must be accepted, comprehended, so that one can understand one’s imperfections and use them as an added value. That light is the goal, the completion of this long, gloomy journey that leads to self-discovery and self-acceptance.

Know who you are and exploit every part of yourself (which you can only know after reflecting on and accepting your peculiar traits, both good and bad) according to the situation that life puts before you.

When you face a new situation that you are not very familiar with or you are scared of, you’ve got to give it the best chance to succeed. And that might sometimes mean stepping outside your comfort zone, so you can grow, explore new opportunities, and be ready for whatever changes come your way. In such cases, you need to get comfortable with doing uncomfortable things. Here are a few steps to help you with that:

• Set a target: grab a piece of paper and write down a goal you are striving for.
• Identify the benefits: write down and specify what achieving your set goal would mean for you.
• Make a list of the tasks you need to do to achieve your goal: specify activities you need to complete on regular basis to reach your goal and write down 5 tasks you need to consistently do to help you do that. 
• List out the worst things that can happen: some of the specified tasks might make you feel uncomfortable but instead of surprising your feelings and fears, acknowledge them and write why you are uncomfortable doing them.
• Create a plan for how to prevent the worst from happening: make a plan to help you prevent your worst fears from coming true. Do not imagine the worst and let it prevent you from taking action. Instead, let the worst-case scenarios propel you to take massive action so you can reach your goals.
• Execute the plan: now take steps forward outside your comfort zone that do not need to be super-fast but keep yourself in motion.
• Surround yourself with other people in motion: hook up with a crew of people who’ve got similar goals as you do. Then you all can work together to inspire, encourage, and support each other along the way.

As cozy and safe as it may feel right now, your comfort zone is not the place to be if you want to grow. Or if you want to live the good life over the long term. So, you’ve got to move forward. You’ve got to put yourself through a little bit of discomfort, so you can get to all the possibilities, opportunities, and blessings that exist on the other side. They are abundant. But the only way to reach them is to take a step in the direction of the unknown. And then learn to enjoy it.

A mistake is an error in judgment, misunderstanding, or misguided action. You won’t always have poor intentions when making mistakes — in fact, many mistakes are accidents. They can occur because you simply didn’t know better, whether in your personal or professional life. Several consecutive mistakes could lead to failure, but the terms aren’t synonymous. Fear of failure is natural. But since humans are not perfect, errors are inevitable, and both mistakes and failure are great learning experiences. What matters most is what we take away from our mistakes, and how we learn not to make them again.

Making mistakes always has benefits in the case if you follow the following steps after an error: 

1. Acknowledge mistakes.
2. Reframe and analyse the mistake.
3. Ask yourself the hard questions.
4. Put the lessons you have learned into practice.
5. Review your progress.
6. Recognize that it is ok to feel vulnerable.
7. Remember that we can´t avoid making mistakes.

Life is hard. But with the lows come the highs, and your situation will get better. If you or someone you know is feeling down, try reading the following inspirational quotations. They’re guaranteed to put a smile on your face and give you the spark you need to gather all you’ve learned and keep going.

“The past can hurt. But you can either run from it or learn from it.”

“Learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more of who you are.”

Criticism sometimes hits you hard and unexpectedly. It can make you angry or frightened. More composure would be great. How to keep your head up and your pulse down we want to describe in the follow.

Tip 1: Take every criticism seriously! 

In most cases, the first spontaneous reaction to a critical remark about yourself or your work is to become defensive. However, you should absolutely refrain from defending yourself and arguing with your critic.

Always take the criticism seriously and initially always assume that your counterpart is right. It does not matter who makes the criticism or what the criticism refers to. You should take every criticism seriously and think about whether it is justified and how you can implement the criticism.

Tip 2: Question the criticism!

But you should not simply accept criticism. It is better to question the criticism. Ask the critic to specify his criticism. What exactly bothers him? What specific examples does he use to illustrate his criticism? What can you do better in the future? If he answers these questions, you will know exactly what his criticism is based on and how you can implement it concretely.

Afterwards, you should take the time to reflect on what has been said. Ask yourself whether your critic is right. In answering this question, be honest with yourself and admit your mistakes. This is not a sign of weakness; on the contrary, it shows that you can accept and implement constructive criticism.

Tip 3: Never take criticism personally!

Of course, it is never pleasant to be criticised by others and to have your own faults presented. However, even if it is difficult, you should try not to take criticism personally. In the job, criticism is usually not directed at you personally, but rather work processes or communication problems or unclear tasks and responsibilities.

Tip 4: See criticism as an opportunity!

To be able to deal with criticism better, you should also see criticism more as an opportunity and not as an attack. Look at it this way: Without critical comments from other people, you would not know what you could do better. Constructive criticism is therefore very important in order to develop and improve. Therefore, regularly ask for feedback on the job – from colleagues and your boss. This exchange is particularly valuable because it lets you know exactly where you stand and what you can do better. 

Tip 5: Be self-critical!

If you are critical of yourself and your work, you will also be able to handle criticism from other people much better. Reflect regularly on your behaviour and your performance on the job. Be critical and change the things you are not satisfied with.

To be antifragile, it is better to use simple empirical rules that direct your actions instead of trying to comprehend the world. It is only by “practicing” and relaxing that you understand what really works. After all, the best way to discover the future is to create it.

If you have to make a major decision about your career path, such as changing company or job, there is no knowledge that can make you understand whether this choice will satisfy you more than the current situation. 

You can make a lot of predictions, you can access a specialized career counseling service, you can read a lot about what you want to do, your friends have told you a lot of good things about a new job or another company. Well, it’s all theory: you can only discover the essence of that choice by adopting some practical behavior. 

For example:

• In your spare time, try to get acquainted with the new job or the new company;
• Listen to yourself unconditionally and experience these trials;
• Create your own awareness based on your practical experience.

Again, in raising your children you are always urged to take educational actions toward them. Several people, in an effort to make the right choice, set out to study how exactly they should go about educating their children. Studying is not wrong, but it is not enough.

A good way to educate one’s children is to be guided by one’s own positive values, transfer these values, and then do a lot of practice. What does it mean? It means being in contact with one’s children, sifting through what the outcomes are and possibly correcting the actions or educational messages conveyed, in an endless path of trial and error. If something did not work, it is not a problem, it is not a failure: it is learning. You can correct it on the basis of this lesson that comes from practice and thus from reality. 

In Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world, the percentage of people with college education is lower than in other developed countries. However, Switzerland continues to prosper. The reason is that this country has strong apprenticeship traditions: vocational skills are transferred from master to apprentice, as in ancient times.