Chaos usually happens when we let down our guard against risk. A simple way of determining what sort of personal or organizational risk to guard against is to analyse where the risk comes from. Francis Aguilar, a professor in strategic planning, used the acronym of PESTEL as a method where we can identify and prepare against external risks.

The acronym PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. We can use it to reduce risk while working through the ordeals of life.

Here’s a brief explanation of each factor:

Political: This refers to government policies and regulations.

Economic: This factor looks at the overall economic conditions and trends such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and economic growth.

Sociocultural: This factor considers the social and cultural factors including lifestyle trends which may create dysfunction.

Technological: This factor examines the technological advancements that could impact a day to day living.

Environmental: This factor considers how the natural environment can impact our lifestyle and includes factors such as climate change and natural disasters.

Legal: This factor examines the laws and regulations which impact our lives, such as health and safety regulations, labour laws, etc.

By analysing each of these factors, we can gain a better understanding of the external environment and make informed decisions about our lives.

What are your goals this year ? It's already past the mid-year . Have you achieved these goals ?

Don't just ruminate about your goals , you have to articulate them. You have to be SMART about achieving your goals.

Rather than betting against the fragility of existence by a misconstrued assumption of an easy-go-get-lucky safety based on a false reliance of the System, it is safer and more reasonable to take responsibility to safeguard oneself against life’s changes.

It is not just necessary to have a broad plan and a mental overview of achieving them. It is important to break the process down in chunks to enable its implementation in a non overwhelming manner.

Everything is in a state of flux, including the status quo!

We live in a complex and unpredictable world.

In this podcast, I demonstrate how the best means of tackling life's fragility is to be proactively and purposefully prepared against its unpredictability.